DXD MINOR FONTYS EINDHOVEN

Symphony Aptitude & Persuasive Design

Essay for the media class of Suzanne Kuijk

Timothe CAPALDI (I396732)
09/11/2017

How can the symphony aptitude of a media designer (according to Pink) contribute to
behavioral change in the persuasive design of media (according to Fogg)?
Symphony Aptitude & Persuasive Design
How can the symphony aptitude (according to Pink) of a media designer contribute to
behavioral change in the persuasive design of media (according to Fogg)?

Introduction (Definitions)

Symphony

First, and because its not obvious for everybody, you may want to know what symphony is?

Etymologically, the word comes from the contraction of Latin words sun (together) and phn
(sound) so its basically a musical term.

By extension, a symphony means anything characterized by a harmonious combination of elements. For

example: a symphony of color, a symphony of taste

According to Pink, symphony is seeing the big picture, its the ability to link apparently unlinked elements
together and make the all thing harmonious. He even says that in this conceptual age, people must
think symphonic. For pink, symphony is a designer aptitude to take into account in anything he makes.

Persuasive Design

According to fogg, behavior of a individual is altered to an action depending on three factors:

motivation, ability and trigger. He even translated his theory into a formula: B=mat.

(This graph on the left shows the correlation)

For an individual to take action, he needs to be:

Motivated enough
Able enough
Triggered.

If those three factors are sufficient, the individual

will cross the action Line (buy youre product).
Trigger can then be considered successful.

This is Persuasive design: Think to be persuasive.

If symphony is a useful designer aptitude, can it be used to persuade an individual to take action? I will
try to answer this question in this essay. I will begin with arguments that prove symphony has nothing
to do with persuasive design and then I will destroy this thesis with counterexamples.

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 Thesis: Symphony isnt supposed to be a tool to persuasive design
A symphony is no joke Johannes Brahms

Symphony isnt basically linked to persuasion. Its just expression, art.

Listen to the symphony

Lets take the first example of a symphony that might come to mind: a musical symphony. Isnt it art?
Whats the goal of art? Does it have one? Is it to persuade? I think a musical symphony is art. Art is
symphony. Whats the goal of art? Whats the goal of a symphony? Nothing! Or anything but persuasion.

Im thinking about Mozart composing symphonies for the Opera. Important people werent always
convinced by his work. Emperor Joseph II even said there is too many notes about The Marriage of
Figaro. In fact, Joseph wasnt the only one to complain about his music, nearly everybody including
Amadeus admirers used say his music was sometimes "too strongly spiced"; "impenetrable labyrinths";
"bizarre flights of the soul"; "overloaded and overstuffed".

Mozart didnt change anything because he thought his music wasnt meant to convince Mr. Emperor or
anybody else. He made a symphony using just as many notes as he needed. No more, no less. (In a
musical symphony, notes are the apparently unlinked element linked together).

Watch the symphony

Its the same thing for a symphony of color in a painting. For example, look at this artwork.

Autumn Journey Jennifer Vranes

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This is a perfect example of a symphony of color. The artist mixed hot and cold colors that are basically
not meant to be together. This combination is Symphonic. But its not meant to be persuasive.

Taste the symphony

What about a symphony of taste? In cooking, bringing different flavors together is an art. Some might
say sugar and salt doesnt mix, some others will create delicious salty-sweet ditches. Its all about the
symphony.

Have you seen that Disney and Pixar movie Ratatouille? In the clip, the main character (Remmy the rat)
loves how the flavors of food are delicious individually, but he loves them even more together. They
create a symphony of flavor!

Why do I tell you that? Whats the link with persuasive design? There is none. Thats the point.

This was just to talk about different types of symphony that are apparently unlinked at all with
persuasive design. In the next paragraph, we will see that it can finally collapse very harmoniously.

Antithesis: Symphony and persuasive design. Create the symphony!

If you create something, whether it's a painting or a company, I think if you care about it, you have some
obligation to go out and tell people about it Daniel H. Pink

As I said in the introduction, Symphony is by definition the ability to link apparently unlinked
elements together and make the all thing harmonious. Maybe we can create a symphony linking the
symphony aptitude itself with persuasive design!

Business of Art, Art for the business

In the previous paragraph, I told you about musical symphonies and art in general. I told you it wasnt
linked to persuasion but nowadays, everything is. Art and music became commercial. Artists create to
sell CDs or masterpieces. They create to persuade us to buy their
creation. Sometimes it shouldnt even be called art anymore. Its just
something designed symphonically to convince people it is art.

Symphonic Propaganda

As an example, lets go back to colors. This image on the right is also a

symphony of color. You can see about every primary color and the two
dominants are red and blue. These two colors are opposite, one is hot
and one is cold. One means war, one means peace.

This image was actually used by Japanese government to motivate

people to fight. This is propaganda. Propaganda is definitely persuasive
design. Its designed to make people act in the governments interests.
Representation of the Japanese attack
against American fleet (WWII)
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Dutch Design!

The picture below shows the working space of Symphony Solutions, a Dutch software technology
company headquartered in Amsterdam. This office is actually located in Ukraine as they have most of
their development centers abroad.

As the name of the company may suggest, they love symphony. They think symphonic. This office was
imagined to be an inspirational, peaceful and motivating working environment. In other words, this
atmosphere was designed to motivate. Remember Foggs behavior model? Motivation is one of the
three fundamental factors of persuasive design.

This company isnt the only one to have a harmonious environment for their employees to work better.
A lot of innovative society as Apple, Google and Facebook also use symphony for motivation purpose.

The reason why it works is neurologic. Something symphonic is harmonious and relaxing for our brain
which releases large doses of dopamine when we are at our most chilled and content. Dopamine is the
chemical associated with creativity. In conclusion: the more you are relaxed, the more you are creative
and symphony helps in the process.

To conclude with that antithesis I would say that thinking symphonic can be a way to motivate
individuals to do something. This can be a tool to persuasive design.

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 Synthesis: Symphony as a tool for persuasive design, a good idea?

If the persuasive element serves to boost motivation, then the team can adapt this secret sauce to its
own design project BJ Fogg

I first told you that symphony had nothing to do with persuasion at all. Then I told you it could
actually be used meaningfully as a tool to persuasive design. Lets get clear.

Yes, symphony wasnt made to convince but it makes a lot of sense to think symphonic to persuade in
this conceptual age. If something is harmonious and smooth, as symphony is, it will impact on
motivation to trigger one individual to take action. In a company for example, it makes a lot of sense to
apply symphony as a tool to motivate the employees. Symphony as Pink described it could be the
persuasive element BJ Fogg is talking about.

Symphony is a tool for persuasive design if you design it for persuasion, for commercial or productive
issues. In another hand, when not meant to be persuasive, symphony is only art.

Conclusion

This essay demonstrates that even if some elements (like symphony and persuasive design) might not
seem to be connected at first sight, they can become powerful when they finally combine. This is the
miracle of symphony.

So when you are confronted to a situation in which you need to be persuasive, remember to always see
the big picture. In any case, feeling the symphony will definitely make you happy.

Modern lifes glut of option and stimuli can be so overwhelming that those with the ability to see the big
picture have a decided advantage in the pursuit of personal well-being Daniel H Pink

References:

D. H Pink (2005). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

https://sites.google.com/site/pinks6senses/symphony
http://bjfogg.com/design_files/page8_1.pdf
https://www.officelovin.com/2017/07/31/tour-symphony-solutions-cool-lviv-office/