An Introduction to Behavior-Centered Design

 Course type: Self-paced course

Languages: English, Spanish

Duration: 10 modules

Estimated effort: 4 hours total

 Partners: Rare – Center for Behavior & the Environment (BE.Center), United Nations Development Programme

 Donors: With support from the Moore Foundation

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About this course

Human behavior is at the core of many environmental challenges. And it's also key to finding solutions. This self-paced course will introduce you to Behavior-Centered Design (BCD), an approach that blends principles of design thinking and behavioral science to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges.

On your own time, you’ll explore the eight steps of Behavior-Centered Design through lessons and interactive activities, including framing an environmental challenge, gaining empathy with your target audience, connecting research data to behavioral insights, ideation and prototyping, testing and launching, and measuring the success of your behavioral intervention. You will also gain a basic understanding of the levers of behavior change such as such as emotional appeals, social influences, and choice architecture.

Learning objectives

By the time the course is completed, you will:

• Learn how to identify target behaviors and core actors for environmental challenges
• Understand key concepts of behavior-centered design and the six behavior levers
• Apply behavioral insights and principles to inform how to design and test solutions
• Use research data to create a prototype of a solution that can engage different stakeholders and communities
• Become familiar with next steps for testing, launching, and assessing a behavioral solution
• Understand how diversity, equity, and inclusion are important for each step of the behavior-centered design approach

Course topics

• Module 1: Introduction and Welcome to the Course
• Module 2: Frame: Framing the Behavioral Challenge
• Module 3: Empathize: Understanding the Motivations and Barriers of Core Actors
• Module 4: Map: Making Connections Between Data and Behavioral Insights
• Module 5: Ideate: Generating Behavioral Solution Ideas
• Module 6: Prototype: Creating a Small-Scale Version of Your Solution
• Module 7: Test: Testing and Gathering Feedback on Your Solution
• Module 8: Launch: Launching Your Solution
• Module 9: Assess: Evaluating Behavior Change
• Module 10: Course Summary and Next Steps

Course completion requirements

To receive the certificate of course completion, you must:

• Complete ten modules
• Complete eight quizzes and one final assessment
• Complete the course satisfaction survey