This class was really important to me, and I genuinely really enjoyed it. More than a lot of other classes, it felt tied to things that actually matter in everyday life. Instead of focusing on abstract ideas, we were thinking about behaviors people directly want to change and that behaviors that I had dealt with or wanted to change myself. That made the material feel much more useful, and it made the project feel meaningful too. I really liked thinking through what actually goes into someone’s decisions and how you can design something that helps them make a different choice.
Before this class, I thought behavior change was much simpler: if people knew what was good for them, they would probably do it. Now I think much more about the things that shape decisions, like habits, friction, timing, repetition, distractions, motivation, and social context. That shift was probably the biggest thing I got out of the course. One of the main ideas I think I will remember ten years from now is how habits are formed. The idea that habits depend on repetition, lowering friction, and removing distractions really stuck with me. I liked a lot of the readings around that because they connected clearly to things I think about in my own life.
That was something I appreciated about the class overall: so much of it connected back to day-to-day experience. Whether it was the readings, discussion questions, or project work, it pushed me to think not just about some abstract user, but about real decisions people make all the time. It also changed how I think about my own routines and behavior.
I also enjoyed a lot of the methods we used, even when I struggled with them at first. Sketch notes were something I found difficult, but I ended up appreciating them because they pushed me to think differently. I felt similarly about mind mapping and some of the more creative synthesis exercises. Those methods helped me pull out main ideas and patterns in a less rigid way, which I found really valuable.
I especially liked the guest lectures. It was great to hear outside perspectives from people who think about these problems in the real world. That made the course feel broader and more grounded. At the same time, I do think there were moments when parts of the class were not always fully clear, and sometimes the purpose of certain exercises felt a little fuzzy. Even so, I thought the overall approach worked well because it pushed us to engage actively with the material.
Working with my team was also a huge part of what made the class so enjoyable. I liked seeing everyone’s different strengths come together and watching the project get better through collaboration. It was rewarding to build something that could actually influence decision-making in a meaningful way.
For our project, I thought it was really cool that we focused on getting people to go outside more. It sounds simple, but that was part of what made it interesting. A behavior can sound easy in theory while being much harder in practice. If I were redesigning the project, I think it would be exciting to take it one step further by adding more around what activities to do outside and how to better incorporate the social side of going outside with other people.
The ethical side of the project was also important. Our project uses nudging through texting, which I think is acceptable because users opt in and already want the behavior change themselves. The system is helping them follow through, not forcing something onto them. Privacy also matters a lot here. If a product is tied to someone’s routines, scheduling, or location-related behavior, that information has to be treated very carefully.
Overall, this class changed how I think about behavior and design. I now think much more in terms of habits, friction, repetition, and environment. Next time I face a similar situation, whether I am designing for someone else or trying to change something in my own life, I would break it down much more systematically by asking what the real barriers are, what would make repetition easier, and how the surrounding structure can better support change.
