Fogg Behavior Model

Ability - Make behavior easier to do

The Fogg Behavior Model has three main elements, one of which is Ability. In order to perform a target behavior, a person must have the ability to do so. That seems obvious, of course. But designers of products and services often assume people have more ability than they really do.

There are three paths to increasing ability.

You can train people, giving them more skills, more ability to do the target behavior. That’s the hard path. Don’t take this route unless you really must. Training people is hard work, and most people resist learning new things. That’s just how we are as humans: lazy.

Another option is to give someone a tool or resource that makes the behavior easier to do. For example, a cookbook makes cooking at home easier to do.

Another option is to scale back the target behavior so it is easier to do. This is the approach I advocate in the Tiny Habits® method

Please note:
In talking about Behavior Design, I sometimes replace Ability with Simplicity. I hope this isn’t confusing. By focusing on Simplicity of the target behavior you increase Ability.

Key insight: Simplicity is a function of your scarcest resource at that moment. Think about time as a resource, If you don’t have 10 minutes to spend, and the target behavior requires 10 minutes, then it’s not simple. Money is another resource. If you don’t have $1, and the behavior requires $1, then it’s not simple.

Here’s a model that shows these five factors. Your weakest link determines what makes a behavior hard to do.