Applied Behavioral Analysis and User Experience Design
Reflections of how past experiences as a special education professional formed a foundation as a designer.
Before design, I taught the special needs population.
B. F. Skinner
Father of behavioral analysis
A quick backstory for reference: I studied human developed in college and was mentored by a professor who worked directly with B.F. Skinner, the father of behavioral analysis. My studies centered around the holistic growth development of humans. It was fitting that throughout those four years in school (with an additional three after graduation), I taught, coached, cared, and mentored individuals with learning and cognitive disabilities. Each individual always had a team of teachers, therapists, advocates, aides and parents each weighing into one area of that individual’s life. This holistic approach had the primary goal of helping the individual succeed in meeting set goals. I primarily worked in the spheres of education (school) and aides (at home personal care).
Working with the disabled population requires a set of unique methods which are typically modified from “normal” instructions. These modifications aim to help students/people complete tasks, regulate behavior, or teach new skills. Each person requires a personalized, multifaceted approached, but there are many techniques that overlap from person to person.
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)
First, what is Applied Behavioral Analysis? ABA, for short, is a therapy used to improve behaviors primarily of those with autism but also can include individuals with psychological disorders or cognitive disabilities used in a variety of settings. Psychology Today defines ABA as:
“a type of therapy that focuses on improving specific behaviors, such as social skills, communication, reading, and academics as well as adaptive learning skills, such as fine motor dexterity, hygiene, grooming, domestic capabilities, punctuality, and job competence. ABA is primarily used to treat those with autism, but it's effective for children and adults with psychological disorders in a variety of settings, including schools, workplaces, homes, and clinics.” Source
ABA is a cornerstone in special education. Many times students with cognitive, behavioral, or developmental disabilities need mentoring on basic expected behaviors. An effective therapy used is ABA.
To effectively use ABA a goal must be defined. To develop goals, data (in the form of qualitative and quantitative) research is typically preformed. From here the team can start to formulate an educational/behavioral plan to teach or correct a key behavior.
ABA has 4 main principles:
Behaviors are affected by environment
Behaviors can be strengthened or weakened by consequence
Behavior changes are more effective with positive reinforcement (as opposed to negative consequences)
Behaviors need continual reinforcement or disciplined for significant change
User Experience Design and Behavior
The UX field exists as a way to understand human to computer interaction. By uncovering the user’s behaviors and thought processes designers can create digital products that server the user in a (hopefully) positive way. Helping users achieve tasks not only benefits them, but helps the company also meet their goals. A symbiotic relationship is formed when the user experience meets business objectives.
Methods to better empathize with users are used used in the research portion of the UX cycle.
Intersecting UX and ABA
Live Nation equally amps the user by congratulating them on completing the task of purchasing tickets.
Understanding behavior is crucial in making excellent products. Let’s use some principles of ABA to demonstrate the overlaps in UX design:
Environment: what is the user’s environment while using the product? Are they in a calm environment? A busy environment? At concert? At Work? Traveling? What are some potential factors within the environment that may affect the user? How are they feeling?
Positive Reinforcement: Classic human psychology and behavior is centered around operant conditioning (here’s a great article explaining it). Think about when you use digital products what are some interactions, animations, or graphics that excite you? The Couch to 5K app is a great example of positive reinforcement. During your run you will hear your coach cheer you on and motivate you to keep going. It usually chimes in at the halfway point, which is a great motivator to keep going.
Canyon Coffee utilizes good UX copy when reminding users that they have abandoned their cart.
Positive Consequences > Negative Consequences: Simply put, humans respond to positive affirmations more than negative. Have you ever noticed the congratulations at the end of an ordering sequence online? You are congratulated that you completed the task and it feels good! Image the converse… a message telling the user “you failed!” (Yikes!) If a product used negative language or gestures to indicate that a task was not complete, a user may not enjoy using it.
An example of this is an abandoned cart email. You want users to make the sale, so using kind, on-brand, direct language is a way to enforce a positive consequence (the sale).
Conclusions
I read a book on UX recently that told a story of a nuclear plant in the 60’s that a control interface designed by engineers (not designers) It took a series of training for operators to understand how use the interface. One day one of the nuclear cooling mechanisms malfunctioned but the trained employees did not know how to troubleshoot- since the buttons did not intuitively work. One wrong button could be catastrophic. At the last moment, before a major explosion, an employee observed what the problem was and analyzed a solution that ended up working. The moral of the story: human-computer interaction matters.
We interact with interfaces all day long. Ensuring that the user is able to successfully complete tasks not only serves them but also drives the company forward. As designers it’s important to understand human behavior because we are designing for humans after all.
Like the teams needed to best help special needs students succeed in reaching goals, products also needs teams. Marketing, finance, design- they are all part of the holistic approach to great design for humans.