the result is a type of social cohesion that builds community consensus around the idea of exploring new possibilities and embracing new futures. Yes, one of the objectives of these activities is to inform the design of Nokia's products and services. But that may take years to realize. In the meantime, Chipchase achieves a more immediate and direct impact in the community through a change in mindset. He's creating fertile ground for new social practices to emerge-in
and we experience the emotions of others who have made similar choices. By simulating social situations in online networks such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, we can create interesting opportunities to interact with these consequences, particularly for decisions whose impacts are delayed or remote in the real world. Jeff Bardzell, an assistant professor for the School of Informatics at Indiana University, spends a lot of time observing and participating in
ingful behavior change. I saw this while collaborating with a large insurance company last year. We completed a rich study in consumer behavior with low-income consumers on high-deductible plans. The study was followed up by a series of workshops in which our client got to work hands-on with consumers to shape a new set of possible solutions for building trust and early engagement around preventative care. My client was very excited by the
this case around mobile technologies.Social media entrepreneur Melanie Edwards has taken this idea a step further by recruiting a team of "mobile agents" who stay embedded within a community over time to identify needs, raise awareness, and measure the positive impacts on behavior. Just as the guerrilla-design events that Chipchase creates have a lasting effect, Edwards' mobile agents become internalized as an ongoing
emerging behavior in virtual environments in order to empathize with the other users. Bardzell described to me how he built his reputation in World of Warcraft in a very atypical way-by providing social support to other players. He would hang out at the periphery and chat with people, providing the social glue while others focused on the adventure at hand. He quickly moved into a central role as part of a guild, influencing behavior in the environment by embodying
possibility of using this work to influence the product direction for his company. But he realized that this would be a long and involved process, one which often does not produce the hoped-for outcome. The design process had raised his expectations for more immediate engagement-a process that he wants to continue and extend through active involvement using social platforms to reach communities and address obesity and other chronic
activity in the community. In turn, the community sees new possibilities to affect change and influence personal behavior and social practice on an ongoing basis. She has applied her approach to fighting dengue fever in the favelas of Brazil, most recently with measurable results in the increased use of bug repellent. At frog design, we saw firsthand how design can catalyze local change with Project Masiluleke, an effort to combat the high rate of HIV infections in South
the values he wanted to cultivate. To create this influence, he spent a lot of time designing his identity in a process he describes as analogous to writing fiction. He was creating a set of values for his characters that were different from those in his real life but in tune with those engaged in World of Warcraft. In short, he was participating in others' values and belief systems in order to understand their needs. The designer can drive social change by embodying it-by perform-
ailments. Our last conversation ended with a discussion on how he could reorganize his strategy for the following year around a different set of design activities inspired by our work together. Selling a new kind of design approach, particularly to corporate America, is never easy. But design firms have invested a lot of effort over the past few years to increase our influence in the business community. It's time to use it.
Africa through the use of mobile technologies. During the design process, we recruited young men in different communities in South Africa to help shape a new solution to HIV self-testing and by doing so did more than choreograph a better testing experience. We designed a system of participation. And as we've seen in past design research activities, participation breeds enthusiasm, action, and influence-in this case, a greater willingness to even consider the
ing. I see a similar transformation in the work of Mouna Andraos, an interactive designer who specializes in electronics. Just as method actors transform themselves into a character by immersing themselves in the real world, Andraos engages and participates directly into urban environments in order to shift our perception and behavior. In one example, she created a portable cell phone recharging station that she pushed along city sidewalks like a street
possibility of HIV testing (particularly among men who have never been tested despite infection rates approaching 40 percent in some regions). Also, in South Africa, where there is 90 percent mobile device penetration, ideas spread quickly when a small community of individuals is actively engaged. You can easily imagine this influence magnified through mobile services like TweetLuck, TweetsGiving, and foursquareor MXit, in the case of rural South
vendor. People gathered around her cart to take turns charging their phones. In the meantime, they shared cords and adapters and stories. Through this direct design intervention, Andraos encouraged cooperation and discussion in a public setting and by doing so changed the social dynamics and introduced new possibilities in a particular location. She embodies change directly through her role and the design artifacts associated with it.
Africa. In this model, influence emerges directly from the design process itself and quickly spreads through social channels. New possibilities are created in the community long before any new products and services can be developed. Central to behavior change is empathy-the ability to see the world through other people's eyes. Empathy helps us better understand consequences in two ways: We anticipate the effects of our actions on others,
It's easy to pass on these early directions as somewhat removed from professional design practice, and I think it will take some time before these approaches truly migrate into our day-to-day work for clients. But these changes may come sooner than we think, especially when considering the urgency of the times and the growing awareness in a number of industries, including health care and finance, of the business value associated with mean-
Design with Intent.