Design for Socially Responsible Behavior: A Classification of Influence Based on Intended User Experience

Introduction Whether a result of the financial crisis, the public perception of massive overconsumption, or global climate change, designers are increasingly motivated “to do good for society.” This interest seems to manifest itself primarily in two ways. First, designers and design companies are behaving in more socially responsible ways in their product development. A focus on the use of recyclable materials, the rejection of child labor, and the use of sheltered workshops are possible consequences of such an attitude. Second, designers are using their design skills to tackle social problems. In these cases, designers apply design thinking and design methodologies to social issues to create innovative solutions. With this interest, education, safety, and health care have become domains for designers.1 Because many, if not all, social issues involve behaviors that play a crucial role in initiating a desired change, the power of design as a deliberate means to change behavior has garnered increased interest. This interest is currently and prominently present in the field of sustainable design. The conventional goal of sustainable design initially was to design products that require the least energy to be produced and used and that could be recycled. Currently, the idea is growing that to really effect change, sustainable design must be capable of changing user behavior. For example, there is simply little to be optimized in our kettle’s heating system, but if the amount of unnecessary water we repeatedly boil could be reduced, a substantial reduction in energy loss could be achieved. This notion of the significance of user behavior in terms of environmental implications has led to design for what is called “sustainable behavior.”2 While our knowledge about how design can change behavior is rapidly expanding, the way a user might potentially experience this influence is rarely discussed. However, the user’s experience of that influence does play an important role in the effectiveness of the design intervention. When a person tries to persuade another to act differently, attitude, tone of voice and expressions affect the experience of the one being persuaded and, thus, his or her motivation to act. In this article, we propose a classification of