1) The document describes an experiment where behavior design tools were used to help a family connect more with nature. 2) Three focus behaviors were agreed upon: buying houseplants, walking through a park daily instead of driving, and planning a hiking vacation. 3) Two of the behaviors succeeded because they were simple, wanted by the family, and had clear triggers and cadences. The hiking plan did not work because it was unclear if the family really wanted to or could follow through on it.

1. Behavior design: an experiment
connecting a family to nature
LESSONS LEARNED
ALEXANDRA CRISTEA – STANFORD UNIVERSITY
ACRISTEA@STANFORD.EDU

2. Context
I used behavior design tools (including magic-wanding, crispification, focus mapping and the
feather principle) to design and assess behaviors that would help my parents’ household
connect more to nature.
The household consists of my parents and my brother and they live in Romania. I have
conducted the exercises in Romanian over video – Skype over 6 weeks.

3. Focus Behaviors
At the end of the focus mapping exercise the agreed-upon desired behaviors were
1. “This Sunday, buy two household plants for our living room”
2. “Every evening, when we go to visit our aunt, walk through the park to get there, instead
of driving”
3. “Plan a hiking vacation for this summer”

4. Rate of success: 2/3
The desired behaviors were
1. “This Sunday, when we do
grocery shopping, buy two
household plants for our living
room”
2. “Every evening, when we go to
visit our aunt, walk through
the park to get there, instead
of driving”
3. “This Sunday, take the first
steps to plan a hiking vacation
for this summer”
YAY!
YAY!

Why they worked/did not work:
The first two behaviors were very
simple, my parents really wanted to
do them, and we had an easy time
making them crispy and identifying
the trigger and cadence.
For the last behavior, they insisted
they can get themselves to do it,
because it is a dream of theirs, but
from the outside it is unclear if they
really can or not/want or not to do it.

5. Next steps
Continue monitoring behavior number two (walking through the park daily) and trouble shoot if
needed.
We worked to make more crispy and easier the behavior for number 3: by agreeing what the
planning steps were (decide on a location, dates and a group of friends to invite), and adding a
trigger (Sunday, after lunch). Will continue to monitor.