Much has been written on the utilitarian concept of Form Follows Function and how Emotional Design can be used to create a bond between a product and its owner. This article focuses on using behavioral science to modify your product such that the modification encourages behavior that is beneficial to the customer.
Behavioral design uses a stimulus to cause people to act in a predictable manner. The red coils of an electric stove-top are one example. The red color changes people’s behavior by causing them to keep their hands away from the coil. Remove the stimulus and people will burn their hands. To create value, this behavior must be beneficial to the customer not just the parent company. In this case, it is beneficial to the customer to prevent burns.
Identify Customer Needs:
The first step in behavioral design is to identify the needs of your customers. People don’t want to take airplane rides because they are fun. They fly to get to a destination quickly so they can perform some other task. Closets are not a storage location for clothes, they are a place where people create an image for others to see and select the appropriate protection from the elements.
How do customers use your product?
The second step is to understand how your customers interact with your product. Do people turn the stove on before they place a pot or afterwards? If you pick up an office phone with your dominant hand, then your weaker hand must dial the number. Also pay attention to how people abuse your product. Does the laundry basket get so full that the clothes do not fit into the washing machine causing people to overload the washing machine? Is food left to rot in the bottom crisper drawers because people don’t see the food? Do people leave old unread email in their inbox for several years?
Create Stimulus:
The third step is to include a stimulus that modifies the behavior in the second step that helps people meet the needs from the first step. Putting a mark on the closet rod tells people when their closet may have too many clothes.
The stimulus can be created by using the following cognitive biases:
Default Heuristic: People often accept whatever the default choice is. To protect people from losses in the stock market, online brokerages should set a default stop loss.
Framing: Modifying the way the people view the world. Showing people where to place a heater increases the efficiency of the heater.
Anchoring: Introducing a value that people use as a reference of normalcy. Telling people to set their watches to the new timezone on intercontinental flight helps recover from jet lag quicker.
Eliminate Mental Calculations: When people try to make a mental calculation, they are usually wrong. Provide guidance that helps people make accurate calculations and therefore make better decisions. If there is one inch of milk left in a milk carton, can I give my two children a glass of milk each at bed time and in the morning or do I have to go shopping tonight?
The important part about the stimululas is that is it should not have a significant impact to the cost of the product. It should be something simple such as color coding, relevant information or a modified UI. These are not engineering solutions.
By using cognitive design companies can improve the value of their products, increase differentiation and help customers meet their needs with very little increase in cost of the product.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
How kayak companies can help your marriage.
Marriage is a complex partnership. Two people agree to work together towards undefined goals for the rest of their life. One of the most difficult parts of marriage is that it can be difficult to know when you are being successful. Even when you have material wealth, there can be an emptiness in the relationship. Communication is also critical. When there is open communication, marriage is easy, but when the communication breaks down so does the relationship. Marriage counselors try to rebuild this communication in order to get the relationship back on track.
Paddling a tandem kayak is also a complex relationship. The person in the front sets stroke rate but the person in the back is responsible for steering the boat. To complicate matters, the person in back can barely hear the person in front. Both people must agree where to go and how fast to get there. When you are out of sync with your partner, your paddles collide, the boat stops and yelling at each other does not solve the problem. When things really break down, both people may end up swimming in very cold water.
Obviously, if a married couple cannot communicate on land, it is a bad idea for them to be in small boat where they must depend on each other. However, this is exactly the market that kayak companies should pursue.
Here is how it would work. Tandem kayak companies should first work with a marriage counselor to define a mini program on couples therapy including a list of communication do’s and don’ts. After the program is defined, the kayak company should use framing to advertise the new program to troubled couples. Call it kayak couples therapy.
The day of the trip, the guide would review the program and set expectations. Communication guidelines and teamwork emphasis would be mixed in with paddling technique and discussions about the surrounding water. Roles would be agreed to and goals set. On the water coaching would fine tune the paddling technique and remind everyone of the ground rules.
This program would work because a tandem kayak is a controlled environment. Initial conversation is limited to the task at hand. By following the rules outlined ahead of time, people quickly begin to paddle in sync and the boat moves forward. This teamwork creates instant gratification and evidence of success which can be difficult to observe in a marriage. The couple quickly sees that when they communicate clearly and work together, they can be successful.
By creating a couples kayak therapy program, kayak companies can offer more than a relaxing day on the water. They can provide a controlled situation where couples practice their communication skills and receive immediate evidence of success of their collaboration. After a couple realizes that they can work together on the water, the communication skills shared confidence can be applied on land. The couple will also have an activity they can do together for a long time which is one of the reasons people get married in the first place.
Special thanks to Chris Young and Gloria Cotton of San Francisco Kayak & Adventures for the inspiration for this post.
Paddling a tandem kayak is also a complex relationship. The person in the front sets stroke rate but the person in the back is responsible for steering the boat. To complicate matters, the person in back can barely hear the person in front. Both people must agree where to go and how fast to get there. When you are out of sync with your partner, your paddles collide, the boat stops and yelling at each other does not solve the problem. When things really break down, both people may end up swimming in very cold water.
Obviously, if a married couple cannot communicate on land, it is a bad idea for them to be in small boat where they must depend on each other. However, this is exactly the market that kayak companies should pursue.
Here is how it would work. Tandem kayak companies should first work with a marriage counselor to define a mini program on couples therapy including a list of communication do’s and don’ts. After the program is defined, the kayak company should use framing to advertise the new program to troubled couples. Call it kayak couples therapy.
The day of the trip, the guide would review the program and set expectations. Communication guidelines and teamwork emphasis would be mixed in with paddling technique and discussions about the surrounding water. Roles would be agreed to and goals set. On the water coaching would fine tune the paddling technique and remind everyone of the ground rules.
This program would work because a tandem kayak is a controlled environment. Initial conversation is limited to the task at hand. By following the rules outlined ahead of time, people quickly begin to paddle in sync and the boat moves forward. This teamwork creates instant gratification and evidence of success which can be difficult to observe in a marriage. The couple quickly sees that when they communicate clearly and work together, they can be successful.
By creating a couples kayak therapy program, kayak companies can offer more than a relaxing day on the water. They can provide a controlled situation where couples practice their communication skills and receive immediate evidence of success of their collaboration. After a couple realizes that they can work together on the water, the communication skills shared confidence can be applied on land. The couple will also have an activity they can do together for a long time which is one of the reasons people get married in the first place.
Special thanks to Chris Young and Gloria Cotton of San Francisco Kayak & Adventures for the inspiration for this post.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
How hospitals can help patients get to appointments on time.
Getting around a hospital can be very difficult. There are many signs that try to be helpful by showing strange names like Endocrinology (Hormones) and Otorhinolaryngology (Ear, Nose, Throat). When you ask for directions, people often say things like “go the West side of the building”. Without a compass, this kind of information is as helpful as directions in Venice that tell you to walk straight.
While doctors and nurses who work in the hospital may know their way around, it is very difficult for everyone else. Most visitors to a hospital are there for the first time and a usually under a heightened state of stress and or pain. Additionally after people are admitted to a bed, they have to give directions to friends and family to come visit. This creates a blind leading the blind situation.
To solve this problem, most hospitals post maps around the building like this excerpt from the Stanford Hospital.
To get someplace, you look at the map, find the, “You are here sticker”, find where you are going from the list of strange sounding names and then figure out which way to walk. After walking for a while you may recheck the map to make sure you are still headed in the right direction. This whole process can take 10 minutes which is time you do not have when you are late for an appointment. In communication theory, the process of reading a map is called decoding. Most people do not encode maps quickly under stress.
Instead, hospitals should take advantage of people’s natural ability to follow a linear path and paint lines on the floor. Instead of saying, “Go past Radiology, right at Endocrinology and left at Obstetrics” people would give directions by saying, “Blue Line 45”.
Here is how it would work. A hospital like Stanford should paint lines on the floor similar to a subway. The green line would lead to Cardiology while the yellow line would go to Labor and Delivery. Colors that are difficult for people who are colorblind should be avoided. In addition to the painted lines, a numbering system should be used similar to house addresses or freeway exits. Zero should start at one end and then numbers for each yard should be used. If one office is at zero, then the next office 21 feet away would be at 7.
When giving directions to someone, all you have to say is Green Line 79 and people would instantly be able to find the location. The numbers will tell you if you have to go up or down the line and maps would show you where to transfer. Each major entrance to the hospital would have a sign that shows you the shortest path to each of the lines from that entrance.
By adopting this numbered subway system, hospitals can make it easier for first time visitors to get around especially during a time of personal stress. Not only would this make life easier for patients, but it would also cut down on unproductive time caused by late appointments. This would also be helpful to suppliers, contractors and new interns would be able to reach their destination quicker. Additionally, hospital staff would spend less time giving directions and could spend more time providing patient care.
While doctors and nurses who work in the hospital may know their way around, it is very difficult for everyone else. Most visitors to a hospital are there for the first time and a usually under a heightened state of stress and or pain. Additionally after people are admitted to a bed, they have to give directions to friends and family to come visit. This creates a blind leading the blind situation.
To solve this problem, most hospitals post maps around the building like this excerpt from the Stanford Hospital.
Map shows Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
To get someplace, you look at the map, find the, “You are here sticker”, find where you are going from the list of strange sounding names and then figure out which way to walk. After walking for a while you may recheck the map to make sure you are still headed in the right direction. This whole process can take 10 minutes which is time you do not have when you are late for an appointment. In communication theory, the process of reading a map is called decoding. Most people do not encode maps quickly under stress.
Instead, hospitals should take advantage of people’s natural ability to follow a linear path and paint lines on the floor. Instead of saying, “Go past Radiology, right at Endocrinology and left at Obstetrics” people would give directions by saying, “Blue Line 45”.
Here is how it would work. A hospital like Stanford should paint lines on the floor similar to a subway. The green line would lead to Cardiology while the yellow line would go to Labor and Delivery. Colors that are difficult for people who are colorblind should be avoided. In addition to the painted lines, a numbering system should be used similar to house addresses or freeway exits. Zero should start at one end and then numbers for each yard should be used. If one office is at zero, then the next office 21 feet away would be at 7.
Colored lines help you get around the hospital quickly.
By adopting this numbered subway system, hospitals can make it easier for first time visitors to get around especially during a time of personal stress. Not only would this make life easier for patients, but it would also cut down on unproductive time caused by late appointments. This would also be helpful to suppliers, contractors and new interns would be able to reach their destination quicker. Additionally, hospital staff would spend less time giving directions and could spend more time providing patient care.
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