Tag Archives: Behavioral Economics

Behavior change requires time

2013-10-21 Jaewoo Joo 2 Comments

Changing behavior is important but challenging. Thus, it attracts huge attention among practitioners as well as researchers. For instance, Charles Duhigg introduced various examples in his book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Professor BJ Fogg at Stanford University proposed a behavior change model at the Persuasive Technology Lab. Designers graduating from the ID, Illinois Institute of Technology summarized the mechanisms and tools on their website, Brains Behavior and Design Group. Most recently, Professor Dilip Soman at University of Toronto teaches Behavioral Economics in Action at his online course.

For me, I have long wished to be ambidextrous. In Asia, however, using left hand to do something (e.g., eating, writing, pointing, etc.) is not viewed appropriate and I had no chance to practice my left hand. Therefore, I have experimented myself since when I left for Canada whether I can practice my left hand so that it performs as well as my right hand does.

Brushing teeth with my left hand was relatively easy at night. However, doing so in the morning was extremely challenging. Although I have brushed teeth with my left hand for the past 10 years, I often find myself brushing teeth with my right hand when I am sleepy or tired, which is often the case in the morning. Indeed, ten-year is not sufficient to master brushing teeth with my left hand probably because I did not stop brushing teeth with my right hand.

I had different experience regarding controlling the computer mouse. Certainly, using mouse with my left hand was very challenging in the first couple of years. However, 3-year of intensive practice paid me off. I could click, drag, and drop icons using my left hand without noticing that I did so with my left hand. This habit relieves the shoulder pain and I can work longer than before. Three-year was sufficient to master using the mouse with my left hand probably because I completely stopped using the mouse with my right hand.

I plan to start sketching/drawing with my left hand this year. Different from brushing teeth or controlling computer mouse, I have not drawn before. In other words, I have no habit to unlearn but need to develop a new habit only. I hope skipping the unlearning stage takes me less time/effort to master sketching with my left hand.

Cases

Hand print for escalator safety

2013-09-23 Jaewoo Joo 1 Comment

Jenny Xie wrote A Potentially Brilliant Idea to Keep Escalator Obstructors to the Right at the Atlantic Cities. In her article, a London-based designer called Yoni Alter made an interesting proposal to signal “stand on right, walk on left.” Although his idea has not been implemented yet, he proposed to paint two different foot prints on the escalator so that people standing in the right side stay and those standing in the left side walk.

Jenny Xie @ The Atlantic Cities_20130917 — By Jenny Xie, The Atlantic Cities, September 17, 2013

Recently, I have met another brilliant idea about escalator. Escalator users are supposed to hold the handrail while using the escalator because, although rarely happens, it might go in reverse, injuring them seriously. This safety instruction, however, is often ignored.

As escalator accidents increase recently, someone who is not identified but works at the Seoul subway system came up with a brilliant idea: painting hand prints on the handrail. These visible cues nudge people to, at least, place their hands on the handrail.

Besides improving the safety for public transit, visual cues are used for improving store traffic. When a store is crowded, store visitors are often recommended to enter and leave in a specific way. One store manager painted foot prints to nudge the visitors follow them.

Publications

Behavioral Economics for Design

2013-09-02 Jaewoo Joo 2 Comments

“Behavioral Economics for Design,” Presented at the Young Members Event, International Conference of Engineering Design 2013, Seoul: Korea, Aug 19-22, 2013.

Designers will benefit from BDT (Behavioral Decision Theory) or Behavioral Economics in two ways. First, they could improve the effectiveness of their design outcomes by finding users’ psychological errors and then creating designerly solutions. Secondly, they could enhance the efficiency of their own design process by identifying and correcting the psychological mistakes that they often make.

20130820_@ ICED13_Jaewoo Joo — @ Young Members Event, ICED13

*Event

Young Members Event, ICED 2013 @ Seoul

2013-07-29 Jaewoo Joo Leave a comment

The Design Society and the Organizing Committee of ICED13 invite young design researchers and designers, including design students, to participate in this discussion on the future of design and to join the networking of international young design community. Please send an email to dinstitute@skku.edu with your name, affiliation and contact information by August 16th (Friday) to join this free of charge special event. For more information, please visit ICED13 website, www.iced13.org, or send your inquires to the Creative Design Institute, dinstitute@skku.edu.

Cases

Package design for health supplement

2013-06-20 Jaewoo Joo Leave a comment

Recently, Yuyu changed the package of its health supplement. Its previous package provides information mostly in the front side and mostly in the verbal format, which makes it challenging for its sale representatives to communicate with potential buyers.

The new package embraces visual design and zoning. It now provides much information visually as well as provides different types of information in different spaces (front/back). First, it has a huge alphabetical name similar to chemistry acronym (LT = Liver Therapy) and provides detailed instruction in a visual format. Moreover, the overview/functional information about the health supplement (what it is for) is provided in the front side, whereas its more detailed/usage information (how to take it) is provided in the back side.

Designmarketinglab