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Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies)


by B.J. Fogg

List Price: $47.95
Price: $31.65
You Save: $16.30 (34%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 170018
Studio: Morgan Kaufmann
Binding: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 312
Publication Date: December 31, 1969
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
Can computers change what you think and do? Can they motivate you to stop smoking, persuade you to buy insurance, or convince you to join the Army?

"Yes, they can," says Dr. B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. Fogg has coined the phrase "Captology"(an acronym for computers as persuasive technologies) to capture the domain of research, design, and applications of persuasive computers.In this thought-provoking book, based on nine years of research in captology, Dr. Fogg reveals how Web sites, software applications, and mobile devices can be used to change people's attitudes and behavior. Technology designers, marketers, researchers, consumersanyone who wants to leverage or simply understand the persuasive power of interactive technologywill appreciate the compelling insights and illuminating examples found inside.

Persuasive technology can be controversialand it should be. Who will wield this power of digital influence? And to what end? Now is the time to survey the issues and explore the principles of persuasive technology, and B.J. Fogg has written this book to be your guide.

* Filled with key term definitions in persuasive computing
*Provides frameworks for understanding this domain
*Describes real examples of persuasive technologies


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 32 reviews)

Just ok  
The book covers the subject matter very broadly, but lacks in-depth detail and practical applications. It could be more concise in sections (especially about the author)and more in-depth in usage, application, and research.
July 17, 2008

Great Introduction to Persuasive Psychology / Captology  
Dr. Fogg has done a great job of creating an introductory work for Captology. The book is well written and well cited. It's rare to see a technology book that has research cited to back its claims. Often times claims are made based on experience without any real claim to validity. Dr Fogg's writing is more academic and in that sense refreshing. Although, it would certainly be nice to see both aspects, experience and reproducible controlled tests, in a single book.

If you are well versed in both psychology and technology, this book will not enlighten you, but it does provide a great foundation for future research. If you work in user experience, marketing, or any performance based technology field, you can definitely benefit from the material in this book. I take this to be Captology 101 and I would definitely love to see some upper division material coming down the pipeline.

My key take aways are:
- Understanding the basics of Captology
- Getting a well researched foundation for future, real world testing
- Having an accurate psychological lexicon

There is some actionable information scattered throughout the book. For example, in chapter 5, Computers as Persuasive Social Actors, Fogg relates a study he performed that showed changing the error messages on a piece of technology made it "rated...more favorably" and "users reported that [it] gave better information, was more accurate, and was more knowledgeable." This is good research to have if you're a user experience designer especially if you have to justify your work to non-believers. However, this book is not meant to be full of actionable items, so don't expect that of it.

I recommend this book for an academic overview. If you'd like real world examples try Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results, but don't expect to learn why the real world examples work other than a surface level explanation. Though reading both books will give you a pretty good understanding of persuasive technology.
July 13, 2008

Will Do - Can Do - User Perspective  
Having spent 8 years in the field of Web Development and after being a part of many Internet and Intranet web projects and applications. There was one question that was constantly bothering me. We as a team, on almost all the occasions tried very hard to make the applications and websites as much user friendly as much as we could so that the users CAN DO it when he is there. The question was if we create something that user-friendly that he CAN DO what he wants to do, does it mean that he WILL DO it?

So, thats where we started, the WILL to do became most important for us. On some of the projects the marketing and presentations helped us in creating the WILL within the user that drove good response. However, when I got my self in the MARCOM team in one of my previous companies and I saw my deliverables changing from just creating user-friendly designs to calculating and delivering ROIs, I thought I needed something more solid to help me get there.

I have gone through the entire Human Factors International Usability course (now trying for CUA exam). Where I found PET (Persuasion, Emotions and Trust) as just a few slides of the course material. I started digging deep into it well before that but I could see the connection of the Captology and any image, web page, micro-site or anything that we as a team create.

I got hooked to this book, read it many times, studied all the possible material available from Dr. B.J Fogg and implemented it to my daily work. The material is so practical and so straight forward that its impact could just not be ignored. Just a small fix on web page, like adding a logo or writing a persuasive copy gave us responses. Though in Chapter 9, Dr. Fogg deals with the Ethics of Persuasion, we tried few non-ethical ways (Manipulation) for few days to observe the results and we had the success.

If you are in the field of marketing and web, look at this book as a tool that you can always keep with yourself and use it when necessary.

My next book is Mobile Persuasion by Dr. B.J Fogg. Thanks Dr. Fogg for handling the international delivery smoothly and answering all my mails.
May 11, 2008

Guide to a Rising Area of Study  
Dr. BJ Fogg has created a new area of study: captology, the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This book is an excellent introduction to this new field: it outlines the different arenas within the field, expands on its implications, and explores the ethical issues related to the topic.

As a student of Persuasive Technology at Stanford, I found this book to be extremely helpful in my understanding of the topic. It's very easy to read and understand and is not reminiscent of a text book at all. I recommend this book to everyone, whether you are an active researcher in the field or a civilian interested in seeing how technology can and will further change our lives.
July 18, 2007

Provides an excellent framework  
I've been interested in the persuasive aspects of technology and design since I was in 4th grade, and online since 1983. While the title is "persuasive technology", the discussion is broader than many of us often think about technology. Professor Fogg lays out a clear framework for considering how the products we use influence us, and how to design products which are more persuasive. I'm currently working with a number of organizations improving the process of civic engagement, and find myself frequently referring to concepts from the book. The book has become an indispensable tool. Thank you Professor Fogg.
April 10, 2007


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