Systemic Behavioral Design for Public Health Policy
Schmidt, R., Chen, Z., & Soldan, V. P. (2022). Choice Posture, Architecture, and Infrastructure: Systemic Behavioral Design for Public Health policy. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 8(4), 504–525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2022.08.002
Abstract
Designing for different dimensions of choice suggests the need for a cross-disciplinary approach, which leverages knowledge about behavioral tendencies, insight into end users, and methods for designing system-level solutions.
The demands of many public health contexts and challenges call for conditions that foster effective decision making. Policy designers must make appropriate choices appear viable, accessible, and beneficial. They can do this by harnessing transdisciplinary knowledge about behavioral tendencies, simultaneously integrating insights into end users and non-human agents, and employing design methods for system-level solutions. We propose a “choice triad” model to help practitioners frame transdisciplinary approaches to complex public health challenges and design effective conditions for choice. It has three lenses: choice posture, to reveal human and non-human agents’ predispositions and inclinations; choice architecture, to improve immediate choice environments and encourage preferred actions; and choice infrastructure, to reveal the underlying system structures, processes, and policies that shape how potential public health solutions are accessed and supported. This approach promises to augment traditional design tools and expand current conceptions of available “economies of choice” when crafting behavioral public policy solutions. In combination, these lenses can provide a new conceptual syntax and working model to diagnose and develop solutions within complex public health settings. We introduce two examples to illustrate this model: the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and Covid-19 vaccination efforts in the United States.
Key Words
Humanity-centered design | #Behavioral design | Choice architecture | Choice infrastructure | Condition design | #PublicHealth policy
Highlights
Public health policy can derive benefit from an interdisciplinary approach that integrates human-centered and strategic design, systems thinking, and behavioral science.
The use of a “choice triad” model that encompasses choice posture, choice architecture, and choice infrastructure can help bridge disciplinary gaps.
The triad can be employed throughout the design process, supporting diagnostic, generative, and evaluative design activities.
Together these lenses can shift policymakers’ attention beyond public health outputs alone toward designing and maintaining conditions that allow solutions to flourish (condition design).
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