HABIT SCIENCE
Design environments where the desired behaviour becomes the path of least resistance. Make actions easy, obvious, timely, and contextually triggered.
HABIT SCIENCE
Habit Science focuses on the environmental, temporal, and structural factors that shape automatic behaviour. By making actions easy, obvious, timely, and contextually triggered, you can design environments where the desi...
"What environmental or structural barriers are preventing the desired behaviour from becoming automatic?"
HABIT SCIENCE
OVERVIEWHabit Science focuses on the environmental, temporal, and structural factors that shape automatic behaviour. By making actions easy, obvious, timely, and contextually triggered, you can design environments where the desired behaviour becomes the path of least resistance. This domain draws on BJ Fogg's Behaviour Model, nudge theory, and environmental design.
KEY QUESTION
What environmental or structural barriers are preventing the desired behaviour from becoming automatic?
STRATEGIES
Click any card to reveal its techniques
IMMERSIVE
make it immersive
Transport people into rich, engaging environments that make the experience feel real, personal, and emotionally resonant. Immersion breaks through attention barriers by creating a sense of presence - whether through spat...
"How can you create a sense of "being there" that makes the experience feel more real than abstract?"
IMMERSIVE
TECHNIQUESEnvironmental Overlay
Transport people into a real (and realistic) place through visual overlays to create a sense of spatial presence.
Narrative Overlay
Immerse your audience into a fictional narrative to contextualise activities and connect in an emotionally engaging way.
Proteus Effect
Enable people to create and customise a virtual identity or an imaginary self-representation (and eventually socialise through it), to influence their real-world behaviours.
GOAL-ORIENTED
make it goal-oriented
Structure the experience around clear, achievable goals with visible progress. People are motivated by a sense of advancement and completion. Goal-setting, progress indicators, and guided pathways transform open-ended ac...
"Is the path to the goal clear, and can people see how far they've come at every step?"
GOAL-ORIENTED
TECHNIQUESClear Goals
Set specific and unambiguous goals (possibly to the short, mid, and long-run) to direct one's attention and effort towards the task at hand.
Hint
Provide clear and focused instructions and suggestions to set up people for success.
Endowed Progress Effect
Accelerate the behaviour to progress towards a goal or reward by emphasising (and eventually create anticipation) once one is getting closer to achieving it.
SCARCE
make it scarce
Leverage the scarcity principle - people assign more value to things that are limited, exclusive, or running out. Scarcity creates urgency, triggers competitive instincts, and elevates perceived value. Use it ethically t...
"What would happen if access to this experience were limited - and would that increase or decrease its impact?"
SCARCE
TECHNIQUESLimited Supply
Emphasize the amount of offering still in stock and its dependence on (unpredictable) demand from others.
Exclusive Access
Limit access to information, opportunities, or benefits to people who meet certain requirements - either temporarily or permanently.
Generalised Scarcity Cues
Expose people to informational scarcity cues (visual or otherwise) to unconsciously trigger competitive and self-oriented behaviours.
OBVIOUS
make it obvious
Make the desired action impossible to miss. People can't act on what they don't notice. By leveraging visual salience, attention direction, and perceptual grouping, you ensure the right information reaches the right peop...
"If someone had only 3 seconds, would they know exactly what to do and why?"
OBVIOUS
TECHNIQUESGaze Magnet
Leverage our natural tendency of looking at what others look at by displaying human faces looking at the desired information.
Top 10 Effect
Group things into round-number groups, ending in a 5 or 0 to grab people's attention and increase the perceived value.
Isolation Effect
Make an item stick out to increase the likelihood it will be noticed and remembered.
EASY
make it easy
Reduce friction for desired behaviours and add friction for undesired ones. The easier something is to do, the more likely people will do it. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication in behaviour design - remove steps, ...
"How many steps does it take to complete the desired action - and which ones can you eliminate?"
EASY
TECHNIQUESRemove Steps
Remove unnecessary steps (perceived as a hassle) that need to be performed before the desired action/goal.
Default Option
Pre-select the most desirable option.
Reflection Point
Introduce friction points to make people more conscious about their actions to avoid mistakes and prevent regrettable outcomes.
TIMELY
make it timely
Deliver the right intervention at the right moment. Timing is everything in behaviour change - new beginnings, life transitions, and contextual triggers create windows of opportunity when people are most receptive to cha...
"When is the person most receptive to this intervention - and are you reaching them at that exact moment?"
TIMELY
TECHNIQUESNew Beginnings
Introduce your intervention after or in anticipation of temporal landmarks that represent new beginnings.
Moments of Transitions
Launch the intervention when people go through meaningful moments of transition that disrupt existing habits and behavioural patterns.
Timely Reminder
Provide a timely specific and actionable reminder to perform the behaviour.