The Behavior Change Design Cards: A Design Support Tool for Theoretically-Grounded Design of Behavior Change Technologies

Abstract

Despite a wealth of behavior change theories and techniques available, designers often struggle to apply theory in the design of behavior change technologies. We present the Behavior Change Design (BCD) cards, a design support tool that makes behavioral science theory accessible to interaction designers during design meetings. Grounded on two theoretical frameworks of behavior change, the BCD cards attempt to map 34 behavior change techniques to five stages of behavior change, thus assisting designers in selecting appropriate techniques for given behavioral objectives. We present the design of the BCD cards along with the results of two formative and one summative study that aimed at informing the design of the cards and assessing their impact on the design process.