Behavior Change Design Sprints
March to June 2019 | 10 weeks
UX Design
Overview
This project is a part of the HCDE 538 - Design for Behavior Change course offered at the University of Washington taught by Professor Gary Hsieh and PhD assistant Lucas Colusso. Three design sprints were carried out from this course, with project clients of New York Times, King County Metro, and Apple; this page highlights the design process and thinking for the King County Metro app, in particular.
Some of the behavior change theories that I learned from this course included: Health Belief Model, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, and Goal-Setting Theory. These theories derive invaluable insights that can also be leveraged in other design problems, and were transformed into a deck of behavior change cards as a collective class work.
During the design sprint process with a team of three graduate students, I analyzed and applied behavior change theories to target behavior, mapped out user journey and needs to identify design opportunities, and created design solutions that will nudge behavior change with the King County Metro app, in three different scenarios. Two of the scenarios are detailed below.
My Role
UX Researcher & Interaction Designer
Collaborators
UX Researcher, interface designer, Professor Gary Hsieh, PhD assistant Lucas Colusso
Problem Space
How to encourage users to utilize alternate modes of transportation other than driving?
Persona
Needs/Desires
- Social approval from other people
- Continue to perform well at work
- High end clothing brands
Barriers
- Awkward at socializing at workplace
- Not familiar with phone/apps
(Persona designed by Lucas Colusso)
Hypothesis
If we provide an extrinsically rewarding experience combined with social benefits in the King County Metro app,
Then Fred will be more motivated to partake in using public transportation.
design concept
Based on the persona, Fred cares so much about what his coworkers think of him, which also means his desire to connect and interact with them in some ways. Cue in the King County Metro app, which his coworkers use frequently and a tool to bridge the social gap from Fred’s awkwardness to his coworkers, as it brings social benefits such as conversation starters and relationship building activities — things that would make Fred feel more inclined and included as a part of the group. Besides social benefits that are important to Fred, the app’s ability to redeem material rewards such as high-end clothing brands is also proposed to appeal to Fred.
The design of this app’s interactions aims to provide rewarding experiences that enhance Fred’s emotional cues. Three scenarios were crafted to tell the story of how this app interacts with Fred, and how it encourages him to partake in using public transportation:
Scenario 1 introduces Fred to the King County Metro app, leveraging constructs of Introjection and Salience of Extrinsic Rewards to build the habit of using the app, as well as interactions with his workplace friends.
Scenario 2 retains Fred’s continued usage of the app during the 2-6 months’ time, applying constructs of Herd Instinct and Closeness to Goal to strengthen his sense of belonging with his workplace social group.
Scenario 3 re-engages Fred’s interests in using the app after 9 months’ time, using the Increased Benefits/Decreased Barriers construct.
Fred’s overall journey is shown below, demonstrating the three phases/scenarios.
User journey map created via Figma
Zooming in on Fred’s Journey in Scenario 1
Scenario 1 Story
During Fred’s lunch break he overhears his coworkers talking about their commute to work, and what they think they’d “spend miles on”. Fred joins the conversation and asks what they were talking about, and they explain that they now use the new King County Metro mobile app when commuting to work rather than driving, earning “miles” redeemable for rewards in the app.
They show Fred all the different stores, restaurants, and retailers that offer promotions in exchange for miles earned in the app. Fred notices they even offer gift cards and discounts to his favorite stores. This sparks a conversation about the different ways they’d each like to spend their points if they could.
Fred eventually downloads and explores the app himself. Before lunch is over, Fred has found rewards he would like to redeem and decides to ride the bus to work tomorrow morning.
Design Opportunities
In this part of the user journey, the opportunities for interventions are when Fred joins the conversation with his co-workers, when he downloads the app, explores the incentives, and sets his own goals.
Design Translation
Show social benefits and a sense of belonging to the group
Show rewards that are available and what it takes to get there; boosting Fred’s self-efficacy
Apply ease of use to limit onboarding barriers
Zooming in on Fred’s Journey in Scenario 2
Scenario 2 Story
Fred has been getting to know his coworkers better, using the metro app as a good conversation starter with coworkers in the past three months that he has been using it.
Fred goes onto the King County Metro app to take the bus home from work today. He notices a flashing yellow reward and finds that his coworkers are pooling their miles together for a happy hour deal for tomorrow. He decides to contribute and get a drink or two with friends after work tomorrow.
Design Opportunities
In this part of the user journey, the opportunities for interventions are when Fred browses the social feed on the app with his co-workers, when he is invited to a promotional event, and when he chips in miles for the social rewards pool activity.
Design Translation
Show the app’s adaptability to user’s preference
Show group participation and progress
Show closeness to collective goal; almost achieving — be the group’s hero
Reflection on this project
Leverage behavior change theories. It takes thorough understanding of the theory itself before translating it to design concepts and interfaces, and sometimes behavior change theories may be difficult to convey — and that’s okay. Break it down by actionable chunks, target the most opportunist areas, and overlay it with the constraints (in this case, Fred’s persona).
Iteration, iteration, iteration. The concept shown here is the 4th iteration of interface design — from initial wireframes, to low fidelity prototype, to high fidelity prototype, to complete redesign (shown here). From this process I learned to better integrate user interactions with the system while staying aligned with the original hypothesis, and refine UI elements to make the whole design cohesive.