Behavioral Design & Experience

Design products, services and journeys that make the right behavior the easy behavior.

Overview

Why the people lens matters here.

People rarely fail to act because they lack information. They stall because a step is confusing, a moment is mistimed, a choice feels risky or the effort outweighs the perceived reward. Our behavioral design and experience practice applies behavioral science, human-computer interaction and service design to remove those barriers. We help organizations design the products, journeys, communications and service moments that make it easier for people to do what they already want to do, whether that means buying, enrolling, adopting, adhering or returning.

The practice grew out of two decades of behavioral design work, with roots in clinical and health psychology, persuasive technology and university teaching in design and computing. We draw on the Fogg Behavior Model, which holds that behavior occurs when motivation, ability and a prompt converge, along with usability principles, self-determination theory and behavioral economics. Theory guides the questions we ask. Careful research with real people, in real contexts, shapes the answers.

Design work at our firm is always paired with measurement. We begin by observing how people actually behave, use behavioral signals to locate the moments that matter, design targeted changes, and test them through usability studies, pilots and A/B tests before recommending broad rollout. We also hold a clear ethical line: persuasive design should be transparent and aligned with the person's own goals, never manipulative. That standard protects your customers, and it protects your reputation.

Focus areas

What we focus on.

Research with real people

Interviews, contextual inquiry, think-aloud usability sessions and diary studies reveal what analytics alone cannot: the hesitation before a click, the workaround a staff member invented, the moment a patient decides a program is not for them. We pair this qualitative depth with behavioral data so that design decisions rest on both what people do and why.

Design for motivation, ability and prompts

When a desired behavior is not happening, one of three things is usually missing: enough motivation, enough ability, or a well-timed prompt. Diagnosing which one is absent prevents expensive misfires, such as running a motivational campaign when the real problem is a confusing form. Our designs target the specific barrier, which keeps changes small, focused and testable.

Ethical persuasion by default

Persuasive technology can help people build healthy habits, complete important tasks and adopt useful tools. It can also exploit attention and erode trust. We design for transparency, informed choice and easy exit, and we review every intervention against the person's own interests. Behavior change that people would endorse on reflection is the only kind that lasts.

Services