Final Reflection
Before this class
It is exciting to reflect on my class experience – I think it was truly amazing and I hit a large learning curve that I appreciate. Before this class, I thought that designing for behavior change is extremely difficult, and I had a hard time justifying habit-changing ideas because I believed it would be too difficult to get true user adoption. I thought that a few habit-forming frameworks had already been utilized and could not be reused: I was most familiar with the Forest app, and the idea of “building a forest” or anything of the sort was a key way to manage habits, especially in terms of the attention economy. I thought that habit changing apps were hard to create because of user drop-off, and I did not know the frameworks to understand habit-changing design. Also, I thought there existed an inherent resource tradeoff to implement accessibility features. My thinking has completely evolved to recognize the large advantages for all users that accessible design has.
My Experience
I want to spend time reflecting on the tools and ideas I learned that changed these assumptions, because I think that is the largest growth I had. Understanding the habit-forming (and breaking) process was integral for me to break these assumptions. Creating diary studies and measuring my daily habits taught me about the importance of habit stacking to cue different habits. Understanding how dopamine hits work in terms of cue, and the vicious cycle that festers from it, allows me to better understand the intrinsic motivation of people. In this light, understanding how to balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, such as awards and gamification, allows me to be more creative in designing products for habit change. These ideas that I learned have changed the way I think about habit-changing design, and I believe it has equipped me with the confidence and ability to design for behavior change in my career and my personal projects.
I loved the emphasis on documentation in this course. I never documented my work process, and I have recently felt the repercussions of that: I was having a harder time remembering my lessons (and failures) from my past projects, and at times I yearned for documentation of my prior projects to apply to my current projects, but knew I did not have any. Creating a habit of documenting all of my work and writing them in public is something I hope to take with me for the rest of my life. Also, it was fun to take team pics! I made great memories with a remarkable team designing a product I think has a strong positive impact.
I think the main aspect that is unresolved in the project is not seeing it built, because that would validate (or invalidate) our design process. Having this final validation would be an interesting opportunity to see where we went wrong even by abiding by strong design principles taught in the class, and what further iterations we should make to the product before it can be mass adopted.
Ethical Considerations
I’ve thought a lot about nudging and manipulation for our project. Specifically, I still wrestle with it, and it’s most tangible manifestation: notifications. I think that notifications can be positive nudges, but it will always inherently be simultaneously manipulative. This is because I have a strong personal conflict with the increase of technology use and how that removes us from the physical world. Notifications can be cueing users to use the very best app that makes them better, but it’s also bringing them to their phone more. Does that mean there is a simultaneous good and bad to these positive nudges? This is still an open question that is project agnostic. My thoughts on the project specifically in relation to nudges are written on the final paper.
Also, I think privacy and design for well-being were particularly important. I think privacy is the key to gaining user trust, and with trust, you can increase retention and have a higher impact on people. That’s the end goal! And, in terms of designing for well-being, it’s important to be cognizant of why I’m building something. If I’m designing for behavior change, I want to be deliberate about making sure it’s a positive change, and rigorously be able to assess unintended consequences. This is something this class has taught me to do through our in-class debates. More generally, I appreciated the ethical focus of this course. It added a new perspective and lens to the design process that was crucial, and it allowed me to learn more.
Now I think
Now, my thinking has evolved immensely. I am more cognizant (and concerned) about unintended ethical consequences of habit forming apps, especially after discussing nudging, privacy, and accessibility. It’s interesting how an app that fosters positive conversation could have lots of ethical unintended consequences! Now, I feel less intimidated by designing habit-changing apps, and have more confidence in my ability to not only design but ideate feasible ideas that will improve humanity.
Next time when faced with a similar situation
Next time I am in a positive to design for behavior change, I will use all of the frameworks and ideas taught in this class, and will definitely be reaching out to the teaching team for feedback! I want to be hyper-aware of privacy, manipulation, accessibility, design for well-being, and design justice. These are important principles to apply in my design thinking that I will take with me. Furthermore, I will be sure to validate the ideas by finding a true problem through needfinding and intervention studies. Next time, I will create an awesome product that has positive behavior change!
Thank you to the teaching team for the great experience.
Nicolas
