#nudging experiment

Nudging is nothing more than a gentle push towards a good direction. All options are still open, so the person who is nudged can make any decision they want. The ‘less-good’ options cannot be inflicted with any kind of extra fee or extra effort. The nudge is simply a small change in the surroundings that makes it more likely for the desired option to be chosen. An alteration of the choice architecture.

background:

I rented a house in Shanghai through a rental app, my roommates are kindly person. But I needed to share the bathroom, living room, and kitchen with them, and we never know each other before. The landlord arranged for the cleaner to clean the house every two weeks.

However, in the past few days, I encountered some problems. When a current roommate uses the bathroom to take a shower, the bathroom floor is often covered with water. This caused me to slip a few times when I entered the bathroom. And I found that if two people use the bathroom to take a shower without clean the floor, it will become very dirty. So, the cleaning of the bathroom is a big problem for me.

Although the bathroom gets very dirty every day, none of my roommates are willing to use their own cleaning tools to clean the bathroom floor after using the bathroom. Even after cleaning the bathroom, it can be used by the next person. And if there is too much water in the bathroom, people who have just taken a shower will bring the dirty water form bathroom to the living room, make the floor of the living room become dirty. In response to this problem, I want to try a nudging experiment.

Start trying to solve the problem:

The first time: First, I sent a message in a group chat, hoping to tell my roommates the importance of cleaning the bathroom through chat. And I suggest that they clean the bathroom floor after taking a shower every day.

Me: Is it easy to get bugs if there is water in the bathroom? Roommate A: Yes, I saw a big insect last time, it scared me. Me: There is a lot of water in our bathroom and it is very dirty. It would be nice if everyone could clean the bathroom after using it every day. Otherwise, it is easy to slip if there is a lot of water on the bathroom’s floor, and it is easy to have bugs in summer. Roommate B: Good

But the final result is not very good. Only one of my three roommates started to do this, and she would clean it carefully after using the bathroom every day. But after seeing other people still not cleaning after a few days, she also gave up. The bathroom floor became dirty again.

The second time: In order to solve the problem further, I bought a mop online. First, I tried it by myself, and then I found it very easy to clean the water in the bathroom. So I put the mop in a conspicuous corner of the bathroom and posted the message again in the group.

Me: I bought a mop from Taobao (an online shopping platform) and put it in the bathroom so that everyone can clean the water in the bathroom easily after showering. If the bathroom is clean, it will bring convenient for us. So everyone can use it. Don’t need to give me the money. Roommate A: That's good. Roommate B: I was too busy the other day and forget to clean the bathroom. I will remember it today.

The effect was very good, they use that mop to clean the bathroom floor after they taking a shower. But sometimes someone will forget to clean and she will bring water to the living room floor. So I bought another bathroom rug again and placed it near the bathroom after a few days. In this case, even if someone forgets to clean, it will not cause too much trouble.

At my home, I find the keys are often placed in different places. Sometimes, my mom spends some timing looking for keys and gets a bit anxious and before leaving. How to make it an easier way to find the keys at home?

 -Nudging

Nudge is a concept rooted in behavioral science that describes how minor design changes can markedly affect individual behavior(Ed Mitchell, 2019). Can I apply nudge in this scenario to nudge my family to place keys in a fixed place for easier finding?

 -Incentive props

To make my family aware of the nudge and put the key in a fixed place, I made some simple and visual props to guide them. I made a big circle as the place to put the key, and used the same element on the key chain, so that users can connect the elements. I choose the red color which is more obvious in the environment . When my family use and place the key, they can see the circle on the key chain and associate it with the big circle of the place. Through this nudge, they are encouraged to place the key in this fixed position.

 -Experiment

After making the props, I started a small nudge experiment.          

1. In the evening, I put two keys in the big circle and the other one on the other table. In order to let the family see this nudge, and realize that the keys can be placed in this big circle place. At the same time, to test whether they will place the other set of keys in the big circle.            

2. The next morning, after my family left home, I found that my family took two keys with them and put the other one in the big circle.            

3. In the afternoon, when my family came back, I found that my mom put the keys in the big circle, while my dad put it elsewhere.

4.In the evening, my family went out again with their keys. when they came back. My mom put her keys in the big circle again, and my father still put the keys in other place.

 -Feedback

After the experiment, I asked my family for feedback on the nudge design. My mom said that it was right to put the key in a fixed place, but she didn't know what the function the small circle on the key was. My father said that he didn't realize the role of the small circle and he need to put the key in the big circle, and he still put the key according to his habit.

 -Reflection

The nudge experiment was half successful. Without telling my family about the experiment and the function of the props, my mother put the other keys in the big circle, and put her keys in the big circle twice when she went back home. However, my dad put his keys in the other place twice.            

 Through this experiment, I see the potential of nudge in design interventions as a visible incentive for people to make decisions and change their behavior.

However, due to the short experimental time, the testing population and the number of tests are too small, so the data is not convincing. At the same time, nudge design intervention can encounter the resistance of using habits, and small stimulus sometimes can’t change people's behavior habits in a short time. If I have more time and resources, I can do more research on the mechanism and principles of nudge design, context and users. I would also iterate this design and do this experiment in different scenarios with more testers.

Thanks:)