<p>Goal Gradient Effect: The closer users are to achieving a goal the more they strive to complete it and they faster they work at the goal.</p><p><br></p>

Goal Gradient Effect

<p>You can utilize this psychological effect by gamifying the experience, have a set goal that you want your users to accomplish and they show them how close they are to getting the goal.</p>

How to Utilize it

<h2>Takeaways</h2><OL><LI>The closer users are to completing a task, the faster they work towards reaching it.</LI><LI>Providing artificial progress towards a goal will help to ensure users are more likely to have the motivation to complete that task.</LI><LI>Provide a clear indication of progress in order to motivate users to complete tasks.</LI></OL><h2>Origins</h2><p>The goal-gradient hypothesis, originally proposed by the behaviorist Clark Hull in 1932, states that the tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. In a classic experiment that tests this hypothesis, Hull (1934) found that rats in a straight alley ran progressively faster as they proceeded from the starting box to the food. Although the goal-gradient hypothesis has been investigated exten-sively with animals (e.g., Anderson 1933; Brown 1948; for a review, see Heilizer 1977), its implications for human behavior and decision making are understudied. Further-more, this issue has important theoretical and practical implications for intertemporal consumer behavior in reward programs (hereinafter RPs) and other types of motivational systems (e.g., Deighton 2000; Hsee, Yu, and Zhang 2003; Kivetz 2003; Lal and Bell 2003).</p>

A human psychological effect and how to utilize it in our designs or in any day life

The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal.

<ol><li>The closer users are to completing a task, the faster they work towards reaching it. </li><li>Providing artificial progress towards a goal will help to ensure users are more likely to have the motivation to complete that task. </li><li>Provide a clear indication of progress in order to motivate users to complete tasks. </li> </ol>

<p>The goal-gradient hypothesis, originally proposed by the behaviorist Clark Hull in 1932, states that the tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. In a classic experiment that tests this hypothesis, Hull (1934) found that rats in a straight alley ran progressively faster as they proceeded from the starting box to the food. Although the goal-gradient hypothesis has been investigated exten-sively with animals (e.g., Anderson 1933; Brown 1948; for a review, see Heilizer 1977), its implications for human behavior and decision making are understudied. Further-more, this issue has important theoretical and practical implications for intertemporal consumer behavior in reward programs (hereinafter RPs) and other types of motivational systems (e.g., Deighton 2000; Hsee, Yu, and Zhang 2003; Kivetz 2003; Lal and Bell 2003). </p>

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Goal-Gradient Effect | Laws of UX

Goal Gradient Effect

How to Utilize it

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Using the goal gradient hypothesis to help people cross the finish line

Wimbledon Championships

A Simple Introduction to Lean UX

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Goal-Gradient Effect | Laws of UX

Goal Gradient Effect

How to Utilize it

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Using the goal gradient hypothesis to help people cross the finish line

Wimbledon Championships

A Simple Introduction to Lean UX

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career