Subconscious Nudges

Ive recently built a new course for my organisation and shared it with a few key stakeholders for content feedback.

While getting the usual typo, image and functionality feedback i was questioned on my usage of some notification style graphics. In this instance i decided to build a course that was completely unlocked but had some icons that looked very similar to the apple style notification (a red circle with a number inside), i placed these on the elements I wanted the person to open and discover more content. My sole intention in using this was to give the person an subconscious nudge towards the extra content rather than to 'force feed' them.

The icons disappear when the person has viewed the content and returned to the original page. All good i thought...

Turns out that some people (even the ones with apple phones) find these types of notification graphics off putting and confusing and therefore I'm going to ditch the idea and think of some other way of nudging them.

So i have a few questions for the community;

Have you used these methods?

What success have you had, did they take the bait of the extra content?

What other types of nudges do you find work?