5 Approaches for Sustainable UX
People eat, move, stay warm and consume in a manner that gambles with the future of our planet. This behavior must change and UX Design can play a vital part of that change.
Sustainable UX
An experience, which is what UX designers tries to create, can be defined as:
“The irreducible totality of people acting, sensing, thinking feeling and meaning-making in a setting”.
A study on the evolution of Design for Sustainability states that to meet the drastic requirements for a sustainable future, focus must shift from insular technological innovations, towards affecting systems and people. This means the work of UX designers that facilitate behavior (actions) that not compromise on social or ecological issues, can play a fundamental role in creating this change. Thus, what i mean by Sustainable UX is:
“User experiences facilitating actions that do not compromise on social or ecological issues”
But how can this be done? Let’s dig in.
1. Nudge Theory
Choices made by individuals can easily be affected in a predictable way without forbidding any options. Affecting human behavior in this way is defined as a nudge.
In the context of design for sustainability a nudge can be implemented by e.g. giving one of two buttons extra color and contrast to make it more visible. The other button is still there and the user is equally free to click that button, but the nudge theory states that such a small thing as increased visibility can affect human behavior. In this example, if the colored button will lead to a more sustainable option, the user is nudged towards a more sustainable behavior.
2. Hooked Model
A four-step model that describe how to build habit-forming products. By building sustainable habits the hooked model can be used to facilitate sustainable behavior.
i. Trigger
The user is feeling a need, such as an itch or the feeling of hunger.
ii. Action
The user urge a need to eliminate the itch or hunger and need to take action to do so. This can be done by simply scratching the itch or deciding what to eat for dinner. In this step the designer can increase the probability that the action taken is sustainable by e.g. make it easy to decide a sustainable dinner.
iii. Variable Reward
Reward the action taken in form of likes, leveling up or praise the choice of a sustainable recipe for dinner. The reward should not be predictable, since variability will keep the user’s interest over time.
iv. Investment
By letting the user save the recipe in the app, the user invest in the app. Next time the hungry feeling appears the user can ”scratch the itch” by going back to the saved recipe or look for a new one. The user has loaded a new trigger and thus the circle is complete.
3. Mindful Design
Mindfulness is defined as the optimal interaction between attention and awareness. Finding this balance is not an easy thing, which leads people to forget and act in a different way than they would have acted being completely attentive and aware. In design, mindfulness can be facilitated through a three-step process.
i. Identify lack of mindfulness
This could be the user intensively scrolling an app.
ii. Identify mindful solutions
If the goal is to remind the user of her sustainable intent and if the above case is a recipe app, a mindful solution could be a reminder of which groceries are sustainable.
iii. Implement mindful solution
In order to make the user mindful she must be disrupted and forced to reflect. A disruption can be made by a prompt. Reflection can be triggered by offering choices, adding complexity or trigger emotion. Continuing on the example above, the disruption could be a prompt “Do you want to narrow down your options?” that offer choices ”Pesceterian / Vegeterian / Vegan / No”.
Another term for Mindful design is Design friction.
4. Theory of Interpersonal Behavior
A cognitive model that claims that the individual’s intention is the core factor behind how humans act. The intention is created by the individuals beliefs, social norms and emotions. Habits triggers the intention and facilitating conditions restrict what behaviors are possible.
In design for sustainability the TIB-theory can be used to understand which cognitive processes the designed artifact should affect to increase the probability of a sustainable behavior.
In a context when the user has realized that she should decrease energy consumption at home, she has made up an intention. Facilitating conditions must make it possible to decrease warmth at home, by e.g. make sure radiators’ heat can be steered. If the intention and facilitating conditions are there, but the user still consume more energy than intended, the TIB-model states that the missing factor is habits and thus that is what a designed solution should focus on.
5. The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change
A model that define the six stages people pass from the moment they start thinking about changing their behavior to the moment the change is durably achieved.
i. Pre-contemplation
At this stage the user don’t value the perceived benefit over the perceived cost of changing behavior. The design should in this phase help the users evaluate their previous choices and place them in a new perspective. The taste of meat is nice, but might saving the life of a creature create an even better feeling?
ii. Contemplation
When the user has begun to think of a possible behavior change, the design should focus on raising awareness of the importance and benefits of changing. Plant-based food decreases the risk of heart diseases and has lower carbon footprint. Your life will be longer and your descendants will live in a better world.
iii. Preparation
When the user has gained insight, the design must empower the user to create an action plan. By facilitating information of what is sustainable food the design prepares the user to take action.
iv. Action
In this stage the design should support the user to take correct actions by e.g. only suggest food options that is considered sustainable.
v. Maintenance
By e.g. reward the user with points, the design encourage the user to keep up with the new behavior and prevent relapse.
vi. Termination
Is the user ready to sustain the new behavior by her own? The design can help with this by use less reminders if sustained behavior is tracked and slowly diminish.
Sources and further reading
Most of the theories derive from the book Design for Behavior Change | Theories and practices of designing for change. The book has collected 32 theories, mostly derived from Behavioral Psychology and Behavioral Sociology, from which I have cherry picked three with focus on Psychology:
Mindful Design by Kristina Niedderer.
Theory of Interpersonal Behavior first described by Harry C. Triandis.
The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change by James O. Prochaska and Wayne F. Velicer.
While above theories derive from scientific papers, the other two is from popular literature:
Nudge by Nobel Prize awarded Richard H. Thaler.
Hooked by Nir Eyal.
Caution! ⚠️
Remember that these theories is not sustainable per se. It is the theories together with the designer’s sustainable intent that make them sustainable. Use the theories wisely and don’t contribute to dark patterns of design.
