Design for behavior change

September 30th, 2010

824202_flying_basketIn one of my early blog entries (“Small car? Half priced parking!”) I talked about finding the right incentive to change people’s behavior. The case was cheaper parking for smaller cars.
Now, it seems, there’s an emerging field called ‘design for behavior change’. This field touches upon the exact same thing: finding the right incentives as a motivation for a new behavior.
This is very exciting stuff – not only when looking at mass behavior change (like getting kids to wash their hands in kindergartens and schools) but also looking to change the behavior of your customers.

A good example is something that has existed in web sales for a very long time: sites giving away free shipping if your purchases reaches a certain amount. I for one, find myself filling the basket until I reach the free shipping limit, and to me this proves, that it’s possible to work with incentives that motivate certain purchase behavior.
I’m sure this could be exploited in many new ways especially if combined with some of the social media services.

But I think there’s another part of ‘design for behavior change’ that could be equally exiting. It could be a great mission for product design companies to make products that have built in incentives towards the purchase (e.g. the purchase contributes to global causes, or to local community causes like a new playground) and at the same time motivates the customers to a certain new behavior through the design of the products (e.g. doing something great with your kid, getting more exercise, reduce waste or conserve energy). Of course the product should also fill a need and meet a market, but that goes without saying.

Maybe this could be a path to success for some?

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Eight quick social media tips

June 22nd, 2010

I stumbled upon this great video by Lewis Howes that – in all its snappiness (5:48) – has eight excellent tips to help you get started doing self promotion/personal branding using social media…and I assume the tips work equally well if you’re promoting your company and/or concepts. The video is almost a year old but was recently promoted by Guy Kawasaki which is probably why it surfaced in a blog entry on Harvard Business Review (great site btw – Elisabeth, thanks for the recommendation).

For those of you reading this at work (or other places where playing a video with the sound on is not a very good idea), I’ve extracted the eight tips:

  1. You gotta be yourself
  2. Get active on at least the top three major social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
  3. You gotta provide awesome, awesome content
  4. Be smart with your time
  5. Be consistent
  6. Promote others
  7. Connect face-to-face with individuals
  8. Thank others as much as possible

This is great stuff for those of you who are just beginning to use social media strategically.
Anyways, here’s the video – enjoy :)

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Posted in Blog, Business, Transparency, Trends | No Comments »

Ten Tech Predictions 2010

January 21st, 2010

2010_predictions
Here’s ten tech predictions for 2010 which I’m pretty sure is going to be a fantastic year!

Year of the tablets
Once again, Apple will raise the bar for consumer electronics by introducing a functional tablet computer, and once again everybody else will try to catch up.

Android attack
Nokia and SonyEricsson will bite the dust, accept defeat and put Android on most of their phones.

Netbook craze no more
Due to the evolution of processors, the ‘netbook’ term will fade away as most low-end laptops are lightweight, have a long battery life and a processor capable of handling what most full-fledged laptops of last year could.

eReader niche
eReaders will remain a niche product as more and more people want hybrid gadgets that do more than one thing.

Electronic Bicycle Gadgets (EBG)
2010 will bring the introduction of consumer level electronic bicycle equipment; GPS location services and electronic locks will be the first practical implementations.

Free GPS maps
Pushed by Google and Nokia, the largest GPS players will feel forced to give away their map updates for free and will have to quickly find new revenue streams.

Clash of the Titans
Now that Google has launched its own phone, has its own OS (mobile + desktop), has its own browser etc. etc. they are well positioned to gain market shares from Apple, who in turn will respond by accelerating development of Google replica services. The old enemy – Microsoft – will not be the focus of attention (until they start having success with their products during 2011).

Power (control) to the people
We’ll see the introduction of connected power monitors for private households; once households can track their day-to-day power consumption and compare with neighbors and friends it will accelerate the awareness of cutting power consumption an largely contribute to reduced CO2 emission.

Sunny LED bulbs
Finally, LED bulbs that emit natural looking light will come at price points that makes it a worthwhile purchase.



And – completely off-topic – here’s a bonus non-tech prediction for you…

Bicycle revolution
A new, revolutionary product will be introduced on the market and will greatly improve everyday life for male bicyclist all over the world, making a bicycle ride more safe and more enjoyable. ;)

Posted in Gadgets, Trends | 6 Comments »

Small car? Half priced parking!

May 4th, 2009

Parking

I read about this concept on Springwise and I was intrigued by the simplicity in the message: if you don’t take up as much parking space as the big ass SUVs, then you don’t have to pay as much for parking.

It’s taking a product (parking) that we’ve known for decades as a fixed price product, and turning it into a consumption rated product. Not something you would expect to see in the parking business, but definitely something that makes a lot of sense to the consumer.

Imagine what other business areas could adopt the same reasoning…I’m thinking airplane tickets/travel: you pay for your weight! It might be controversial (although recently an American airline began charging double seats for heavily overweighted people) but again it would make a lot of sense. Also, what’s with the 20 kilos luggage limit on most European flights? Why not per kilo price paid at the check-in? Just jump on the scale, you, your suitcases and hand luggage, and pay for your total weight!

Posted in Blog, Trends | 1 Comment »