Introduction
Entering CS 247B, I didn’t know what to expect. I surmised that a course on design might just feel like a copycat of CS 147 (which I took last quarter) and the subsequent CS 194H (which I am currently in). I wasn’t sure what I would learn about user-centered design that differed from those courses. However, 247B revealed to me that the world of behavior change is so much more complex than I thought.
Before this Class
My prior exposure to design in CS 147 placed emphasis on the needfinding process, but the needfinding felt limited and rushed, pushing up quickly into choosing one solution and sticking with it. My group created an app (which I continued to work on this quarter in 194H) designed to help users overcome decision paralysis; this was a testament to our commitment to designing solutions for everyday challenges. Yet, it was CS 247B that showed me a major oversight: our work in CS 147 barely scratched the surface of behavior change. This realization was my first major takeaway from this class. True behavior change demands more than just a well-designed UI and UX. It requires taking the time to really understand your target audience, which I was happy to explore in 247B.
During the Class
Learning about Behavior Change
CS 247B encouraged me to think deeper about what constitutes behavior change. From reading about tiny habits to the power of framing, I was able to gain a greater understanding of what is and isn’t effective for changing behavior. I was particularly interested by the insight that significant transformations in behavior don’t always require a shift in attitudes. The iceberg model was also incredibly useful for me to understand behavior change, from the moment we learned it in week 1. The process of unpacking not just events and patterns, but also underlying structures and mental models, helped me to understand what behaviors are actually worth changing
Learning New Skills and Tools
One of my favorite parts of this class was getting to learn a variety of new skills. I particularly learned so much about interviewing. In fact, in-class interviewees were one of the most fun parts of the class. I went from feeling highly nervous about interviewing in CS 147 to feeling genuinely comfortable leaving the script to ask follow-up questions and dive deeper into relevant tangents in CS 247B. While interviewing is a skill I still need to work on, I grew in this a lot.
Skillswise, I also enjoyed picking up new organizational and artistic skills, like sketchnotes, fractal gridding (shoutout Ecy!), and the sketching and doodling from Deb’s lecture. The sketchnotes were a fun and enjoyable activity which allowed me to focus more solely on the memorable parts of our readings. I haven’t tried fractal gridding yet but really want to, especially for organizing doodle ideas like we did in class. And I’ve already used Deb’s techniques for sketching several times; I’m glad to have upgraded my stick figure game!
Another major skill I learned in this class was how to better use Figma. In CS 147, I was far more involved with low-fidelity prototyping and iterating on the medium-fidelity Figma file (making small changes) than actually creating a Figma prototype from scratch. I was intimidated by this challenge in CS 247B, but really learned a lot! Now I know not just how to create screens in Figma but how to make them interactive—skills which are super important for me.
Group Project Journey
Our group project, the Hourglass app, was the most challenging but exciting part of this class. The studies were quite demanding, but in hindsight I enjoyed being able to practice interview skills and really take a deep look into our target audience. I really enjoyed the process that came right after: grounded theory. This process of putting sticky notes on the board, connecting ideas, and coming up with the biggest takeaways went really smoothly. We were able to glean so many more insights from our baseline study than expected!
With that being said, some parts of the project didn’t go quite as well. The intervention study was a lot of work in the middle of the quarter, and so I feel like we had to rush into creating insights much faster. Assumption testing felt important to me, but I feel like it was slightly glossed over in class and therefore merited slightly less attention from our group for a while.
Ethical Considerations
The class’s focus on ethical considerations, particularly around nudging and manipulation, prompted us to reflect critically on our solution. We did so in our design fiction video. It explored the balance between regular engagement with our app and addiction to the attention chime, where it starts to impact all parts of your life. I really enjoyed that the design fiction was creative and took on a different medium (a video) than other deliverables for this class. With that being said, I did find it a bit difficult in the context of our app. I know it’s important to explore extreme implications of technology, which is something that current technology companies often ignore or push aside. Yet, it felt a bit out of touch and unrealistic to think of extreme cases for an app as simple as ours. Nonetheless, it was a fun project and I was happy to unpack the extreme case of a user letting Hourglass take over their life.
The discussions on Design Justice were also super fascinating to me. My group and I opted for a more universal app, targeted towards all high schoolers but equally useful for anyone in school or in a job with frequent (and especially technological) distractions. I would have loved to unpack this topic more as a group to consider introducing a language select option in Hourglass, so that the app could still be universal yet allow for a bit more inclusivity.
Conclusion: Evolved Thinking & Applications of this Course
My journey through CS 247B has been both enjoyable and informative. The class has reshaped my understanding of behavior change from a simplistic view to a greater recognition of its complexity and ethical dimensions. This change in my perspective is perhaps my most significant takeaway, followed closely by picking up new skills in Figma, interviewing, and sketching. The insights and skills acquired in this class will certainly influence my approach to future projects. As I enter CS 278 and CS 194W next quarter (both project-based courses), I want to see if I can focus my projects in any way on behavior change. I will pay particular attention to the ethical implications of my projects, such as universal vs inclusive design and being careful with manipulation.
Thank you teaching team for a great quarter!
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