Designing a system to shape a path to an outcome, rather than forcing the outcome itself.

Splat, Brooklyn, NY

Celine Pering in frog design’s Interpretations blog, You Ever Tried to “Change” Your Spouse?

“People don’t change, they grow” as my friends say. “You can only create the right conditions to engender a response.” So what does this mean for design? If we can’t change people, how can we change behavior?

… The relationship comparison helps to illuminate the difference. Behavior change refers to the impact on the end user being either momentary or long-term. Traditionally, design has been in the business of getting a product to market and selling it well, which has a momentary timeframe. In many ways, this is similar to a short-term relationship with short-term thinking: the novelty of physical attractiveness. The design parallel is purchase decision factors, and wow factor.

When we talk about behavior change, embedded in this statement is a desire to achieve longer-term impact. “Medication compliance”, in the example above, is something that occurs over a long period of time. As such, designing for behavior change means shifting our thinking from a product as a short term-relationship to a product as a long-term relationship.