There is a wealth of theoretical knowledge around behavior change theories and strategies. However, due to the lack of accessibility of that knowledge to designers, designing theory-based behavior change technological interventions can be challenging. Card-based design tools can make academic knowledge accessible to designers, providing a structured and creative design process. In this study, we present the Behavior Change Design Cards (BCD Cards) - a card deck developed from two behavior change theoretical models, the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change and a Taxonomy of 93 Behavior Change Techniques. Through an empirical study, we aim at evaluating the impact of the tool on designers' creativity, their capacity to create theoreticallygrounded designs, as well as the perceived usefulness and ease of use of the BCD cards as a supporting tool in the design of behavior change technologies.
Applying behavior change theory on design practice can be challenging due to the
vast amount of theories, models, and techniques. HCI researchers and designers
increasingly engage in the design of technological interventions for behavior change;
however, recent studies have revealed that only a limited number of behavior change
technologies have used theory in their design process, have implemented behavior
change techniques and undergone scientific research [
Design cards have been a popular design tool, supporting the translation of
research findings from one discipline into another [
The goal of this work-in-progress is the development of a card deck named as
Behavior Change Design Cards (BCD Cards) based on two behavior change theoretical
models, the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM) [
According to the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), an individual moves through a series
of stages and processes when modifying a behavior. The core of the model consists of
five stages of behavior change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action,
and maintenance [
An assumption of the TTM is that individuals can apply a set of processes of a
specific behavior. Cognitive, affective and evaluative processes are more used in the
early stages, while commitments, conditioning, contingencies, environmental controls
and support for achieving maintenance, are more used in the later stages. For the BCD
cards development, we focus on three out of ten processes of change that involve the
acquisition of new information and insights of the sort that might be obtained through
Personal Informatics (PI) [
Recent work by Michie et. al [
Both, the TTM and the BCTs have been expanded, validated, applied and challenged by researchers all over the world and are considered of the most potentially useful models applied in multiple health risk behavior interventions. 3
From the 93 BCTs, we chose and combined into 23 groups those that are easy to implement in technological interventions; each group represents a technique card of the BCD deck (see Figure 1). Then, each of those 23 techniques was classified into the five stages of behavior change (see Table 1).
The BCD cards consist of 31 two-sided cardboard cards in total; including, among others, five stages cards describing the different stages of behavior change and 23 techniques cards describing each of the behavior change techniques. The cards contain definitions, possible design directions, hints, questions, and pictured examples for supporting the design process (see Figure 2 for an example). 93 Behavior Change
Techniques 61 Remaining
Techniques 32 exluded: dificcult to be implemented in technological interventions 23 Groups of
Techniques Techniques per category:
Min = 1 Max = 8
Classification of the 23 techniques to the five stages of behavior change
Through an empirical study, we aim at evaluating the impact of the tool on designers’ creativity, their capacity to create theoretically-grounded designs, as well as the perceived usefulness and ease of use of the BCD cards as a supporting tool in the design of behavior change technologies.