Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs typology as applied to Purposedriven.com, an online faith community. Created for COM 597: Psychology of Digital Meda Master of Communication, Digital Media

1. Week 5: Designing for Stage (Not necessarily age)

3. Almost never fully satisfied, as we are constantly growing and searching to fulfill this need.

8. Application: Maslow’s Typology, 2.0 The Purpose Driven Connection, still in beta mode, is attempting to build an intentional community online, following the success of the Purpose Driven Life books and studies. Based on website analytics from Quantcast.com, Alexa.com and Compete.com, visitors to the site look like this: 62% don’t have kids 0-17 years old. Assumption: Kids are all grown up and the adults now have time to pursue their own interests in life and career. 35% make between $60-100K. 30% make $30-60K. This is an affluent audience. 42% have attended college; 27% have a graduate degree. Highly educated audience. Attaining self-actualization—the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy/typology—is the ultimate personal achievement. Maslow referred to it as the desire to become more and more what one is; to become everything that one is capable of becoming (Maslow, 1954). With this goal in mind, designers of purposedriven.com must provide opportunities for users to realize this personal achievement. Many of the site visitors have perhaps gone through some form of the Purpose Driven Life study, and therefore are seeking some personal enrichment or spiritual enlightenment, or to build community with those who are interested in being intentional about their faith practices. SO WHAT? What does this mean for the website? They have a goodstart as they are extending the conversation and resources for people who have bought into the Purpose Driven Life universe. The website has visitors navigating around the following categories: faith, tools & resources, community & groups, take action, entertainment, PD TV and shop. Those who are seeking some pinnacle of personal enlightenment and purpose have the opportunity to explore what it is they are called to do by reading articles, viewing multimedia, seeking opportunities to engage with the world thorough service. Visitors to the site can see that articles are clearly tagged in the following topics: growing, serving, relating—all terms that evoke moving outside oneself to achieve something greater. Striving for self-actualization is motivated by the desire for personal growth, and there is the potential for ample opportunities on purposedriven.com, had the designers kept this goal of self-actualization in mind. If the goal is for visitors to stay, read, and feel like they are experiencing personal growth, they should be able to share this experience with others. Though the site does have facebook, YouTube, Twitter, e-newsletter and RSS links, there are no “share it” type buttons built in to allow easy social sharing for each article—one easy way to gauge visitor engagement/interest in the content.

9. Recommendations for PDL Offer the opportunity for users to blog. I imagine there would be many whose lives have been enriched by the content and community the site has provided. Use them to be the project’s evangelists. Have a feature section with prominent figures giving advice, answering questions and writing articles. They are influencers who may encourage visitors to continue to be more. Build in SMS alerts for your mobile device for when a new article is posted. Offer an iPhone or Android app so people could easily access feature articles and search relatively quickly.

10. References Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton Maslow, Abraham (1954). Motivation and Personality. Harper and Row New York, New York