Another interesting way to think about behavior change is to consider changes that *do not require software design*. What if we took some of the ideas from the "Some of the non-software things that interaction designers do" thread? http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=40619
Some will argue that interaction design is only about designing technology related things, but I disagree. I strongly believe that you could use a process like Contextual Design to design *life practices*. (Disclosure: I work for InContext Design. If you want to know more about the process go to http://www.incontextdesign.com/cd/methodology.html) By that, I mean activities that people do in the context of life%u2014not work%u2014that don't rely on technology or software, but still provide value by helping to support or change behavior. One example of this, that I often think about is *recycling*. Why is it so hard for people to recycle? Why don't we recycle more? What gets in the way of us recycling? How can we increase the number of people who recycle and the amount that gets recycled? I can imagine solutions to this problem that have nothing to do with technology: designing better print materials to help people identify what can be recycled, creating outreach programs to explain the benefits of recycling, designing better recycling bins that make it easier to sort recyclables and get them out to the curb, and designing all of this in a way that understands people's motivations and how to effectively change people's behaviors. (I'm not going to get into all the other aspects of recycling that would also need to be addressed, like: manufacturing, packaging, or creating a market for recycled materials.) If we don't think about the *whole life practice* and design the *whole experience*, then it is going to be very difficult to achieve the goal of more recycling. This is where user-centered design and interaction design can have a huge impact. By understanding human behavior and people's actual life practices, we can design services and products that *fit into our lives* and help us change for the better. David B. Rondeau Design Chair InContext Design (http://www.incontextdesign.com) Twitter: dbrondeau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40847 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
