Laws of UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. With Power Comes Responsibility

In the previous chapters, we looked at how to leverage psychology to build more intuitive, human-centered products and experiences. We identified and explored some key principles from psychology that can be used as a guide for designing for how people actually are, instead of forcing them to conform to technology. This knowledge can be quite powerful for designers, but with power comes responsibility. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with leveraging the insights from behavioral and cognitive psychology to help create better designs, it’s critical that we consider how products and services have the potential to undermine the goals and objectives of the people using them, why accountability is critical for those creating those products and services, and how we can slow down and be more intentional.

How Technology Shapes Behavior

The first step in making more responsible design decisions is to acknowledge and understand the ways in which the human mind is susceptible to persuasive technology and how behavior can be shaped. There are a number of studies that provide a glimpse into the fundamentals of behavior shaping, but perhaps none are as influential or foundational as those conducted by American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher B. F. Skinner. Through a process he called “operant conditioning,” Skinner studied how behaviors could be learned and modified by creating an association between a particular ...