The player would have to select features and/or feats that grant the ability to make special attacks as a standard action, such as Cleave or Vital Strike. For the large part though, the system does not offer standard action weapon attacks that are completely on-par with full attack actions. There are some pretty good standard actions out there, but they mostly involve spells.
I can think of ways of encouraging characters to invest in things that help standard action attacks...
If everyone in the game world has the equivalent of Spring Attack it will become prudent to be mobile and deadly. If your enemy is constantly moving in, attacking you, and moving away you wont have a chance to full attack them unless you can pin them in one location.
If you do this, then player characters will grow organically to deal with this and will find ways to make standard action attacks useful.
I'm curious what kind of effects would encourage making a single attack. I understand maneuvers were designed for this purpose, but I want to know what would types of things would have someone thinking "I can make one attack and do X, or make 2-3 attacks" and not have the answer be obvious.
For example, let's look at a paladin. At level 6, they get their second attack. If the first attack did X instead, it would be a competitive choice with making a full attack. What would X need to be?
The most obvious answer from my perspective would be that a Standard action still allows for a Move action as well which allows for much greater tactical positioning. Working with your friend the Rogue for example to allow his damage per round to EXPLODE because he is now dual wielding and full sneak attack bonus with each attack. Does it take away from your spot light? Yeah a little, but also firmly establishes you as a must have member of that group.