A talk about how to design products and communications that help change user behavior (for good). It's based on the 2nd edition of Designing for Behavior Change, and covers the common approach that many applied behavioral scientists roughly follow, under a variety of names. See www.behavioraltechnology.co for more info, and the (free) workbook that accompanies it.

1. ©2020 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Blueprint for Behavioral Design
Steve Wendel
Head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar
Author of Designing for Behavior Change
@sawendel

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4. 1. BeSci Complements Design
2. DECIDE: A Blueprint
3. How Do We Stay Ethical?
4. Q&A
Where we’re going
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7. People often face a gap, between their
intentions and their actions

8. Our users face that gap with our products as well
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9. An understanding of how people decide & act
What is behavioral science?
Tools to potentially help people do better
Rigorous testing to find results
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10. Behavioral teams around the world
Results from the Behavioral Teams Survey: www.behavioralteams.com
United States 41.3%
United Kingdom 14.6%
Netherlands 5.7%
Australia 4.6%
Canada 3.4%
India 3.4%
France 2.1%
… …
Armenia 0.2%
Macedonia 0.2%
Cambodia 0.2%
Monaco 0.2%

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14. Example from Mexico:
Company
(With mention of IMEC)

16. 1. BeSci Complements Design
2. DECIDE: A Blueprint
3. How do we stay ethical?
4. Q&A
What’s Next
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19. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
DECIDE: A Blueprint for Applied Behavioral Science
19

20. A Behavioral Brief
Hypotheses for behavior change
A behavioral plan of micro-behaviors
A framework to diagnose
obstacles (CREATE)
A set of experimentally field tested interventions
to start or stop a behavior
Ethical guidelines and techniques to
remove self-deception
Randomized Control Trials to rigorously
measure impact
Decision-making tools to avoid the obvious
Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
Behavioral
science
informs
the tools
we use
along
the
way
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www.behavioraltechnology.co

23. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
First up: Define the Problem
DECIDE: A Blueprint for applied behavioral science
23

24. Define the Behavioral Problem
By helping sedentary white-collar workers to start going to the gym,
we will cause them to have less joint pain (<50% incidences of PT & doctors visits).
By helping [actor] [start / stop] doing [describe action], we will cause [outcome].
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25. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
Next Up: Explore the Context
DECIDE: A Blueprint for applied behavioral science
25

26. A Behavioral plan
Do qual & quant research
to map out the status quo
& the micro-behaviors
from there to action.
And see if your users can
take action at each step.
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27. What happens
between sitting at
home and going to
the gym?
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28. The diagnosis
Where along the plan,
and why, wouldn’t
people take action?
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29. What’s required for someone to take action?
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30. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
Next Up: Craft the Intervention
DECIDE: A Blueprint for applied behavioral science
30

31. The intervention
should match the problem

32. Cue
What would cue your users to think about
taking action, in a specific moment?
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33. When should you communicate with people?
10:30am Saturday 5:00pm Saturday 10:30am Sunday 5:00pm Sunday
11:00am Thursday 10:30am Thursday 10:30am Friday 8:00am Friday
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34. 10:30am Saturday 5:00pm Saturday 10:30am Sunday 5:00pm Sunday
11:00am Thursday 10:30am Thursday 10:30am Friday 8:00am Friday
6.4% clicked 7.2% clicked4.7% clicked 5.7% clicked
4.1% clicked 5% clicked4.5% clicked 5.9% clicked
When they have time and attention to spare.
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35. Reaction
What emotional reaction do they have,
in that moment?
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36. Make It Normal With
Peer Comparisons or Social Proof
See Allcott (2011); Wendel and Balz (2015)
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37. Evaluation
What’s their evaluation of the costs and benefits?
Does it seem worthwhile to do?
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39. Original
System 1: “Yeah, this is something I can safely ignore”
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40. New Version
Change the form to encourage
people to make a deliverable choice
Allow them to select the materials that they
value, giving them control
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41. Ability
Do they think they’ll succeed?
Timing
Is it urgent right now?
Experience
Have they had negative
experiences in the past?41

42. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
And now you’re ready to build...
DECIDE: A Blueprint for applied behavioral science
42

43. 1. BeSci Complements Design
2. DECIDE: A Blueprint
3. How Do We Stay Ethical?
4. Q&A
What’s Next
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44. And we’ve earned it.
See:
darkpatterns.org
By Harry Brignull
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45. A reckoning is coming.
According to the Norwegian watchdog, Google “tricks” people
into sharing their location with the company, in ways that mean it
does not really have their informed consent. The Consumer
Council highlighted techniques including “hidden
default settings,” “misleading information” about how
collected data is used, repeated “nudging” to turn on
the Location History feature, and users being forced to turn on
location tracking if they want to use the Google Assistant.

47. We’re not the first to face these issues
Based on Milton Glaser essay for designers: The Road to Hell

48. What Can Behavioral Science Add?
Ethical behavior is contextual, just like everything else.
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49. We can change our ethical context.
We can:
• remove ambiguity (fudge factor)
• institute independent review
• setup clear feedback loops
• set community norms and standards
• make social commitments
• …apply behavioral science to ourselves
It’s not about a checklist or rules about what’s correct.
The problem is our own intention-action gap:
Good, well intentioned people, who fall into self-deception.

50. 1. BeSci Complements Design
2. DECIDE: A Blueprint
3. How Do We Stay Ethical?
4. Q&A
What’s Next
50

51. People often face a gap, between their
intentions and their actions

52. Behavioral teams around the world
Results from the Behavioral Teams Survey: www.behavioralteams.com
United States 41.3%
United Kingdom 14.6%
Netherlands 5.7%
Australia 4.6%
Canada 3.4%
India 3.4%
France 2.1%
… …
Armenia 0.2%
Macedonia 0.2%
Cambodia 0.2%
Monaco 0.2%

53. Define the
Problem
Explore the
Context
Craft the
Intervention
Implement
the Solution
Determine
the Impact
Evaluate
Next Steps
DECIDE: A Blueprint for Applied Behavioral Science
53

54. A range of interventions
to address common problems

55. What Can Behavioral Science Add?
Ethical behavior is contextual, just like everything else.
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www.behavioraltechnology.co