For a long time, designers have participated in fueling un-sustainability. How can we step up and take responsibility?
A quote from Gandhi hits the nail on the head here: “Whatever you do for me but without me, you do against me.”
Behavioural science. (source)
a field of science dedicated to these issues, with plenty of powerful, proven, and practical insights about how people make decisions, and what drives human actions.
The combination of behavioural science with design’s practice of empathising with and involving users in the process, can offer solutions that serve both planet and people, without sacrificing profit.
The problem can also be the solution
Biases are predictable patterns in behaviour that are illogical or “irrational”. They’re often the result of mental shortcuts, called heuristics, used to ease mental load. There are many different biases and heuristics, but in general terms they lead us to:
Prefer something that we already have today over something we could have tomorrow.
Make us more focused on avoiding a loss than receiving a gain.
Favour not having to make a choice at all, so just going for the default.
Prefer doing what everyone else is doing and want what everyone else has.
Pay more attention to information that confirms what we already believe or wish to believe.
