Design initiatives that promote a change in habits can be beneficial in building resilient communities. By understanding human psychology and behaviour, designers can help create environments, products, and systems that encourage positive habits and discourage negative ones. Let’s explore how design influences human behaviour and the potential it holds for creating sustainable change in communities.

Understanding Human Behaviour

Conventional economic theories often present people as being logical when making decisions. However, studies in behavioural economics and psychology show that people are not always logical and are heavily impacted by their environment, habits, and cognitive limitations. This reminds me of a saying in isiXhosa; “isqhelo siyayoyisa inqondo,” which roughly translates that our instincts take precedence over reason and reasoning. Sometimes knowing better does not automatically translate into doing better. Instead, one must change one’s habitual behaviour to conform to a new understanding or way of thinking.

When making decisions, cognitive biases like social norms and avoiding loss are extremely important. For example, we often make decisions based only on the information that is readily available to us – this is called ‘bounded rationality’. Or we’ll make a decision based on avoiding losses rather than obtaining equivalent gains – this is ‘loss aversion’. Peer pressure and social norms have a significant influence on behaviour as well, which impacts patterns of consumption, among other things.

Design Principles for Changing Habits

Having a better understanding of how people behave and make decisions helps us to incorporate these factors into design thinking. To create environments that encourage positive behaviour, environments need to present new options that are less risky and easier to achieve than existing habits, while also having a lower loss factor.

Here are some ways to achieve this:

Simplify Tasks into Smaller Steps

Simplifying tasks can lessen cognitive strain and facilitate people’s adoption of new behaviours. A good example is the way that pavements are designed to encourage pedestrian movement by incorporating user-friendly curbs, bus stops and street furniture.

Make Things Visible

People are more likely to use something if they can see it. For instance, encouraging more people to recycle can be achieved by clearly labelling recycling bins and placing them in conspicuous places.

Use Smart Defaults

Setting smart defaults can nudge people towards more sustainable choices. For example, setting double-sided printing as the default option in printers can significantly reduce paper consumption. Similarly, designing thermostats to default to energy-saving settings can lead to substantial energy savings. When implementing default settings, it’s a good idea to set up efficient communication between design and building management teams, to share the reasons for these settings and make sure they are not overridden.

Leverage Social Influence and Incentive Programs

Social influence can change how people act. This can be used in design to encourage people to do things that create good habits. For example, apps that show how much energy people are using compared to their neighbours can make them want to use less energy. Also, giving rewards to people who walk, bike or take the bus to work instead of driving can help reduce pollution.

Conclusion

Design can change habits by creating surroundings that encourage sustainable, healthy behaviour and discourage wasteful or unhealthy behaviour. Understanding the psychological and social aspects that influence behaviour helps designers create effective and long-lasting solutions.