Syllabus
Can we influence behavior in a positive and sustaining way through fun? Can we persuade and motivate users by making the interaction entertaining and engaging? We know that children respond to activities that are fun. Do we lose our ability to be influenced by fun as we age?
We will use the Volkswagon sponsored initiative thefuntheory. com as a point of departure and create and test our own Fun Theory projects. We will look at persuasive technology, gamification and other techniques as well as case studies of initiatives in social good and health that use persuasive techniques to influence behavior.
The week by week breakdown of the seven-week class:
- Introduction to Fun Theory and the research and analysis of existing fun theory projects.
- Proposal of project ideas and baseline research associated with them. In class discussion of Persuasive Design.
- Rapid prototyping of concepts and viability testing. Gamification will be discussed in class.
- User testing of projects and discussion in class of case studies for inspiring good health
- Refinement of the ideas based on user testing and in class presentation of social persuasion.
- User testing round two
- Final project presentation and review.