Designing change through everyday behaviour

I often think about how small shifts in behaviour ripple into big change. A raised eyebrow, a changed default, a nudged choice — these are the everyday levers of transformation.

Tools and technology are useful, but they carry no change unless behaviour shifts too. As we design new public services, community systems, or civic platforms, we must pay attention to behaviour first.

Here’s how I frame it — and how you might begin doing it too.

What “behaviour by design” really means

• People don’t resist change if it feels natural; they resist if it feels forced.
• Behaviour is less about exhortation and more about environment, cues, friction, and defaults.
• Many public systems assume people are perfectly rational — but they’re not. Behavioural science teaches us how people actually behave.

In the UK, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) (aka the “Nudge Unit”) was set up to bring behavioural science into public policy. They aim to design low-cost interventions that shape choices in beneficial ways. (centreforpublicimpact.org)

They use frameworks like EAST — make things Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely — to ground behavioural design in practice. (bi.team)

The OECD also tracks behavioural insight in public policy, showing how choice architecture, defaults, priming and social norms have been embedded across many countries. (oecd.org)

In service design, the UK’s Public Design Evidence Review emphasizes that design must be attentive to people’s lived experience — walking between objects, community, systems — to shape behaviour more meaningfully. (gov.uk)

Practical steps: designing for behaviour

1. Explore “unusual behaviours” already emerging

Talk with people doing things differently — neighbours, “eccentrics,” fringe users. What workarounds, hidden practices, informal patterns do they follow that deviate from the formal rulebook? These are behavioural signals.

2. Spot emerging habits and spreaders

Within your network, where are behaviours fanning out? Who are the connectors? What small acts seem to get imitated?

3. Decode motivations, attitudes and friction

Behind every behaviour lie reasons — emotional, social, cognitive. Map what helps and what hinders. Ask: “What would make this easier? What cues help me remember?”

4. Prototype behaviour shifts, evaluate & iterate

Don’t launch full-blown programmes — try micro-nudges. Change defaults, add reminders, use social proof, remove friction. Then measure not only adoption but intermediate behaviours: starts, drop-offs, repeats.

Examples

• The Chatty Café Scheme (UK) — a social enterprise where cafés mark tables where conversation with strangers is explicitly welcome. Simple sign + social cue changes how people behave in public. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Camden Bench (London, UK) — a piece of street furniture designed with behaviour in mind: it discourages undesirable acts (sleeping, loitering) by its shape and material, while allowing sitting. A controversial but real example of design shaping behaviour. (en.wikipedia.org)
• 4 Easy Ways to Apply EAST — the Behavioural Insights Team publishes practical cases where they increased uptake of services and health behaviours through subtle design. (bi.team)
• Nudge Units globally — from Australia to Germany, many countries have adopted behavioural insight teams to shift behaviours in health, energy and taxation. (blogs.worldbank.org)
• Bristol Legible City (UK) — a citywide wayfinding system that makes walking easier and more attractive, changing everyday mobility patterns through design. (en.wikipedia.org)

Why behaviour design matters for your organisations

• It’s low-cost leverage: small tweaks often yield big results.
• It bridges intent and action — what people say they will do, versus what they actually do.
• It builds trust and agency — when people feel the design understands their context, they’re more likely to act positively.
• It helps avoid blame or coercion — instead of telling people they’re wrong, you scaffold their choices.

Call to action

If you lead a service, policy area, or innovation team:

• Pick one behaviour you want to shift.
• Try a micro-nudge: change a default, add a reminder, simplify a form.
• Measure the small steps, not just the end results.
• Share learning early — including what didn’t work.

If you’re a community practitioner:

• Celebrate the behaviours people already do differently.
• Test small social cues — a sign, a space, an invitation — and see what changes.

If you’re a funder or policymaker:

• Ask for evidence of behavioural design in projects you back.
• Fund small experiments before scaling.
• Support training in behavioural science for local teams.

Behaviour design isn’t about manipulation. It’s about humility. About designing around how people really live.

The question I’d leave you with is: what small behaviour in your place, if shifted, could ripple into a bigger transformation?