The fun theory – Designing for social change.
In the first of many posts that I will write about designing for social change, I thought I’d show you the fun theory.
This is just one of the theories that is not only aimed towards promoting change, but one that highlights how simple and fun change can be.
Humans are, by nature, scared of change or find it too hard to bother. But what happens when you get creative about ways to influence people? What’s the best way to infiltrate society to become motivated to change? Can we design a strategy to promote change?
Introducing the fun theory.
This is a campaign and website supported by VolksWagon that is dedicated to the idea that something simple and fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.
If you wanted to inspire people to use the stairs instead of the escalator what sort of a strategy could you come up with?
Can you make people use the stairs by making it fun?
Here’s one such example that uses the fun theory and gets great results.
And watch how the fun theory can give parents some peace.
So the next time you want to influence change, whether it’s getting someone to switch to your product or service or simply just convincing a child to keep their room tidy, think about how you can make it fun and simple.
Ellie
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Tags: Ellie Schroeder, fun theory, social change, volkswagon
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Awesome stuff…especially the stairs!
We should SO do that to the agency staircase
Comment by Stef — April 22, 2010 @ 3:08 pm
woof woof yep I’d love to chase up those stairs…I always thought the fun theory was all about dumping a soggy toy on someone’s lap right in the middle of a meeting tee hee
Comment by Ned — April 22, 2010 @ 5:35 pm
Simple. yet clever and powerful ways to change human behaviours.
Comment by Davina — April 29, 2010 @ 8:42 am