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INTRODUCTION

When I tell people I’m a psychologist, there are certain reactions I’ve come to expect. One is people asking if I can read their minds. (No. That’s a psychic.) Another is people asking if I am diagnosing them based on our conversation. (No. I’m not a clinician, and even if I were, why would I work for free?) And very often, people ask if I’m able to force others into behaving a certain way using the tricks of psychology. (Another no.)

For better or for worse, psychology is not magic. And it’s certainly not about forcing people to do something! There’s no guarantee that using psychology will yield the desired outcome 100% of the time for 100% of the people. But what psychology can do is increase the odds that products built with its tools and insights will be effective at changing specific behaviors in the people who use them. Psychology may not be magic, but when I was a newly minted Ph.D. first applying its tools to design digital experiences that made people healthier, it sure felt like it.

Psychology offers both scientific tools and methods that can be used to understand what influences behaviors, as well as evidence-based techniques to change them. I’m excited to share how you can use psychology to make the digital programs you design and build more engaging for users. If your products are intended to change people’s behavior, then psychology is essential for your design toolkit. Even if they’re not, a strategic dash of science will still help you create better products.

Aside from genuinely geeking out about using psychology as a design tool, I also wanted to write this book to help people join me in this type of work. Over the years, I’ve met so many people who wanted to become behavior change designers but don’t know how. There aren’t many formal training programs (yet), and there is no curriculum of essential knowledge. And while there are a lot of great behavior change frameworks, tools, and books, there aren’t very many that specifically apply the psychology of motivation to the design of digital experiences, the thing that’s been the core of my job for more than ten years. I’ve done lots of coffee meetings and phone calls and blog posts, but I wanted a more enduring resource that people could really use. This book, I hope, will be it.

Relax, Take It Easy

While this book has mostly been a delight to write, it’s also incited a few existential crises and more than one extended bout of procrastination. It was during one of those latter phases that I started combing Spotify for song titles related to the content of the book. Please enjoy the chapter titles and send me any suggestions I should add to the book’s unofficial soundtrack.

With a Little Help from My Friends

Every chapter concludes with an interview with someone who is an expert in the topic of that chapter. I wanted to include other voices alongside mine to show the variety of ways that behavior change design could be done. In some cases, I knew that an expert interviewee could provide an in-depth example or specific pro tactics that would enrich the main content of the chapter. In others, the experts provided a wider lens that helped the reader view the chapter in a broader context.

These interviews were such a treat to do. They were an excuse for me to connect with old friends and make new ones, and to highlight people whose work has inspired me. I’m grateful to all of them. I hope you’ll think they’re as fantastic as I do.

Truth Hurts

Over the last decade or so, the field of psychology has entered a “replication crisis.” Basically, when researchers repeated classic psychology studies, they got different results, putting the initial findings into question. In some unfortunate cases, it seems the original researchers fudged their results. Those studies are as good as dead.

But other cases are less clear-cut. Maybe the statistical analyses were not as stringent as they should have been, so the effect exists but is weaker than originally thought. In some older papers, the original methods weren’t described well enough to follow exactly, or are no longer appropriate, given advancements in technology and knowledge. (Try doing a study on people who are new Internet users—it’s near impossible now.) Or sometimes, some studies on a topic replicate and others don’t. In these middle cases, more research is needed to figure out what’s really going on.

I mention this because some of the topics in this book have been touched by the replication crisis, such as willpower and the growth mindset. I carefully reviewed the current state of the evidence for the studies I included and feel comfortable that they’re valid. I also omitted some classic studies, with no small heartache, because the science is still in question.

The replication crisis means there’s a little extra vigilance needed from anyone who uses psychological research in their work. Incorporating a literature review into your behavior change design process as an early step will help you avoid leaning on outdated studies.

Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2

One thing I get asked a lot, probably because I have one, is if you need a Ph.D. to do behavior change design. The answer is no. Some of the most talented behavior change designers I know do not have a Ph.D.; in fact, some of them didn’t even study psychology in school. Work experience, reading, and on-the-job training can all whip someone into behavior change design shape over time. On the flip side, people like me with strong behavior science knowledge and research skills likely need the same kind of experience-based training to develop UX and design muscles. No one comes to behavior change design perfectly formed.

Whatever skills and background you bring to your work, I hope this book will add some new behavior change design tools to your repertoire. Take the things you learn, try them out, measure your results, and keep iterating until your designs do what you want them to do. Along the way, you’ll infuse your own style and ultimately develop your own tried-and-true flavor of behavior change design. I can’t wait to see it.