How touchscreens make us feel better about content: 5 tips
In a special journal, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking in September 2015 published about a phenomenon called psychological ownership.
The explanation doesn’t come easy: ’…the drive to engage in behaviors to satisfy the motives that underlie psychological ownership’, as they say. These drivers are the same ones that we use to get fulfillment from social media. Psychological ownership is the feeling that something is yours, when it is not - think of the dog that looks at your plate while you’re eating.
These influential instruments were put to light by Nocila Brown, edtior-in-chief from Toronto, who states: "If it feels good, do it', referring to the outcome of the subconscious brain we activate in emo-marketing.
When we line up 5 tips for better content usage on touchscreens, this phenomenon is a true factor.
5 WAYS Content Marketeers Can Use Love for Touchscreens to Build Better Content
1 Give your audience the steering wheel.
Allow your audience to make their own choices by offering varied content and usability. If you offer enough ‘decision options’ in an article, the psychological ownership of the reader kicks in. Present content in photos, video, and text, in galleries, infographics, comparisons, any form you can think of.
2 Let your audience interact with you Add elements that let your audience tell you how they’re feeling about your content: “Like” buttons, “favorite” hearts, mini polls and comment boxes are a great form of emotional engagement, especially through a touchscreen, and give leverage to the ownership.
3 Copy real life body mechanics
Provide navigation arrows on photos and other content that let your audience rotate images, zoom in and out, and pan to different areas. This mental manipulation mimics reality and leads to greater psychological involvement and identification.
4 Make your content rich. Experiment with pop-out content designed for an engaging touchscreen experience, but make sure you story has a layered structure, combine your storyline with quotes, info by numbers, interviews, caption stories etc. Make the readers spend as much time on your topic as possible, by offering a rich structure
5 Encourage exploration
Consumers don’t need to be spoon-fed. They actually want to do some of the work themselves, it means you are taking them seriously. Let them design their own experience.
A study from Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking from 2014 showed that touchscreen interfaces like tablets or smartphones can lead to higher product valuations compared with the traditional desktop computer and mouse situation. Results showed that when participants were asked how much they would be willing to pay for a specific product, those that had used a touchscreen said they would pay 43% more than those who used a mouse in a desktop situation ($67.70 versus $47.40).
If all studies are valid, we now know our stories will be experienced more convincing on touchscreens.