Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics

Designers and managers hope their products become essential for users--integrated into their lives like Instagram, Lyft, and others have become. Such deep integration isn't accidental: it's a process of careful design and iterative learning, especially for technology companies. This guide shows you how to apply behavioral science--research that supports many products--to help your users achieve their goals using your product.

In this updated edition, Stephen Wendel, head of behavioral science at Morningstar, takes you step-by-step through the process of incorporating behavioral science into product design and development. Product managers, UX and interaction designers, and data analysts will learn a simple and effective approach for identifying target users and behaviors, building the product, and gauging its effectiveness.

• Learn the three main strategies to help people change behavior
• Identify behaviors your target audience seeks to change--and obstacles that stand in their way
• Develop effective designs that are enjoyable to use
• Measure your product's impact and learn ways to improve it
• Combine behavioral science with data science to pinpoint problems and test potential solutions

Stephen is a behavioral scientist who studies financial behavior and how digital products can help individuals manage their money more effectively. He serves as Head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, where he leads a team of behavioral scientists and practitioners to conduct original research on saving and investment behavior.

Dr. Wendel has authored two books on applied behavioral science, Designing for Behavior Change and Improving Employee Benefits, and founded the non-profit Action Design Network, educating the public on how to apply behavioral research to product development with monthly events in ten cities.

Prior to joining Morningstar, he served as the Principal Scientist at HelloWallet, where he helped build an engaging product for users take control over their finances. The impetus for this book comes from the challenges he and the rest of the HelloWallet team faced along the way, as they learned to apply the behavioral literature to consumer products and consulted with companies similarly searching for effective ways to enable behavior change. Before HelloWallet, he co-founded two IT companies, and conducted research on the dynamics of political behavior.