Cassandra Final

Much of modern habit change stems from two disjoint approaches. Behavioral biologists study habits using brain imaging and rigorous tests, and often propose low-tech proposals for habit change. Designers build technological solutions with little behavioral grounding and test their solutions against naïve control groups.  Habit change remains difficult and the time is overdue to merge the technological solutions of designers with the rigorous theoretical foundation built by behavioral biologists. This paper describes my own attempts to design behavior intervention devices and how I, too, fell into the trap of designing without considering the underlying biological processes.

Full Paper: Technology for Habit Change