Why Does WoW’s Real Game Begin After You Reach Max Level?
WoW quietly swaps your progression bar at max level. Item level replaces character level. Why every product loses…
Work with Yu-kai
The Blog
Ideas on motivation, behavior & design.
Deep dives on the psychology behind why people do what they do — from Yu-kai Chou, creator of the Octalysis Framework. Pick the topic that matters to you.
Why Do Most Wireframes Quietly Kill Engagement?
Most gamification projects don’t fail at the strategy stage. They fail in Step 5. The Strategy Dashboard is…
PERMA Model: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: The PERMA Model is Martin Seligman’s 2011 decomposition of flourishing into five elements: Positive Emotion, Engagement,…
Self-Discrepancy Theory: Actual, Ideal, Ought Self Explained
Short answer: Self-Discrepancy Theory is E. Tory Higgins’s 1987 framework that splits the self into Actual, Ideal, and…
Learned Optimism: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
In 1985, Metropolitan Life had a problem the entire insurance industry had: half of every new sales hire…
Self-Perception Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
In 1967, Daryl Bem walked into the cognitive dissonance literature and proposed that the entire towering edifice that…
Overjustification Effect: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: The Overjustification Effect is the drop in how much people freely do an activity they already…
Relational Models Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Watch a friend pull out a calculator at the end of a dinner to split the bill down…
The Investment Model of Commitment: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: The Investment Model of Commitment is Caryl Rusbult’s 1980 extension of Interdependence Theory. It models commitment…