Behavioral design
Behavioral Design
AI-assisted summary
Behavioral design connects design with insights from behavioral science, economy and psychology to directly affect user behavior. The approach recognizes that human beings do not act rationally but often act based on unconscious processes, behavioral principles or biases, aiming to minimize friction during user experiences.
The field provides several practical frameworks including COM-B (Capability + Opportunity + Motivation = Behavior), EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely), and the Hook model for building engaging products. These frameworks help designers create experiences that guide user behavior through methods like testing nudges, default option variations, and ethical considerations around user manipulation.
- Nice patterns in Coglode cookbook
- Intro to behavior science
- Connects design with insights from behavioral science, economy and psychology to directly affect the behavior of users or customers
- key principle is that human beings do not act rationally, but often act based on unconscious processes, behavioral principles or biases
- aims to minimize friction during the actual experience
- e.g. Netflix autoplay, Duolingo's gamification or loss aversion (losing a hot streak)
- A manifesto for applying behavioral science looks into the future of behavior science
- Testing nudges: Experiments with subtle design elements that guide user behavior without restricting choices
- Default option testing: Evaluating how different preset options influence decision-making
- Call-to-action variations: Testing different formulations of messages and prompts
- Ethical considerations:
- Informed consent of research participants
- Data privacy protection
- Consideration of potential negative impacts
- Transparency about data collection and use
Frameworks
- to achieve desired behavior, users need to have three resources at their disposal
- these three resources are affecting each other
B = C + O + M
B = behavior
C = capability
O = opportunity
M = motivation
Example
- B - We want the user to read the newsletter
- C - Newsletter is readable and easy to digest
- O - Newsletter arrives when the users has time and space to read it
- M - Newsletter contains information that is interesting to the user
EAST
- in order to influence a behavior, we should make sure we design the experience for the user so it is:
- EAST
- E – easy to minimize barriers and friction
- A – attractive – interesting and visually appealing
- S – social – using social norms and surrounding influence
- T – timely – appropriate timing of our intervention
Hook model
- by Nir Eyal
- my notes from the book Hooked
- Building addictive products comes in 4 steps:
- Trigger
- external (notification) or internal (boredom)
- Action
- simple user action induced by the trigger
- Variable reward
- unpredictable reward that changes in time (amount of likes, ...)
- Investment
- user invests time or energy which increases the chance of returning to the product or service (IKEA effect)
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