Research in practice: Bringing behavioural change from lab to studio

Design influences behaviour, whether it's planned or not. Service Design has a great opportunity to lead the emerging field of design for behavioural change, helping guide and shape experiences to benefit users, service providers and wider society. In this article, presented as an evolving conversation between research and practice, Nick Marsh (EMC Consulting) and Dan Lockton (Brunel University) discuss and explore design patterns for influencing behaviour through Service Design, and how Service Designers and academics can work together for social benefit

Designing motivation or motivating design? Exploring Service Design, motivation and behavioural change

Motivation researcher Edward Deci has suggested that if we want behavioural change to be sustainable, we have to move past thinking of motivation as something that we ‘do’ to other people and see it rather as something that we as Service Designers can enable service users to ‘do’ by themselves. In this article, Fergus Bisset explores the ways in which Service Designers can create more motivating services. Dan Lockton then looks at where motivating behaviour via Service Design often starts, with the basic ‘pinball’ and ‘shortcut’ approaches. We conclude by proposing that if services are to be sustainable in the long term, we as Service Designers need to strive to accommodate humans' differing levels of motivation and encourage and support service users' sense of autonomy within the services we design

A Vocabulary for Visions in Designing for Transitions

Las “visiones de futuros sostenibles” se han propuesto como un componente clave del diseño para la transición, “un medio a través del cual los estilos de vida contemporáneos y las intervenciones de diseño pueden evaluarse y criticarse contra la visualización de un futuro deseado” (Irwin et al, 2015a, p. 8). Tales ambiciones son necesariamente de amplio alcance, y requieren unir líneas sobre el diseño y la especulación de diversas fuentes. Aquí buscamos aumentar el impulso explorando un conjunto de conceptos que se relacionan particularmente con este papel de visión en el diseño de transiciones. Sobre la base de perspectivas y proyectos de otros campos, presentamos elementos de un vocabulario visionario, que abarca diferentes escalas y grados de eliminación del presente, y la ubicación de estos términos en relación con los desafíos específicos y las oportunidades para el pensamiento y la práctica de la transición.“Visions of sustainable futures” have been proposed as a key component of Transition Design, “a means through which contemporary lifestyles and design interventions can be assessed and critiqued against a desired future state” (Irwin et al, 2015a, p. 8). Such ambitions are necessarily wide-ranging, and call for drawing together strands on design and speculation from diverse sources. Here we seek to add to the momentum by exploring a set of concepts relating particularly to this role of vision in designing for transitions. Building on perspectives and projects from other fields, we present elements of a visionary vocabulary, covering different scales and degrees of remove from the present, and situating these terms in relation to specific challenges and opportunities for transition thinking and practice.as visões de futuros sustentáveis se propuseram como componente chave do design para a transição, um meio através do qual os estilos de vida contemporâneos e as intervenções do design podem ser avaliadas e criticadas contra a visualização de um futuro desejado (Irwin et al, 2015a). Essas ambições são necessariamente de amplo alcance, e requerem unir linhas sobre o design e a especulação de diversas fontes. Aqui procuramos aumentar o impulso explorando um conjunto de conceitos que se relacionam particularmente com o papel de visão no design de transições. A partir de perspectivas e projetos de outros campos, apresentamos elementos de um vocabulário visionário, que abarca diferentes escalas e graus de eliminação do presente, e a localização destes términos em relação com os desafios específicos e as oportunidades para o pensamento e a prática da transição.&nbsp

Design with Intent: 101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design

Design with Intent is a multidisciplinary interaction design toolkit comprising patterns for influencing people’s behaviour. The format is a pack of illustrated cards, with accompanying website; other variants, including an iPad app, have been created by users. The academic background is introduced in Lockton’s Output 2, but the toolkit itself is intended for practitioners’ use, and so was developed through an iterative action research process of workshops with designers and students in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. It brings together a range of psychological and technical disciplines, enabling designers to explore relevant patterns, phrased as provocations enabling use as both a brainstorming tool and a reference. Making the toolkit available online, with publicity from bloggers including Cory Doctorow, Seth Godin, Maria Popova and Tim Harford, led to large numbers of downloads (150,000 by September 2011). Comparing it to IDEO’s Method Cards, Rhode Island School of Design’s John Maeda tweeted (2011) that Design with Intent was ‘More useful than the IDEO deck and free to boot’. Organisations buying the printed version for their own use include BBC, Philips Research, Ubisoft, EDF, CBS Interactive, Fox, Sony, Bayer Healthcare, European Bioinformatics Institute and JustGiving. It has been used by educational institutions worldwide, including Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, London College of Communication, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Art & Design and Cambridge’s Judge Business School, set as reference material in RSA and Core77 design competitions, and recommended as a resource by the Central Office of Information. Lockton has run workshops and given guest lectures using the toolkit for organisations including Dyson, Ubisoft and Philips, and at both industry and academic conferences; in 2012, Autodesk ran a series of workshops using the toolkit as part of its sustainability programme

Old rope: Laing’s knots and Bateson’s double binds in systemic design

Bringing systemic thinking into design education—and practice—takes many forms. Work described at previous RSD conferences (e.g. Sevaldson 2017), and in the wider community around systemic design, cybernetics, and related fields such as transition design, has emphasized the value and importance of particular systems concepts and approaches, from the leverage points and stocks, flows, and buffers of Donella Meadows (2008), to the conversation models of Dubberly and Pangaro (e.g. 2015), the materials mapping of Aguirre Ulloa and Paulsen (2017), and the visual approaches of Boehnert (2018). There is, taking a systemic perspective, probably no ‘right’ set of concepts to teach or learn, only a repertoire or vocabulary (Lockton & Candy, 2018)—a requisite variety—of methods, tools, or lenses for examining and exploring systems at different levels of resolution and with different purposes and goals in mind; “All models are wrong, but some are useful” (Box & Draper, 1987). Among other useful concepts, one pair of ideas from the systems and psychiatry milieu of the 1960s and 70s has proved applicable in provoking design students to consider systemic effects in relation to aspects of interaction with digital technology in everyday life, and enabling new kinds of analyses: R.D. Laing’s concept of knots (1970) and Gregory Bateson’s notion of the double bind (1972). Although originally developed and presented in very different circumstances, the two concepts have certain synergies that make them valuable ‘tools for thinking’ about systems, and can be applied practically to people’s role in contemporary technological examples including issues of data protection, social media, ‘smart’ homes, behavioural targeting, and design for behaviour change, as well as other topics within design practice such as contextual research with participants, and participatory design. To summarise the concepts briefly in this abstract: Laing’s Knots is a curious 1970 publication, a slim book formatted in the form of a volume of poetry, which contains a collection of patterns of human thinking, metacognition, and theory of mind that Laing had noticed in his work as a psychiatrist, and turned into abstracted (but still often poignant) examples. Many of them involve one person reasoning about how another person thinks, or trying to unravel the complexity of, or causalities within, a situation, and there is a good deal of ‘second-order’ thinking present. These knots are essentially about people trying to understand what someone else understands about them, or in our terms, how someone understands their relationship with a system. But that understanding changes how they relate to the system, and the system in turn then changes the relationship, and a tangle or knot emerges. For instance, the book starts with: “They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.” (Laing, 1970) Some later patterns verge into forms of concrete poetry which are essentially systems diagrams (e.g. Figure 1), and it is this way into using the concept of ‘knots’ which proved especially useful in an exploratory Master’s level class called Experimenting with Design, taught at Carnegie Mellon for the first time in 2017. Students were introduced to knots through extracts from the book, and challenged to find (and construct) examples of analogous situations in people’s everyday interactions with technology. For example, in Figure 2, a ‘new knot’ around data sharing and personalization in smart homes is presented (building on ideas from Fantini van Ditmar & Lockton, 2015). Figure 3 shows a knot approach to a common issue in design for behaviour change—a perceived collective action problem. Students applied the ‘knot’ principle in conjunction with Bateson’s concept of the double bind. In this context, it refers to dilemmas, situations where someone feels—or experiences— being pulled or pushed (metaphorically) in two contradictory directions at once (causing stress, unhappiness, or decision paralysis). More precisely, it describes situations where the ‘rules’ of how to act within a system seem to be mutually self-contradictory and any action taken in one direction causes more problems in the other (paralleling aspects of wicked problems, particularly Conklin’s (2006) interpretation). To use an example that students raised, they know they ‘should’ eat more healthily (taking time to prepare), but they also know they ‘should’ spend as much time as possible working. Often the contradiction occurs because each framing of ‘the problem’ is operating at different level of the system, and so uncovering double binds as experienced by people living ‘within the system’ can be a route into understanding how to intervene, or at the very least to map the system from the perspectives of the participants. In the conference presentation and subsequent paper, I will develop both the theory behind these concepts and how they fit with systemic design, and also discuss practical examples of how students applied the ideas to explore systems perspectives on topics including Facebook targeting advertising, culture around food and fashion, and design for sustainable behaviour. I will also offer some tentative methods for how knots and double binds can be used within participatory design processes and user research with a systemic design focus

Design with Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context

Persuasive technology can be considered part of a wider field of ‘De- sign with Intent’ (DwI) – design intended to result in certain user behaviour. This paper gives a very brief review of approaches to DwI from different disci- plines, and looks at how persuasive technology sits within this space

Design for Sustainable Behaviour: investigating design methods for influencing user behaviour

This research aims to develop a design tool for product and service innovation which influences users towards more sustainable behaviour, reducing resource use and leading to a lower carbon footprint for everyday activities. The paper briefly explains the reasoning behind the tool and its structure, and presents an example application to water conservation with concept ideas generated by design students

Exploring Cognitive Playfulness Through Zero Interactions

Many emerging technologies, products and services today try to use diverse methods of interaction to provide playful experiences. Increasingly more interactive features and techniques are being introduced to afford users new experiences and enrich our living environment. While many of these playful experiences can be achieved through various types of physical, sensory and social interactions, this paper attempts to focus on how 'no-interaction' can achieve playfulness in relation to our cognitive experience. If there is a way to give someone a playful experience without any physical, sensory and social interactions, where and how can we apply this approach or phenomenon? Here we share a provocation that tries to demonstrate a tangible means whereby such an idea could be used to explore potential user experiences within HCI

Thinking with Things: Landscapes, Connections and Performances as Modes of Building Shared Understanding

This article explores the relatively underexplored potential for physicalisations to materialise qualitative data related to human experiences and knowledge domains. Our reading of ‘data’ in this context extends from imperceptible systems and infrastructures to mental models and the phenomenological dimensions of experiences themselves. Physical objects can be regarded as a form of knowledge with which to inquire about human life, bring about improved conditions, and imagine alternative realities. Objects are made of materials, which are manipulated materials into various configurations. The materials used in the process of externalisation have a profound influence on the resulting forms, and through them on how knowledge is constructed and internalised. We pay detailed attention to the characteristics of materials and how they are combined, in the context of interdisciplinary exchange. We are motivated by the need for a shared understanding of what work materials can do in the making of physicalisations. We suggest this work is useful in the analysis of physicalisations, specifically where they seek to articulate the phenomena of lived experience

Making Instructions for Others: Exploring Mental Models Through a Simple Exercise

Investigating how people understand the systems around them—from technology to democracy to our own bodies—is a common research goal across many disciplines. One of the practical aims is uncovering differences between how people think systems work and how they actually work (particularly where differences can cause problems) and then addressing them, either by trying to change people’s understanding or by changing the way people inter- act with systems so that this better matches people’s understanding [1]. Being able to say that you under- stand a system is essentially saying that you have a model of the system [2]. In HCI and other people-centered design fields, attempting to characterize people’s mental models of technology in which their behavior plays a role can be a significant part of user research. Users’ mental models will perhaps only rarely accord exactly with designers’ conceptual models of a system [3], but this is not necessarily a problem in itself: “[A]ll models are wrong, but some are useful” [4]. Mental models should not be assumed to be static constructs covering the whole of a system; multiple models working at different levels of abstraction can be relevant in different circumstances, from complex work domains to simple everyday interactions [5]