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Social
Behavior
Design
Norbert Krizsán
World Interaction Design Day 2019

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Disclaimer
This presentation was originally a talk at the 2019 World Interaction
Design Day (IxDD) at Budapest, Hungary so obviously the original
slides had to be changed to accommodate to this format. (Or if you
prefer to rather watch the talk you can do it on the IxDA vimeo
channel as well.)
There are a few changes compared to that deck but the intention and
the message hadn’t changed – it’s always about how design
decisions not only change the users’ experience but also induce
social behavior changes which should be considered and
addressed by designers.
And now this disclaimer is out of the way, let’s jump right into the
topic!
Just a quick note,
really.

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.We can safely make a few.
.generalized assumptions.
.as our basic premises.

4.
Technology changes, human intentions don’t.
Today people would still like to meet others, buy things, or have fun the same as
they did twenty or so years ago. On the other hand technology is in overdrive with
new gadgets, services, and wonders popping up every week.
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As tech changes, interactions change.
New technology enables us to do things faster, more efficiently, over a
broader audience. This opportunity changes how we interact with
technology and more importantly with each other.
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As interactions change, social behavior changes.
Doing it enough times these new interactions get ingrained into our everyday
lives and become the norm inducing changes in our social behavior.
For better or worse.
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.Fruits of bad changes are now pretty.
.much visible: Cambridge .Analytica,.
.QAnon or the.Rohingya genocide..

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Exploited privacy issues, no limitation on
spreading unfalsifiable claims, and hate amplified
by information bubble can be viewed as culprits.

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But... aren’t designers responsible as well?
Can we do something to spot these pitfalls and design
around them to avoid these?

10.
Let’s take a good, hard look at how the design process
works and find holes where things can go wrong.
This is going to be an overly simplified version of How Things
Get Done, the design process, and its context. Just saying.
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PEOPLE BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
Let’s simplify the digital world to three actors.
The People, who just want to get things done,
so their life gets a little bit better, and they can
keep on living. The Business, which that
create products and services which they sell
for money, so they can create better products
and services, and they also can keep on living.
The Technology, which is constantly on the
drive to improve itself (and can keep on living)
and enables a crucial cycle.
People are using Technology in their everyday
life, which Technology drives Business, which
Business provides the products or services for
the People that they use.
using drives
provides

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This also works the other way around as well:
People give resources (money or data) for the
Business, so they can finance and utilize
Technology, which in return enables People to
get their jobs done better so they can continue
using the Product that the Business provides.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
enabling utilize
resources

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As we know, most of the time these loops are
realized through The Product.
If a Business would just randomly create a
Product, the feasible, two-way flow of the
previous circle could be incidental, so in the
past hundred years or so Conscious Design
was introduced so the outcome of the creation
process is more predictable.
How it is done?
TECHNOLOGY
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT

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We need to know what the people want to do
and how they do it at the moment and what
the business wants, so we research them, and
using the resulting data, we design the
product, then implement it (and test it,
ofcourse) and release it into the wild.
We then measure how the people interact
with the product and based on that data we
modify the product through the same process
and cycle continues, creating a product that fits
the people and the business better than it did
in the previous iteration.
What is happening at each arrow?
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE

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During research we gather raw data from and
about the people and the business; this also
happens during measurement, where the
people’s action generates the data. All these
information then get synthesized.
The design then creates the designs based on
this data, their skills, resources and experience,
which designs then get coded and
implemented into a product.
This is the very rough simplification of the
design process and the system we live and
work in.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE
raw
data
raw
data
action
code
raw
data
designs
synthesized
data

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Now. Let’s assume that everyone involved in this process
is skilled, experienced and knows what they are doing.
At which point is it possible that we miss something, or
straight up introduce bad intentions or malice?

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During research we can be biased, we can ask
only the people we want to ask. We can also
ignore or misinterpret the data even
unintentionally.
Business can be limited in capabilities and/or
resources and they can also require some
pretty dark naughty stuff as well.
These biases, misinterpretation, and
single-point-of-view approach (businesses
often fall into this trap) can lead to
distorted raw research and synthesized
data.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE
raw
data
raw
data
action
code
raw
data
designs
synthesized
data

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During the designs steps, dark patterns pop
up quickly, but we can make the users do what
we want them to do other ways as well.
Usually, we design reactively, which means
we get the research data and simply act upon
it. However, it’s worse that we can be
prescriptive as well, which means that we
check the research data and based on that, we
decide what would be better for the people.
Prescriptive design is not necessarily a dark
hat practice but since it can be easily
misused and cause trouble in the long run,
I’d say it’s at least in the grey area.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE
raw
data
raw
data
action
code
raw
data
designs
synthesized
data

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Implementation seems quite harmless as it
looks like every flow and feature is already
decided, right?
But the scariest thing that come to my mind is
that we can create a backdoor for not-so-kind
third parties, so they can surveil the people
through the product, whenever they need to
for whatever reasons they have.
Such backdoors or vulnerabilities can exist
without us realizing them so we have to
actively look for them and close them.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE
THIRD PARTY
raw
data
raw
data
action
code
raw
data
designs
synthesized
data

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And finally, during the measurement, sadly,
we can do some real damage.
We can measure anything that technology and
malicious creativity enables us, and even
better, we can aggregate one’s data from
different sources. It’s not impossible nowadays
to de-anonymize data once you have enough
data points and sources.
Data aggregation can be fully legit but
again it can lead to consequences that is
not wanted by the people.
PEOPLE BUSINESS
THE
PRODUCT
RESEARCH DESIGN
IMPLEMENT
RELEASE
MEASURE
THIRD PARTY
raw
data
raw
data
action
code
raw
data
designs
synthesized
data

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We can see that even within our best intentions
bad consequences can happen.
Is there a way to at least minimize them?

22.
Learn about ethics.
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Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering and defending your
values, principles and purpose.
Ethics is about decisions, about what do you decide and
why do you decide in a wayyou do.

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What would happen
if everyone did
what we are about
to do?
Explore what would happen if the
principles you base your design on
would be universal.

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Are we really
helping people?
Have a discussion about your intentions.
Are you helping your users so they can
reach their goals, or are you using your
users so YOU can reach your goals?

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Howwould we react if
tomorrow everyone
would knowwhat
we’ve decided today?
We should reflect more often. Think
about and explore the consequences
and the consequences of the
consequences.

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Are we making the
world a better
place?
Do our actions create a better place to
live in?

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Howwill this
decision change us?
What will our decisions change in us as
a person? Will it have an effect on the
company we work for and if yes, what
could it be?

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Is there anything
we can only accept
but not change?
And last but not least, is there anything
in play that is non-negotiable, anything
that is a hard limit?

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.Remember:.
.no right orwrong answers.

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.None of us intend to.
.harm or let people suffer,.
this is our principle..

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.We value, strive for.
.and seek to protect the.
well-being of everyone..

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.Our purpose is to design
products that are not only.
useable but useful as well..

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.Designers.
.have to know ethics..

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Thank you
foryour
attention!
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This presentation on Social Behavior Design
was created by Norbert Krizsán, Head of UX
Design at Mito Digital. If you’re interested in
how we put theory into practice then check out
some of our works at mito.hu/digital