Adding Motivations, Subtracting Choices. Aggiungere motivazioni, sottrarre scelta

Designers have long been concerned with finding ways to foster positive (i.e. sustainable, healthy, safe, socially acceptable, etc.) users’ behavior. The approach typically used in product design consists in limiting users’ choices through product optimization and automation. An example is electronic devices (e.g. computers and smartphones) that automatically go to sleep to save energy. However, studies have shown that this technical approach cannot alone sustain significant behavioral change. There has thus been a recent push towards influencing users to make the right choice instead of simply limiting choice: this is the emerging field of "design for behavior change". Several approaches have been developed under this umbrella term: all of them acknowledge that artifacts play an important role in influencing human behavior. However, such approaches also feature specific traits and different behavioral strategies ranging from fully conscious (where users are actively involved in attitude change) to unconscious (where users are not fully aware of the product’s effect) or combinatory. In this article, we present the most relevant strategies to influence user behavior: decisive, coercive, persuasive, and seductive. We describe how these strategies can be used in a top-down or bottom-up way by means of four examples. As a conclusion, we can affirm that in design for behavior change designers can either add motivations (in a gentle manner – persuading – or in a strong one – coercing) or subtract choices (deciding for the user or seducing them), in order to foster positive behaviors.