The Best Behavioral Design Content
The Habit Weekly Anniversary Edition 2019
Habit Weekly is a newsletter for people interested in behavioral design. Trusted by thousands of behavioral designers around the world, Habit Weekly has now every week delivered a hand-picked list of the best behavioral design content to inboxes around the world for 52 weeks! This is a cause for celebration, and I thought what better way to celebrate than combining all of the best content from the past 12 months into this amazing behavioral design bundle.
Before you get started reading I just want to give a moment to all of the fantastic content creators in this growing behavioral design community. It’s been a joy to provide them with a platform, especially since there are so many great people around the world that are making incredible contributions to the field. I want to help make sure their effort is given the appreciation it deserves and this collection should be seen as a celebration for all of their excellent work. So, enjoy this special collection, packed with all of the best behavioral design articles, podcasts, videos, and resources! Cheers! 🥂🍾
EDITOR’S PICK 👍
Ten Conditions for Behavior Change
So this is my favorite piece of content this year. It’s a great new framework for creating positive behaviors from SparkWave. Combining some of the most useful frameworks like EAST, BJ Fogg Behavior Model, and many more, this is a tremendous resource for anyone working with behavioral design. I recommend you not only checking it out but really studying this. If you take some time to learn this framework and the resources it’s based on; then you’ll likely know more than most people in this space.
BEST ARTICLES OF THE YEAR 📝
The Three Laws of Human Behavior
Like the physical properties of the universe, human behavior is complicated. And just as Newton’s Laws describe the motion of physical objects, these three Laws of Human Behavior aim to provide a general model for how humans behave.
5 More Methods to Influence Users’ Behavior
Have you gone through all the basic methods to influence user behavior? Things like conducting A/B testing, adding a sense of scarcity in your messaging, and tactically placing triggers on your landing pages? Well, there is much more you can do.
We Overestimate and Underestimate Our Abilities in Weird Ways
Why, among other things, are you not as good at kissing as you think, but better at dancing? Learn the four factors which tend to make us overconfident.
How Uber Leverages Applied Behavioral Science at Scale
Earlier this year, Uber spilled the beans on the inner workings of their Behavioral Science Unit. It was an interesting read, especially when coupled with this response from Irrational Labs.
Are Cognitive Biases Universal Across Cultures?
“We ran the same studies as designed by Kahneman & Tversky in the early 1970s with Kenyan nationals, to understand how biases differ across cultures. What was immediately apparent was that comprehension was low. Frankly, it doesn’t take a (Behavioral) Scientist to understand why!”
BEST PODCASTS OF THE YEAR 📻
Michael Hallsworth: From MINDSPACE to EAST
It’s hard to choose one episode from the fantastic Behavioral Grooves Podcast, but this was one of my favorites. Michael shares valuable thoughts and advice based on his experience working with BIT in America and the UK.
Combining Technology and Behavioral Interventions
Wonderful podcast interview with Spencer Greenberg by Action Design Radio, where he discusses how technology can be combined with applied social science to build platforms that implement complex behavioral interventions.
How Goes the Behavior-Change Revolution?
An all-star team of behavioral scientists discovers that humans are stubborn (and lazy, and sometimes dumber than dogs). This Freakonomics episode also covers binge drinking, humblebragging, and regrets with guests, including Richard Thaler, Angela Duckworth, Katy Milkman, and Tom Gilovich.
In the Habit: Introduction to Changing our Behavior
If you have access to Audible, I greatly recommend this 6-part podcast series on the art of building habits and changing behavior.
Nudge City — Using Tech to Amplify Hidden Social Cues in Cities
Learn how technology is making “nudges” more prevalent in cities, from tackling sign-ups for food stamps to reducing congestion downtown.
BEST VIDEOS OF THE YEAR 📺
Don’t Listen To Your Customers — Do This Instead
Excellent TEDx talk from Kristen Berman, co-founder of Irrational Labs. It offers a great introduction to the field of applied behavioral science and will help you get started with changing behavior for good.
Designing For Trust — Dan Ariely
In this talk, behavioral economics professor Dan Ariely aims to help us understand the importance of trust, how much it affects society, and how much it moves us.
How the Day of the Week Affects Your Decisions
Does the day of the week affect your daily decisions? Jet Sanders’s research says it does. In this TEDx talk, she shares how decision-making fluctuates within the working week — and how that affects voting, health, and other types of decisions people make.
Behavioral Experiments on Online Platforms
The tech industry is running experiments to better understand our preferences online. While these experiments can benefit us, they also pose a risk to society if platforms are optimized in a way that doesn’t align with our best interests. Learn what Uber and Facebook had to say at Behavioural Exchange 2019.
BEST RESOURCES OF THE YEAR 🛠
100 Books to Become a Behavioral Designer
This collection is based on some of my favorite behavioral design books combined with personal recommendations from the likes of Richard Thaler, Dan Ariely, Susan Weinschenk, Robert Cialdini, Tali Sharot + so many more.
List of Behavioral Science Companies
An extensive list of all organizations around the world working with applied behavioral science. Big credit to Ingrid Melvær Paulin.
The BASIC Toolkit & Framework
This toolkit aims to provide practitioners and policymakers with a step-by-step process for analyzing a policy problem, building strategies, and developing behaviorally informed interventions.
The Behavioral Economics Guide 2019
The BE Guide is always a must-read for anyone interested in behavioral economics and applied behavioral science. This year’s edition is no different.
Pocket Biases
Every cognitive bias in your pocket (works best on mobile browsers).
FUN FACTS ✅
I had a quick look at the stats for the newsletter, and here are some fun facts that I came across:
- The first issue of Habit Weekly was sent to 12 people, all of which are still loyal subscribers. Extra big thanks to you guys! 🙌
- Habit Weekly is currently read by people in 82 countries, including readers from Tanzania 🇹🇿, Kuwait 🇰🇼, Iceland 🇮🇸, and El Salvador 🇸🇻.
- Top countries with the highest readership are the US 🇺🇸, the UK 🇬🇧, Australia 🇦🇺, and India 🇮🇳.
- The graph below shows the growth in subscribers 📈
I want to include this as a reminder that good things rarely happen overnight. I remember sitting about 6-month in thinking “this is never going to take off,” then suddenly it did. So if you are a content creator, don’t expect to go viral overnight. Instead, stay consistent, focus on creating value, and expect that anything worthwhile will take a long time 😊✌️
FINAL WORD
This year has been one heck of a journey, and I feel very fortunate to serve this community to the best of my abilities. While I’m far from perfect (especially when it comes to my grammar), I genuinely do my best to provide all Habit Weekly newsletter subscribers with something worth reading every week. It’s been a pleasure to serve you so far, and I much appreciate your support and help in growing this behavioral design community together.
And as always…. Please feel free to send me an email with your thoughts, questions, or suggestions for improvements. I’m always happy to receive your messages.
/Samuel
Samuel Salzer is a behavioral designer, author & keynote speaker helping value-driven organizations around the world to create habit-forming products and services using insights from behavioral economics and applied behavioral science.
For questions or queries, get in touch here.
