Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness

While the study of psychology has offered little in the way of explaining the creative process, Koestler examines the idea that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended--for example, in dreams and trancelike states. All who read The Act of Creation will find it a compelling and illuminating book.

The Act of Creation

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/4678/1/Fulltext.pdf

The Design with Intent Method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour.

User behaviour is a significant determinant of a product’s environmental impact; while engineering advances permit increased efficiency of product operation, the user’s decisions and habits ultimately have a major effect on the energy or other resources used by the product. There is thus a need to change users’ behaviour. A range of design techniques developed in diverse contexts suggest opportunities for engineers, designers and other stakeholders working in the field of sustainable innovation to affect users’ behaviour at the point of interaction with the product or system, in effect ‘making the user more efficient’. Approaches to changing users’ behaviour from a number of fields are reviewed and discussed, including: strategic design of affordances and behaviour-shaping constraints to control or affect energyor other resource-using interactions; the use of different kinds of feedback and persuasive technology techniques to encourage or guide users to reduce their environmental impact; and context-based systems which use feedback to adjust their behaviour to run at optimum efficiency and reduce the opportunity for user-affected inefficiency. Example implementations in the sustainable engineering and ecodesign field are suggested and discussed.

/pdf/making-the-user-more-efficient-design-for-sustainable-5twdgsn50f.pdf

Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour

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.

/pdf/design-with-intent-persuasive-technology-in-a-wider-context-3pp3s6qa8p.pdf

Design with Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context

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

/pdf/design-with-intent-persuasive-technology-in-a-wider-context-2zk65d79fn.pdf

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.

Dan Lockton

Papers

The Design with Intent Method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour.

Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour

Design with Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context

Design with Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context

Design with Intent: 101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design