Behavioral Design

Improve your products and services with behavioral science

We design interventions that change behavior in measurable ways.

Behavioral Research Behavioral Design Experimental Validation Courses and training (Spanish)

Intervention concept

A toolkit of interventions

We choose the intervention based on the real barrier we found.

Default option

Reduce friction

Progress and feedback

Social norm

Timing

Physical design

Example · endowed progress client's product, intervention by us

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+2 free · our intervention

Why it works · endowed progress effect

When people see progress that's already started toward a goal, they complete it faster and more often.

Nunes & Drèze (2006) · Journal of Consumer Research

We choose the intervention based on evidence, and test it before scaling.

Behavioral design · intervention + mechanismHeurística Lab

Product developers and innovation teams aim to create great experiences for their users. It's an exciting challenge, but also a complex one: it's never easy to design solutions when people (all of us) make illogical choices, get distracted easily, or don't follow the instructions we're given.

At Heurística Lab we firmly believe that the best tool for solving these kinds of challenges is applying behavioral science. This field brings together disciplines like psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive science, and focuses on understanding the mechanisms humans use to process information and make decisions.

The integration of behavioral science and design is known as Behavioral Design. It's a design process focused on shaping decision contexts, using knowledge from behavioral science to design solutions for behavior change.

Our Behavioral Design approach adapts the scientific method to the world of business, connecting theory and scientific evidence to results an organization can actually apply.

What does a Behavioral Design project involve?

Business case: "The supermarket challenge"

Imagine you work for a supermarket dealing with a high level of food waste, especially in fruits and vegetables. This leads to financial losses and a negative environmental impact, so the supermarket wants to effectively reduce that waste. To design solutions, they hire Heurística Lab and share the case background, based on their own previous studies.

Stage #1: Defining objectives and identifying barriers

This means defining a specific behavior we want to change, and a behavioral barrier we want to address with the solutions we'll propose.

Example of a specific target behavior:
Wrong: "Reduce fruit and vegetable waste." Right: "Increase purchases of fruits and vegetables near their expiration date, among supermarket customers."

Example of the main barrier to tackle:
Customers' beliefs about the freshness and quality of products nearing expiration. Supermarket customers associate items close to their expiration date with lower quality, freshness, or food safety, so they tend not to choose them.

Stage #2: Gathering successful precedents

This means looking for solutions, interventions, or studies carried out in similar contexts and on similar problems. The main input is scientific literature and reports on interventions from a behavioral science perspective.

Stage #3: Ideating solutions

This means designing a set of possible solutions to eliminate or reduce the effect of the selected barrier, increasing the likelihood that the target behavior occurs.

Example of solutions developed through Behavioral Design:

Reframing the product: We use the framing principle to design a solution that changes how users perceive product freshness, by reframing the communication strategy. For example, instead of emphasizing that products are "about to expire," we could label them "Today's pick" or "Fresh selection for today."

Satisfaction guarantee: We apply the principle of loss aversion and offer a "satisfaction guarantee" on the fruits and vegetables on sale. If a customer isn't satisfied with the quality of a product, they can get an immediate refund or replacement. This reduces the customer's perceived risk of "losing" their money and increases their trust in the product.

After designing solutions following Heurística Lab's Behavioral Design approach, they're ready to move into prototyping and subsequent validation.

Let's design solutions people actually use

Work with the Heurística Lab team to develop products, services, and processes grounded in behavioral science.

Design or co-design of solutions: from project kickoff through implementation and outcome evaluation.

Expert review: auditing and actionable recommendations to improve ideas or prototypes before they're implemented.

Capability building: in-house, in-person courses tailored to each organization's needs.

Ready to redesign a key decision in your business?

Let's talk about your next project.