Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Psychology and Behaviour Change

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Saturday 12th March 2011

• The Behavior Change Checklist. Down With Gamefication

  by Aza Raskin

  At the end of 2010, I left my post as Creative Lead for Firefox to found Massive Health on the assumption that a design renaissance could help change people's behavior to make them a bit more healthy. That's rather an assumption. Behavior change is hard. Health is hard. It is yet to be seen if I'm an idiot. With all this talk of gameification, serious games, and social connectivity, what cognitive psychology principals underly all of this hype? What isn't anecdotal? What works? Whether it is health, finance, email, or games, this talk delves into the literature of behavior change to give you a checklist to use in your designs.

  • Behaviour Change
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Gamification
  • Psychology

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Saturday 12th March

  In Town Lake Ballroom, Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin-Town Lake

  Coverage note

Sunday 13th March 2011

• Re-branding Birth Control: Behavior Change through Design

  by Jennifer Maer and Lawrence Swiader

  There is a significant gap between intentions and outcomes related to pregnancy; young adults say overwhelmingly that while they don’t want to get pregnant right now, they also are not fully protecting themselves from pregnancy by the careful, consistent use of contraception.

  This session is about a program designed to address that gap called Bedsider.

  We’ll talk about why the gap exists and look at established theories of behavior change for ways to approach the problem.

  We’ll denote a knowledge gap but offer that for most people, intentions are good.  Sex is complicated, messy, emotional, and driven by desire.  Yet most keep trying to attack the problem with logic.  They speak like doctors, appeal to reason, and show pictures of smiling people who look like they’re about to buy a car.

  This session will detail how to apply design thinking to the problem and re-frame birth control.  For most, sex education usually comes at the wrong time, in the wrong context, in the wrong voice.  How might a different tone and branding of birth control affect adherence?  And how do you test for it in developing a program? We will address those questions in our session.

  We’ll talk about how Bedsider has to fit in visually and verbally—it can’t look like the health department—and the role that language plays in attacking the excuses to not use birth control.  In this session we’ll also address how to design for feedback in an area where “nothing” is the usual reward.

  LEVEL: Advanced

  • Behaviour Change
  • Design
  • Influence
  • Psychology
  • Sex

  At 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Sunday 13th March

  In Rio, Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown