Designing for Behavior Change

Preface

• The Nike+ FuelBand, a wristband that automatically tracks your movement and helps you exercise more (one of a dozen new, wearable computing devices on the market)

• Nest, a thermostat that learns your home heating schedule, reinforces good energy usage with a simple phone app, and automates saving money on electricity bills

• GlowCap, a cap for prescription bottles that flashes when it’s time to take medication and automatically reorders the medication online when you need it

• Clocky, an alarm clock that jumps off your nightstand and rolls around the room, so you can’t turn it off without getting out of bed (Figure 1)

  

  Figure 1. Clocky, the clock that runs away from you

• Barack Obama’s highly successful online volunteer platform that enabled volunteers to call potential voters from home, whenever they had a few minutes to spare (Figure 2)

  

  Figure 2. Obama’s volunteer mobilization site, call.barackobama.com, during the 2012 campaign

• Lift, the habit-building application; 401(k) auto-escalation programs for saving for retirement; and the QuitNow! mobile app to stop smoking with peer support^[1]

Each of these products was designed to help individuals take action in their lives. Companies have developed a slew of new and innovative products in this space over the past few years—inspired by behavioral ...