An Idea for Service Design to Induce Intrinsic Motivation and Experimental Validation

–A Case of Information Providing Service in Museums–

Abstract

Users' motivation to use products and services is psychologically classified as intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a type of motivation based on users' natural interest in various activities that provide novelty and challenge; they do it because they want to do it. In this study, we built a hypothetical model that users' motivation to use a product or service was driven when it involved a proper gap from users' inner characteristics, and aimed at developing the model to a design process model for designing products and services that would induce users' intrinsic motivation. As the first stage, we experimentally examined if a service with such a gap would enhance users' intrinsic motivation. Specifically, we examined the effect of the information service provided at a museum booth on users' motivation. The result demonstrated that users' intrinsic motivation was induced when they were given the additional information with a proper gap from their individual interest compared with when they were given the additional information at random from the observable and subjective data.