Engineering habits
I'm trying to create the "Duolingo of Gratitude" without anxiety-inducing birds
Getting you to be good at Gratitude. That is the goal of the Gratitude Jar web app i've a few weeks agor (i wrote about it here).
The “why” of this goal is obvious but I want to explain it a little better.
Like everybody on the internet, I've been a guinea pig of nudging tricks, behavior shaping tricks and habit formation loops for the most powerful companies around.
And while I'm not an expert at designing these life-altering experiences, I'm fascinated about the dark arts of influencing behavior without people even realizing it.
I just want to do the same thing, but for the good stuff. You've seen exercise trackers and how they tend to make people move a little bit more. You've seen people swear by their habit tracking tools, claiming that they've became better people because of it.
I want to use a funnel analogy to explain the "why” of my idea and how I got to it.
The funnel analogy is useful because it perfectly illustrates how my perspective became a little more focused and the product became more apparent, the further I went down.
Top of Funnel: I want to create a digital product that helps people change behaviors
Middle of the Funnel: I want to create a digital product that helps people change behaviors in a good direction, adopting good habits
Bottom of the Funnel: I want to create a digital product that helps people change behaviors in a good direction, adopting good habits. Especially the habits that have the best Return on Investment.
and now my first assumption, based on how this little hack has helped me:
Assumption #1
Gratitude is one of the best habits around. It's free. And it is mind-bending, capable of turning a shit situation into a more bearable, even good, one.
The "why” is now clear. What about the "how”?
Yes, I've read books like "Nudge", "Switch", "Thinking Fast and Slow" and "Atomic Habits”. I've also taken a course on Gamification and red a few articles on it. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't fully remember all of their frameworks. And I'm not going to go back to study these things. But I remember this:
Easy things are easier to repeat
Seeing one's progress is motivating
Showing off is motivating (I don't want to do it with the gratitude web app)
Feeling increased competence is motivating
Rare feelings that feel good (e.g. winning at slot machines) are very motivating
From my Design and Product experience I also remember:
Make it easy for people to know what to do
When people try to do the wrong thing, show them how to do the right thing
Build wonder into the product (e.g. animations, shortcuts, unexpected well thought features, etc)
Make it look good
These criteria (that would make academics weep) have lead me to:
Assumption #2
Making gratitude easy and fun to practice, makes it more likely to stick as an habit
These two assumptions are related to the product, but have little to do with how I'm building it. This is a core aspect of any project, so let me tell you about it.
The previous section was about "how I'll try to change people's behavior and make them be more grateful throughout the day”. This section is about “How I'll create a digital product to do just that". They are different “hows", I think.
I'm no developer. I've completed tutorials and courses on basic (late 90s) C, Python, ActionScript (IYKYK) and JS, and I can kinda understand it, but I'm definitely not a developer.
With chatGPT, though, I can learn faster than ever. There's a skill to talking to chatGPT and getting it to help you ( and having some background is immensely useful) but you can get a personalized guide for any project you can think of. This is priceless.
Initially I wanted to create a little mobile app (with Flutter, that I don't know how to use) but after spending a few hours trying to set up my computer to it, I just reverted to HTML + CSS + JS. It's simpler, and I can (with GPT's help) make quick changes all the time. Also, it's a useful skillset to brush up on and I won't have to go through difficult app store approval processes every time I implement something new.
Furthermore, there are tools to take a webapp and turn it into a Progressive Web App (I've never used them), so this HTML/CSS/JS approach buys me quite a bit of flexibility.
All of this to say:
Assumption #3
I want to use simple technology that I can understand
Now, putting all the assumptions together:
Assumption #1
Gratitude is one of the best habits around. It's free. And it is mind-bending, capable of turning a shit situation into a more bearable, even good, one.
Assumption #2
Making gratitude easy and fun to practice, makes it more likely to stick as an habit.
Assumption #3
I want to use simple technology that I can understand.
These three assumptions explain much of the thinking behind the product so far. There's still a lot to do, but these will guide me for the foreseeable future
I now have a challenge for you
clickity click here and try the newly implemented Turbo Mode (turbo mode needs a minimum of 5 gratitude notes to become active, but it's a fun way to get a boost of gratitude).
The project is close to completion (I'm fighting a lot of natural tendencies here. I'd normally be more perfectionist). You can check out functionalities I'm working on right here (google Docs). The document is open for comments, btw.