As the field of user experience design (UXD) rapidly evolves, the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA), NJ Chapter chapter is devoted to supporting UX professionals through all stages of their careers. Similarly, our mission at MBS is to provide our students with exposure to industry professionals and current topics in the industry.
On January 26th, UXPA/NJ and the Rutgers Professional Science Master’s (PSM) program welcomed Tobias Komischke, Ph.D., to provide insight into the field of UXD and how it interacts with other disciplines. His lecture—entitled “Behavior Design: Your customers and users are irrational - so what and now what?”—examined how design shapes human behavior and how designers can understand irrational behavior.
Komischke, who describes himself as an evangelist for user- and customer-centered design strategy and processes, is UX Fellow at Infragistics, Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in UXD. He is also an adjunct professor at MBS for the course Introduction to User Experience Design, part of our UXD concentration. He has been a guest lecturer for our new course Introduction to Product Design.
In his presentation, Komischke used real-life examples to illustrate how design shapes behavior. He presented instances of when humans behave irrationally, raising the question of how a designer can shape behavior if the behavior is not rational. This can be examined by using principles from different fields (much like the interdisciplinary nature of the master of science and business degree). In this case, Komischke drew from the fields of economics and psychology—specifically Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory. Komischke concluded his presentation by explaining the three factors behind changing human behavior:
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Level of motivation an individual has to change their behavior
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Ability to change behavior. How easy or hard it is to change.
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Prompt. The trigger point. This can be a call-to-action button or design element.
To understand the influence of these three factors, consider the choices you make in your own life. What influences you to start a healthy habit or to donate to a charity?
If you are interested in learning more from Komischke, he provided insight into ethical issues regarding design on the panel “The Social Responsibility of UX and Product Designers.”
The PSM frequently teams up with UXPA/NJ to provide our students with networking opportunities and industry insight. We collaborated on the 2022 UXPA/NJ Design Slam, where four MBS students were spread across the two winning teams. We also joined forces for the presentation “Decoding UX Job Titles and Job Descriptions,” which helped students understand the many UX job titles on the market and make informed decisions about which titles to pursue.
The PSM program frequently hosts webinars and lectures from industry experts relating to our concentrations. Visit our events page to view upcoming events. You can also stay up to date by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.