Akash and Jen Will Teach Design for Behaviour Change

Get immersed in behaviour change at CanUX 2022.

 Workshop T2: Designing for Behaviour Change
} Thu, Nov 3, 2022   1:00pm – 4:30pm

Nearly half the deaths in North America per year are considered preventable – meaning they are linked to individual behavioural and other avoidable causes. In an attempt to reverse this trend in recent years, there has been a proliferation of digital products attempting to impact one’s health behaviour. Looking beyond healthcare, all the products and services that we research and design, in some way, impact people’s behaviour, and a focus solely on usability and functionality can only go so far. To supplement traditional design methods, additional tools are required to answer the question: is this product actually conducive to behaviour change?

In this workshop, Jen and Akash will provide a framework to help you answer that question. Over the course of this half-day workshop they will:

• Discuss how usability and functionality alone aren’t enough when designing.
• Introduce an additional layer of science-backed behaviour change principles to follow when designing.
• Showcase the positive outcomes that can occur when usability, functionality, and behaviour change are married together.
• Provide you an opportunity to practice your problem solving skills by analyzing a health-related problem and designing a solution for it using behaviour change principles

Throughout the workshop, a combination of presentation, discussion and group hands-on work will be used to understand how a digital application can be enhanced and improved to create positive changes. Participants will work in groups, be provided a problem statement, and by the end of the workshop, will have completed an evaluation and designed an experience conducive to behaviour change.

The material is best suited for designers, researchers and product professionals at all levels, especially if your focus is on B2C digital applications or services, and you are interested in learning more about creating positive behaviour in users, regardless of the industry. (Although not required, this workshop assumes a basic understanding of user experience design methods.)

 Speaker Bios: Jennifer Fraser & Akash Radia

Jennifer is the VP of Experience at Macadamian, a remote-first design and development consultancy. After over twenty years in the field of User Experience Design, Jennifer has designed products for many different client types and target markets. In her current role she leads experience design across the spectrum of Customer Experience, Employee Experience and User Experience. She worked as an architect in her former life, which relates to her interest in systems design and finding connections between things.

Akash Radia is the lead user experience researcher at Macadamian with 8+ years of consulting experience across digital healthcare, public health, and financial services. He has led on projects with Fortune 500 companies, early-stage startups, major hospital groups and universities, city and state governments, and various NGOs across the US, Western Europe, and India. Trained as a physiologist and public health practitioner in behavioral interventions, Akash leans on his deep expertise in health and well-being to develop user-centered solutions that are efficacious, ethical, and equitable. At Macadamain, Akash is responsible for ensuring research excellence across the entire organization. He holds an MS in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences from Brown University and an MA in Applied Physiology from Columbia University, and BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

For more info, you can follow Jennifer on Twitter @jlfraser and Akash on LinkedIn

Prior Presentations:
DESIGN LEADERSHIP PANEL (CanUX 2018 / Jennifer Fraser)
Nov 4, 2018 12:35am / 30 min
HOW TO BUILD A UX TEAM AND WHY IT’S NOT LIKE BUILDING A CLONE ARMY (UXcamp 2014 / Jennifer Fraser)
Nov 8, 2014 1:40pm / 30 min

*Image credit: Jennifer Fraser & Akash Radia