Yale School of Management (SOM) organizational ethnographer Julia DiBenigno spends years meticulously observing and interviewing people at work. By taking seriously their lived experience, she can uncover the root causes of complex problems and devise solutions that change organizations for the better.
Sludge is friction through unnecessary red tape. Cass R. Sunstein wrote a book about it and the OECD is currently exploring the contribution that behavioural science can make to service design by partnering with the Government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia to reduce unjustified frictions in citizens' interactions with government.
Fast Company published today an excerpt of the new book Unbottled by Daniel Jaffee in which he highlights the five factors why consumers purchase bottled water, or how have they been persuaded to do so - fashion, flavor, fitness, frequent drinking, and fear - and zeroes in on the last one.
Certain types of means of payment now seem indispensable for full participation in socioeconomic activity, yet they’re not necessarily available to everyone.
This study has collated evidence which on balance indicates a strong case to reform digital advertising. It indicates that the status quo is unsustainable for individuals, publishers and advertisers.
UXMatters devoted two articles to the business value of user experience: one by Irwin Hau (Chromatix, Australia) on why companies reject it, and one by Irfan Rehman (Clickysoft, USA) on the benefits of user experience consulting for businesses.
Robots Won't Save Japan addresses the Japanese government's efforts to develop care robots in response to the challenges of an aging population, rising demand for eldercare, and a critical shortage of care workers.
Two articles in the last few days took on the world of consulting. Rebecca Ackermann in the MIT Technology Review wrote on how the shine of design thinking has worn off, while Henry Mance interviewed Mariana Mazzucato in the Financial Times on her new book The Big Con, where she lambasts business consultancies for having no expertise in the areas that they’re advising in.
The online voting platform that was used by Italy's Five Star Movement to select the candidates for the 2013 parliamentary elections didn't take account of human decision heuristics and cognitive shortcuts, research shows.
Candidates were more likely to attract votes if they appeared towards the top of the screen and if they appeared more likeable from the self-uploaded picture.
Dutch and European research highlights the struggles of Europeans (incl. the Dutch) in accessing financial services in an increasingly digital society. A new Italian initiative, the Polis Project, seeks to do something about it.
But, besides the fairly low 54 percent EU average, a new study by the Dutch National Bank (reported on yesterday by De Volkskrant, a Dutch daily newspaper) highlights how the Dutch 80% number camouflages the real difficulties many Dutch have with financial services in an increasingly digital society.
In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of Big Finance and Big Tech requires “cloudmoney”—digital money underpinned by the banking sector—to replace physical cash.
Book is also available in German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese & Korean
PepsiCo’s award-winning chief design officer reveals the secret to creating life-changing innovations: putting human needs at the center of any design process.
Leroy Merlin is a French-headquartered home improvement and gardening retailer. Its Leroy Merlin Source (LMS) platform aims to create and share original knowledge on new ways of living and inhabiting spaces by expert researchers, professionals and stakeholders.
These are guidelines for any individual or organisation interested in designing, planning, and implementing a citizen participation process. The guidelines walk the reader through ten practical steps, and detail eight different methods that can be used to involve citizens in policy making. This publication is illustrated with good practice examples.
A report by researchers at New York University warns that biometric and other digital ID systems that are increasingly linked to large-scale human rights violations, especially in the Global South.
In the three years since the last Global Happiness and Well-Being Policy Report, governments have faced a cascade of challenges to the well-being of their populations.
How to use systems thinking to drive improved outcomes in complex situations.
Many behavioral scientists propose and test interventions that attack policy problems by seeking to change individual behavior (adopting an “i-frame”) rather than the system in which they operate (an “s-frame”). Such i-frame interventions, which typically have small or null effects, reduce support from more effective systemic actions (such as regulation and taxation). For this reason, researchers advocating i-frame solutions may have unwittingly helped promote the interests of corporations who oppose systemic change.
One of the key success factors of Regulatory Technology ("RegTech") is a commitment to radical user-centricity, according to a new white paper by the World Economic Forum.
Applying behavioural science to environmental challenges can help policymakers better target and redirect unsustainable behaviours. This report draws on published work to provide an overview of behaviourally informed interventions, why they should be considered by governments and how they can be devised and applied.
