Nudges in Action
I had recently started using the app StepSetGo, which was meant to get people to start walking more. As I used the app, I realized it has done some amazing work in using nudges to alter behaviour. This is an account of my experiences with this app.
Background
I had heard of StepSetGo from some friends a few years back. I mainly heard about it in context of the coins and rewards we could earn through the app. The aim of the app is to walk a set number of steps every day for which you earn a proportional number of coins. My friends used to make a contest of it, walking to earn coins. The coins could be redeemed at their store to purchase products at discounts. I did not use the app at the time. About a month ago, I saw a few friends having a contest among themselves on who walked more. Intrigued, I decided to get on the bandwagon. It has been roughly a month on the app and I can say in some ways it has changed me, for the better. Looking back, I was intrigued with how they used nudges to really get me to walk a whole lot more. Even though I am aware of these tactics they use, sometimes I cannot help myself and fall prey to their nudges. Since this helps me stay active, there is no harm done. This is the kind of place where nudges can really help.
What is StepSetGo?
StepSetGo is a step tracking app as the name implies. It is meant to help users build a habit of walking for fitness. It rewards users with SSG coins based on the number of steps they walk. It tracks the steps from your phones’ accelerometer. You can add your friends on it and compete with them on who walked more. They also organize contests within the app among all users. There is a store where the SSG coins can be exchanged for discounts on specific products. The app sets a daily target of steps for the users to achieve. There are multiple levels which users can reach if they meet those targets, with targets increasing for each level. In case you do not meet the targets for a set number of days you move one level down. In the course of using the app, I found that the way many of these things were organized helped in building a habit and changing how I behaved.
Changing User Behaviour with Nudges
Let’s look at what StepSetGo did well. These subtle actions acted as nudges to get me, a not so active person, to begin walking. So much so, that my friends tease me these days for walking too much. Push notifications play a really important role in this. Let’s go over each of these situations in detail.
Progress updates:
SSG gives progress updates of how many steps walked, at very well-timed intervals. As soon as there has been a significant change in the number of steps this might pop up. This could catch us in the middle of a walk and motivate to continue. Or it might come up at a time when we have not walked much through the day. Looking at it will prompt us to plan to get out and take a walk.
Looking at the notification, it also tells us the number of steps left to reach the target. Having a set target will help the user know how much effort is needed and can take that time out and complete it.
Gamification:
SSG has many elements of gamification that help keep users hooked. The presences of levels and leveling up and down is a basic tenet of gamification that keeps users on the path to walking. There are badges or celebratory messages when users hit milestones like completing daily targets. Walking a certain number of steps like 100k is celebrated as milestones. These celebratory milestones are all pushed to users as notifications. Getting such a notification at a random time of the day can make us feel great. We remember how this makes us feel and would try to feel that way more often — by using the app and walking more.
Competition:
SSG brings in a sense of competition among users. You can choose to follow people you know on the app. Then it creates a competition of sorts among your friends with a leaderboard. You can also view the achievements and activities of your friends. This competition makes people spend more time walking. Beating a friend at a competition, if only for bragging rights, is a huge motivator. I have personally seen some friends deliberately go on a walk and increase their step count because they took it on their ego when I went above them on the leaderboard.
SSG highlights this competition by notifying us every time a friend overtook us or if we overtook somebody. These little nudges can trigger users to get up and go walking.
There are also other competitions among the entire community that people can participate in. Just the number of steps you walk can give you rewards, compare you with people all over your country or the world. This exhilaration of seeing your name on a leaderboard is a well-known motivator.
Rewards:
SSG works with what they call SSG Coins. These coins are what people earn by walking a certain number of steps. The biggest draw for users is being able to get rewarded for having these coins. There is an in-built store on the app that lets you purchase items for the coins. Based on the number of coins you have, you could get items of different price ranges. Some items are offered completely free of cost while some are given at a discount. The items I came across included watches, speakers, headsets and so on. The tangible rewards they get for walking causes users to change behaviour.
Possible Downsides
What we saw SSG doing can have a lasting impact on its users. As somebody who has read up a bit on the different types of nudges and the hook model in tech products, I was well aware of what was going on. In a way, I knew I was changing some aspects of my behaviour. But I also know this is a change for the better and is not negatively affecting my life. This same playbook can be used, in fact it is being used, by apps to get users hooked to things that can adversely affect their lives. As a PM, when building such hooks we need to keep in mind the effect it could have on the user and their lives. We should have a clear conscience about what we built for our users.
StepSetGo has managed to use appropriate nudges and build them into their app. They have been able to demonstrably get people to perform the intended objective — start walking and using the app more. There is a lesson here for all product people to make apps which can get people to make positive changes in their lives.