The story of Jerry the Bear is inspirational on a number of levels. This is a bear with a difference – a teddy designed to help children diagnosed with diabetes manage and understand their condition. Jerry’s eyelids can close to show he is low in energy, until he is fed certain foods or given a [...]
Clean air from smart buildings?
Looking at design solutions, we have photocatalytic clothing that can purify the air as the wearer moves around, so why not apply a similar concept to architectural materials to help cleanse the air outside? That is just the premise behind Reynobond with EcoClean, which is touted as an “architectural panel that cleans itself and the [...]
Ultimate alarm clock
Design approaches to change can be very effective. A number of my behaviour change workshop participants say they want to get up early/on time/when their alarm goes off. They feel their present instruments of wakening are not suited to their desire and habit of sleeping in. The Ramos Alarm Clock, from Paul Sammut, may be [...]
Experience Food at Work
I am always on the look out for case-studies which take at a multi-prong approach to changing behaviour. As we spent a large percentage of our time at work, this can be a great place to start changing behaviour. ‘Experience Food at Work’ was a pilot initiative that aimed to improve workplace eating behaviours at [...]
Water For People
Yesterday – March 22 – was UN World Water Day, which is a good opportunity to take a moment and consider some of the organisations which are dedicated to bringing this basic human right to people around the world. Water For People is an international organisation which brings together local entrepreneurs, governments, and communities to [...]
User pays for food waste
South Korea is about to roll out a new weight-based food waste fee system. New bins have been fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that will charge residents and business owners for the amount of food waste they create. This is a great example of a design approach to behaviour change. Users will tap [...]
Case of the week: Fuel Zone
Fuel Zone was developed by Glasgow City Council to combat the combat the declining number of young people eating school meals, which resulted in children either eating junk food or at times no lunch, during schooltime. The Fuel Zone concept aimed to revamp the image of the school meals service and reward healthy eating. It [...]
Using gaming principles
Drawing on gaming principles to drive change is an emerging and interesting area. There’s nothing like tangible rewards to help motivate people to do the right thing, and protecting the environment is no exception. French CitéGreen is a a site that rewards participants with points — redeemable for gifts and discounts — whenever they perform [...]
Quit It Pro
Our article on digital apps last week prompted the suggestion that Quit It Pro is a great app for people wanting to give up smoking – thanks to Luke van der Beeke, Director at The National Social Marketing Centre for the suggestion. Changing a behaviour such as smoking is complex and there are many levers [...]
Road Crew
At our Atlas workshops we do some exercises on clearly defining the behaviour(s) we want to change. We also look at these from the perspective of ourselves as individuals -which can be quite enlightening. It’s always easier to change someone else’s behaviour! The temptation is to move across behaviours and try to change the world. [...]