PP3 // NUX LEEDS TALK - UX AND BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

On the 24th of November, I attended the NUX talk based in Marshall Mills, Leeds. The talk was held by Mark Spooner, a PhD student in Human Computer Interaction and Behaviour Change and Dr Claire Easthall, Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the University of Leeds. The topic of discussion was about User experience and behaviour change.

Venue

Mark kicked off the talk by introducing what he does within his PHD and his specialist area within childhood obesity. He started with a brief summary of persuasive behaviour; the dark side and the light side. Dark side being malicious companies using unethical persuasive techniques to entice consumers to buy their products such as cigarettes and junk food.

 Good side being on the moral side of persuasion such as, directing consumers to change their unhealthy habits or using symbolic signs or visual communication for a positive change such as a sign telling drivers to drive under 20 mph when passing by a school.

A good point was made by Mark when he discussed the unhappy traffic sign face (image below). He discussed that when drivers speed higher than 20 mph then the 'unhappy face' flashes notifying the driver that they have gone over the speed limit. Mark mentioned about social judgement from other drivers knowing that he sped through a school zone and how effective that sense of social pressure could potentially persuade the driver to slow down.

Mark discussed population behaviour change. Using the example of the colour of cigarette cartons and how the government researched and used the worst colour they found to put off smokers from purchasing fags. Another example that was used was the screen that hides the cigarettes, the screen breaks up the subconscious identifiers of the cigarette packaging. If the consumer doesn't see the packaging then it makes the persuasion of the packaging less effective as it isn't on show to influence consumers. 

Claire Easthall was next to expand on from Mark's discussion. With a background in pharmacy her specialist area within PHD was researching into why patients don't take their medicine. Her talk was situated around her researching into this question and how she digested a number of behaviour theories and with that knowledge conducted a questionnaire to gather research on this question of why patients don't take their medicines. Finally, from the results, she was able to construct a theoretical framework that could be applied to further her research and create some sort of digital product.

Stages of change model, which could be used to help smokers quit. All stages that they had to go through. If one part of the circle is broken or skipped then the whole process collapse but if the smoker makes it through all stages then they often quit.

This was the theoretical framework Claire and her team created. Two columns demonstrating the domain and the barrier of that specific domain in relation to "why don't patients take their medicine?". For example, a patient may have asthma and need to take an asthma pump. In terms of the domain knowledge, the patient may not know how to take the asthma pump or is unable due to arthritis in their hands. In the domain of motivation and goals the patient may not be able to afford the precription, they may have bills or shopping that need paying for, so the conflict between finance worries and health collide. These are only two examples out of many that Claire presented. 

Mark and claire talked more about behaviour changes but these were the key points I took away. There was a lot of stuff they discussed which was above my expertise but hopefully, I will begin to digest more the approaches once I begin to engage with more UX talks. However, the talk was extremely insightful and inspiring and only enlightened my interest in the subject. Is was very interesting to get a different viewpoint from Claire then just a UX designer. it's also intriguing at how disciplines can overlap with each other. 

It would be great if I could attempt to approach a brief within 'extended practice' by gathering primary research based on a theoretical framework of some sort. The only barrier in the way is time. Claire spent 3 years working on her research and analysing user research and a 75k grant! But essentially a small-scale version can always be undertaken. 

Very great talk!