Motivational elements in user instructions
Loorbach, N. R., Karreman, J. & Steehouder, M. (2006). Motivational elements in user instructions: strategies to boost the effectiveness of task performance. Paper opresented at the 53rd Annual Conference of the Society for Technical Communication in Las Vegas.
This paper describes strategies that can be applied to design motivational elements in user instructions, in order to boost users’ effectiveness in performing tasks. We conducted an experiment to test the effects of three types of motivational elements in user instructions for a mobile telephone. These elements were designed by applying motivational strategies described in the ARCS Model of Motivational Design. The experiment showed that users perform tasks more effectively when the accompanying instructions contain motivational elements focusing on relevance or confidence. Furthermore, users are more persistent in performing tasks when the accompanying text contains elements to increase readers’ confidence.