be a fix for their personal, professional, and community challenges. The field, which explains the hidden forces that drive human decision-making, is becoming a vital tool for building the future.
Amy Bucher jumps headfirst into this moment with Engaged, a practical, fun, and inspiring book about designing for change. Dr. Bucher knows that behavioral science doesn’t provide a silver bullet to solve our problems in a single shot. So she outfits us with a bandolier full of bullets, explains what each does and why, shows how others have fired them, gives a little moral guidance, and sets us off, like Rambo, to save the day.
Okay, that dated reference was a little dramatic. The point is: I love this book and everything it offers us.
It’s an accessible, relatable, and usable real-world how-to that should be on every designer’s nightstand. Not only does Dr. Bucher explain the science for both newbies and seasoned pros—she makes big, scary words seem small and friendly—but she also uses hundreds of specific examples that pull the concepts right off the page. Reading about designers who have already executed these ideas helps us picture ourselves doing the same. She finishes each section with perspectives from leading practitioners, which not only brings our challenges and opportunities into greater focus, but also makes me wonder why I was relegated to the foreword. What the heck, Amy?
Despite that slight, what I really love about Engaged is that it’s grounded in science. Dr. Bucher put the science first, even if that costs her some easy “solutions.” She knows that behavioral science tempts some people either to sell easy fixes where none exist or to dismiss it all as some “cheesy Instagram motivational quote rabbit hole.” In order to avoid either of those fates, Dr. Bucher calls on us to be guided both by the scientific method and by ethics. We can stick to clear ethical, moral, and trust-based principles and still make life-changing products.
Oh, and this dang thing is well-written, too! Dr. Bucher packs a lot of ideas in here, but does so with depth and appreciation for our cognitive skills and limits. She does it, I think, not so we just throw these ideas against the wall, but so that we appreciate the holistic, well-rounded, contextual approach, which will be key to the design of the future. Yes, our bandolier has a lot of bullets, but Amy loads each one with care, understanding, and purpose.
People will love this book because, like an 80s stand-up straightening his or her necktie, we’re all asking, “What’s the deal with behavioral science?” How can we balance optimism, progress, and excitement with pragmatism and a dash of caution? What is the guidance and knowledge we need to ensure that we’re riding this moment in the right direction? Amy Bucher’s Engaged answers those questions.
I wish I had written this book, and I can’t wait to share it with the world.
—Jeff Kreisler
Editor-in-chief, PeopleScience.com Coauthor, Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter
INTRODUCTION
When I tell people I’m a psychologist, there are certain reactions I’ve come to expect. One is people asking if I can read their minds. (No. That’s a psychic.) Another is people asking if I am diagnosing them based on our conversation. (No. I’m not a clinician, and even if I were, why would I work for free?) And very often, people ask if I’m able to force others into behaving a certain way using the tricks of psychology. (Another no.)
For better or for worse, psychology is not magic. And it’s certainly not about forcing people to do something! There’s no guarantee that using psychology will yield the desired outcome 100% of the time for 100% of the people. But what psychology can do is increase the odds that products built with its tools and insights will be effective at changing specific behaviors in the people who use them. Psychology may not be magic, but when I was a newly minted Ph.D. first applying its tools to design digital experiences that made people healthier, it sure felt like it.
Psychology offers both scientific tools and methods that can be used to understand what influences behaviors, as well as evidence-based techniques to change them. I’m excited to share how you can use psychology to make the digital programs you design and build more engaging for users. If your products are intended to change people’s behavior, then psychology is essential for your design toolkit. Even if they’re not, a strategic dash of science will still help you create better products.
Aside from genuinely geeking out about using psychology as a design tool, I also wanted to write this book to help people join me in this type of work. Over the years, I’ve met so many people who wanted to become behavior change designers but don’t know how. There aren’t many formal training programs (yet), and there is no curriculum of essential knowledge. And while there are a lot of great behavior change frameworks, tools, and books, there aren’t very many that specifically apply the psychology of motivation to the design of digital experiences, the thing that’s been the core of my job for more than ten years. I’ve done lots of coffee meetings and phone calls and blog posts, but I wanted a more enduring resource that people could really use. This book, I hope, will be it.
Relax, Take It Easy
While this book has mostly been a delight to write, it’s also incited a few existential crises and more than one extended bout of procrastination. It was during one of those latter phases that I started combing Spotify for song titles related to the content of the book. Please enjoy the chapter titles and send me any suggestions I should add to the book’s unofficial soundtrack.
With a Little Help from My Friends
Every chapter concludes with an interview with someone who is an expert in the topic of that chapter. I wanted to include other voices alongside mine to show the variety of ways that behavior change design could be done. In some cases, I knew that an expert interviewee could provide an in-depth example or specific pro tactics that would enrich the main content of the chapter. In others, the experts provided a wider lens that helped the reader view the chapter in a broader context.
These interviews were such a treat to do. They were an excuse for me to connect with old friends and make new ones, and to highlight people whose work has inspired me. I’m grateful to all of them. I hope you’ll think they’re as fantastic as I do.
Truth Hurts
Over the last decade or so, the field of psychology has entered a “replication crisis.” Basically, when researchers repeated classic psychology studies, they got different results, putting the initial findings into question. In some unfortunate cases, it seems the original researchers fudged their results. Those studies are as good as dead.
But other cases are less clear-cut. Maybe the statistical analyses were not as stringent as they should have been, so the effect exists but is weaker than originally thought. In some older papers, the original methods weren’t described well enough to follow exactly, or are no longer appropriate, given advancements in technology and knowledge. (Try doing a study on people who are new Internet users—it’s near impossible now.) Or sometimes, some studies on a topic replicate and others don’t. In these middle cases, more research is needed to figure out what’s really going on.
I mention this because some of the topics in this book have been touched by the replication crisis, such as willpower and the growth mindset. I carefully reviewed the current state of the evidence for the studies I included and feel comfortable that they’re valid. I also omitted some classic studies, with no small heartache, because the science is still in question.
The replication crisis means there’s a little extra vigilance needed from anyone who uses psychological research in their work. Incorporating a literature review into your behavior change design process as an early step will help you avoid leaning on outdated studies.
Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2
One thing I get asked a lot, probably because I have one, is if you