Design Competition for Better Health
Found another competition that is ripe for the application of cognitive design, this one sponsored by the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Program and Ashoka’s Changemaker Program.
The fuse is very short – entries are due April 1st.
Competition aside, this is a great site for cognitive designers. There are 103 entries from 30 countries that you can learn from. There is also excellent advice (decision types, flavors and dos and don’ts) on how to design nudges. Remember, nudges are seemingly small behavioral influencers that we embed in the environment that suggest an improved course of action but still respect the right of the individual to self determine. They are just-in-time “pushes” that help us make better choices and avoid failures in self-regulation.
To quote from the site:
“What can often make the difference in the options we choose about our health are the nudges we get. Nudges are innovative little pushes that can help us make better choices. These pushes can come from anywhere: the cafeteria worker who arranges school lunches in such a way that children naturally gravitate toward selecting fruit and other healthy foods, as opposed to unhealthy options; the health plan that provides “vitality bucks,” an alternative currency that allows people to earn shopping and travel rewards every time they complete healthy activities such as preventive screenings or fitness assessments; or an anti-smoking and asset-building campaign that offers smokers hoping to quit the option to invest the money they would normally spend on cigarettes in a savings account.”
Clearly, effective nudges require insights into how our minds actually work. A design based on visceral factors (emotions, drive states, cravings), cognitive biases and the psychology of self-regulation is the stuff of an effective nudge.
