In this scenario, I change the donate button into a spinning wheel that gives a chance to win ($5 discount) or lose (a small $2 donation). I found out that chance mechanisms lose their appeal over time.
Typical Interface
33% clicked donate
This is a typical choice that is seen in our normal checkout user flow in digital experiences. The drawback of this technique is that it might be hard to predict how much control the user wants to donate or their donation appetite.
Scenario 0
100.00% clicked donate
The spinning wheel adds a chance of incentivisation to attract participation. However, the mechanism ensures that the probability of donation will always be higher than getting a discount.
If people are familiar with the donation amount, they will be willing to take a spin.
Strategy
What happens when we try framing donation as a chance to win?
Comments
Participants tend to focus on minimising the loss rather than gaining a profit. Here's what some people felt!
Person 1
They had to factor money they lost in relation to the donation.
Person 2
Took longer because they gave it a few try and looked at how their basket went up or down.
Person 3
Chance mechanics are relatively high in cognitive load
Person 4
There can be an element of pressure if there was a time limit.
Person 5
Participants focus on minimising the loss rather than gaining a profit after awhile.
Inspiration
You've probably seen this around you before.
Inspiration 0
Participating in Lucky Draws
Inspiration 1
Shopee Bundle Sales
Inspiration 2
Lazada
Inspiration 3
TaoBao
Inspiration 4
Circles.life Website
Measurements
After measuring, people felt that this interface was not socially acceptable based on a deception score of 3.25/3.5.
1
Question
How much of a risk was it to donate in this scenario?
3.666666667
Not Risky
Very Risky
2
Question
When using this interface, how often do you feel unsure or uncertain about the outcome that will be given to you?
3
Not Often
Very Often
3
Question
On a scale of 1-5, how pressuring was the experience in asking you to donate?
2.666666667
Not Pressuring
Pressuring
4
Question
On a scale of 1-5, how motivating was it to donate using this interface?
3.666666667
Not Motivating
Motivating
Conclusion
Since people felt that this interface was not socially acceptable, we should probably not adopt this interface.
From this experiment, I found out that chance mechanisms lose their appeal over time.
This helps you vary the donation amount you get.
The Deceptive Interfaces Framework help designers create socially-acceptable interfaces using human biases, inspired from deception.
Made by Yuan Jie