ABSTRACT
The notion that products and services affect behaviour, as well as the belief that design interventions can offer a new and valuable tool for stimulating desired behaviour, has been extensively discussed in previous chapters. In this chapter, we focus in more detail on the perspective of the user. How does it feel being influenced? What determines when somebody experiences influence? And to what extent does this interfere with people’s motivation to comply with the behaviour aimed for? We report on our experimental and conceptual study of product influence, and more specifically, the user experiential aspects of it. This leads to a new interpretation of our classification of product influence (Tromp et al., 2011), one which helps to recognize the unique value of design interventions in comparison to more conventional approaches like campaigns, subsidies, or rules and regulations: the hidden character of its influence. We conclude the chapter with design examples that clearly illustrate this quality and propose methodological support for designing it.
