Designing To Innovate And Improve The World

So what does it take to cause millions of people to do things differently?

"In the old days it was all about [public service announcements]," he said. "The way we got people to think about drugs or smoking -- and it was quite a lot more complex than that. One role is that the private sector might have a bigger role to play than we thought in the past. What it actually takes to cause people's behavior to change are three things."

Brown is nothing if not practical. He doesn't approach a problem like a traditional wild-eyed activist. He realizes that it takes more than a PSA or a chain mail to change behavior. Here are his three things:

•Change In Incentives -- When it becomes cost-effective in the short term to purchase electric cars, a majority of Americans will start to do so.
•Tools To Enable Change -- The nicotine patch not only makes it easier for people to quit smoking, but it benefits private industry.
•A Shift In Social Norms -- This is the toughest one. Changing what is publicly acceptable can take generations to do, but we can help push it along. To continue with the smoking analogy, Brown points out how people cut down on smoking when it was no longer allowed in most offices. "If it's okay to smoke in the office, then people are going to smoke. If it's not okay, then people will smoke less," he said.

Keeping these three keys in mind, Brown believes object design has a place right beside public policy and corporate social responsibility.

via huffingtonpost.com

Interesting take on Persuasive Design [Thinking]. This is the 20,000 foot view.

Posted via web from John Whalen's Posterous