The Paradox of Choice: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to Choice Overload
Barry Schwartz's Paradox of Choice made choice overload famous. The replication data tells a messier story: here is…
Work with Yu-kai
The Blog
Behavioral Analysis
Articles on Behavioral Analysis — from Yu-kai Chou, creator of the Octalysis Framework.
Temporal Motivation Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to the Procrastination Equation
Piers Steel and Cornelius Konig's Temporal Motivation Theory in plain English: the four-variable procrastination equation and how the…
Elaboration Likelihood Model: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to Central & Peripheral Persuasion
Petty & Cacioppo's Elaboration Likelihood Model in plain English: the two routes of persuasion, argument quality, and how…
Transtheoretical Model: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to Stages of Change
Every behavior-change product I have ever debugged died in the same place: the designer assumed the user had…
Yerkes-Dodson Law: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to the Arousal-Performance Curve
Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908): the inverted-U showing arousal helps simple tasks but hurts complex ones, plus the modern critiques…
Attribution Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to Weiner’s Locus, Stability & Control
Weiner's Attribution Theory in plain English: locus, stability, control, and how Octalysis turns why-it-happened into design that sticks.
Expectancy Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide to Vroom’s Motivation Formula
Why do smart people stop trying? Vroom's Expectancy Theory says motivation hides a zero in one of three…
BJ Fogg’s 3 Triggers Explained Through the Octalysis Framework (B=MAP Part 2)
📘 Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of my series on the BJ Fogg Behavior Model, focused specifically…
BJ Fogg Behavior Model Explained: B=MAP and the 6 Factors of Ability (Octalysis Extended)
The BJ Fogg Behavior Model states that any behavior — from tapping a notification to quitting smoking —…