Behavior by design
The imperative to include human behavior in a user-centered approach
The user is a key design element in an innovation project.
In a user-centric approach, the aspirations, needs and desires of users have to be known to ensure the adoption of the product or service. But to create new markets and uses, it is even more necessary to gather information, analyse and compare human behavior in real-life context. One not only has to ask the question of what the user wants or what he does, but understand the many unconscious or involuntary behaviors. The following article explores the issues for taking into account behaviors in the design process and complements our vision of innovation presented in a previous article.
Behaviors, the baseline for user-centric design
Products and services, being part of our environment, have a huge impact on our behaviors. Thus, products and services are as much determined by user behavior as the intended design. Design is a user-oriented process: creating products or services to influence the behavior of users offers great potential to improve and reduce design errors and thus encourage the adoption of the proposed offers. If influencing people can lead to deviations, as we can see at the time of the attention economy, recently criticized by Christian Harris, ex. ethicist of Design at Google, it also allows a number of positives points to explore with responsibility.
Design has a strong behavioral aspect in the development of an empathic dimension in the early stages of observation and understanding during the innovation process. Tim Brown, father of Design Thinking:
“If we have to “borrow” from the life of others to imagine new ideas, we must first understand that their seemingly inexplicable behavior are all strategies to adapt to the disruptive, complex and contradictory world in which we operate.”
Tim Harford also expressed the desirability of a “behavioral design” in an article which appeared in the Financial Times (March 1, 2013) about using technology (including applications) to change our behavior:
“It is no surprise that “behavioral design” is becoming a buzz-phrase. Nick Chater, professor of behavioral science at Warwick Business School, argues that the combination of basic scientific research with user-oriented design thinking is a powerful one. Behavioral scientists in the fields of psychology and economics are producing reams of research about human behaviour, and designers have the skill and experience to turn those insights into products and services that make our lives happier or safer.”
For some decades now, the behavioral sciences have demonstrated the importance of studying human behavior in the comprehension of our interactions and our choices. Design draws from these theories to go further in understanding the user and thus provide practical tools to design the most relevant experiences.
We are not rational beings
Since the last century, the traditional economy relied partially on the beliefs of the rational individual’s theory, the “Homo economicus”. The person has the full capacity to acquire information and process it optimally to guide his or her economic choices. In this case, the rational individual is easily guided by optimal financial incentives.
Why? Decision-making occurs in our brain. It is in fact separated into two parts, two “systems” as defined by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, fast and slow. System 1 is fast, automatic, intuitive and lazy: he jumps to conclusions without bothering logic nor reflection. System 2, located in the cortex, is contrary to the conscious, slow, logic and a lot of energy in its calculations and its deliberations. Both systems work in constant interaction, in a configuration of “dual process”, allowing to combine the automatic operations from the first one and control operations from the second one. But in the interests of efficiency and because the brain runs on energy saving and tends to create habits, reflexive system merely validate scenarios built by the intuitive system, “it is easier to slip into the certainty than remain camped on doubt.”
Like optical illusions, cognitive illusions interfere in our decision-making mechanisms. It is very difficult for us to realize and accept this decision illusion because they aren’t visible without explanation. Most of the decisions we make relate to decisions and interactions we make, interactions: the “architects of choice” have a great influence on individual decisions.
These factors mean that we do not know our preferences as well as we think, and this is why we are likely to be influenced by external forces.
But we are predictable
Changing the way we present an application form for an organ donation program to increase response rates, reducing power consumption by displaying customer scores’ position in the neighborhood, narrowing white stripes on the road entering a corner to give an impression of speed, or just adding fly-shaped stickers in urinals to reduce frequency of cleaning.
All these examples are evidence that complex and costly solutions are not enough to get individuals to change their irrational behavior. The basis of the nudge theory developed by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, suggests that it is simply necessary to use small cognitive levers, usually leading us to decision errors, to redirect users to a better way for them (read Nudge, Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness). Summarizing the above examples, the first example uses default option, the second example our relationship to social pressure, the third example an optical illusion, and the last example using gaming. By their primary goal, nudging is currently used by governments and mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries (US and UK have created their Nudge Unit). And the potential of rapid application in the private sphere is equally as powerful across financial services, health and pharma, insurance, retail and life sciences.
The striking example of using nudge in the registration form for organ donation is that: people are more likely to agree to be on the list of donors when the default option is to be checked donor, even if they have the opportunity to refuse. This is because we live in an increasingly complex environment we make the choices suggested to us. In this respect, the default option therefore receives considerable importance in the decision making of individuals. Because it is more accessible and quicker to make and does not require significant cognitive resources. Here lies the strength of nudges, small changes for big effects.
We are a result of our environment
Studying the behavior of users is a lever to deliver more relevant and innovative solutions that influence these changes. The easiest way is to design for the user’s environment. Indeed, our decisions are also influenced by our environment: family circle, friends, colleagues; membership of a material or psychological community, etc. It is who we are, defines our personality and behaviors.
Already in 1936, Kurt Lewis had raised the issue in his “field theory” by exposing the following equation: the behavior of an individual depends on his personality and his environment. Thus, to change behaviors, it is necessary to take action on either the person or the environment, or both. Unfortunately, it is difficult to permanently change people because they are the result of education, culture and a long and persistent modeling. The most accessible way to influence behavior is the direct environment. The environment which surrounds us every day has much more impact on us than we can think, for example we feel thirst just by seeing someone drinking a cold drink.
Design must be explored in context
It is crucial to consider the context of use when designing a service. Without context, it will be difficult to get users to change or modify their existing behavior for your solution. By observing their environment, and identifying triggers and behaviors can help to highlight the cognitive mechanisms involved and use them to guide users. Applying the terminology of the nudge theory, the designer is an “architect of choice,” and the cognitive mechanisms are all levers and tips allowing it to design products and services that will change the lives of individuals.
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