Behavioral Design
Do you run a product or initiative, but feel you're not reaching its maximum uptake? People often don't follow through on their intentions: exercise more, eat more vegetables, spend more time on voluntary work. Often times, habits and anxieties are in the way to pick up and keep new behaviors. In my work, I build upon the many tried-and-tested approaches from the field of Behavioral Science to help people overcome friction and to form good habits.
I work in three phases.
1. Diagnostics I start with behavioral research. I conduct 6 interviews with users, I analyse behavioral data (if available) on the product or initiative and I take the latest scientific insights on the theme. We conclude this phase with a behavioral map for your unique case. A behavioral map shows:
(a) the desired user journey micro-steps (e.g. enrol on your App, use your product each day)
(b) the barriers and mental biases that make these desired user steps unlikely to happen (now)
(c) the key benefits and opportunities that will motivate people to take those desired steps.
2. Ideation I design science backed concepts of behavioral strategies that have the most potential to get your target audience taking those desired steps. I then UX-test the ideas among a small target group to quickly iterate and finetune the idea/the prototype. Examples are: changes in the product architecture (e.g. enrolment processes, design of App screens), framing of information using relevant mental lenses, incentive design, use of narratives, habit formation techniques and leveraging social norms.
3. Impact I don't assume people's intentions translate into actual behavior. I conduct a larger scale experiment (A/B test) to see people's actual behavioral response to the idea/prototype. In this way we can collect evidence to see if and why the behavioral strategy works to increase uptake.
Do you want to discuss how behavioral design can help your initiative? Then book a session with me on behavioral design.