The Behavior Blueprint
A company spends six months building a beautiful, intuitive sustainability platform. They run training sessions so everyone knows how to use it. It works perfectly on every device, but adoption is only 8%.
Which part of COM-B is weakest?
Motivation
A city-services app has tiny light-gray text, buttons that don’t say what they do, and a form that can only be completed with a mouse.
Which broad UX lens is failing hardest here?
Usability/Accessibility
A student visits a museum. The line is awful, signage is confusing, and the audio guide crashes. But the final room is stunning and the exit experience includes a personalized keepsake. Later they say, “Honestly, it was great.”
Which principle best explains their memory of the visit?
Peak-End Effect
You open Uber Eats and you immediately notice a delicious pizza order with the tag that says,
“Popular in your area”. It shows a countdown for discounts and places this option at the top of your screen.
You decide to order the pizza special.
What is the strongest behavioral mechanism influencing your decision?
Choice Architecture/Social Proof
TL;DR is an internet acronym used throughout the course.
What does it stand for?
Too Long Didn't Read
A student says they care deeply about sustainability, but every day they buy coffee in disposable cups because “I was in a rush.”
What contradiction is the student showing with this behavior?
Cognitive Dissonance
A website makes the “accept all” privacy button huge and bright, while the “manage settings” link is tiny and hidden.
What technique is the website using in this situation?
Dark Patterns
Duolingo keeps sending you messages that you are missing your lessons. Instead of doing your lessons, you turn off notifications for the app to ignore the fact that you are falling behind
What effect are you applying to this situation?
Ostrich Effect
A travel website highlights one hotel as “Only 1 room left at this price!” and places it at the top of the list.
What behavioral principle is being used to influence your choice?
Scarcity
According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, employees are retreating into insularity. Of all institutions, government, media, NGOs, and employers , which is best positioned to address the employees and why?
Employer
Two hospitals want to reduce missed appointments. Hospital A sends a letter two weeks before. Hospital B sends a text the morning of with a one-tap confirm. Hospital B sees a 30% drop in no-shows.
What two aspects of the EAST framework explain the difference in patient behavior?
Easy & Timely
A deaf employee is onboarded using a sustainability platform. Every tutorial is a video with no captions. Every alert is a sound notification with no visual equivalent. They miss critical information for three weeks before anyone notices.
What accessibility principle has been violated?
Perceivable from WCAG principles
A gym offers a free trial. After 30 days members must pay. Cancellation rates are significantly lower among people who set up their equipment, decorated their locker, and created a personalised workout plan during the trial.
What explains why they are less likely to cancel?
IKEA Effect
A form asks users to enter their national ID number in one continuous field. Error rates are high. The designer splits it into three shorter fields. Errors drop immediately.
What principle did the redesign apply?
Chunking
Name three subcategories that fall under the umbrella of Experience Design
Human Computer Interaction, User Experience Design, Omnichannel Experience, User-Centered Design, Service Design, Customer Experience Design, Usability
A company launches a green commuting scheme. Employees know about it, want to participate, and have bikes. But the office has no secure bike storage, no showers, and the nearest cycle lane ends 1km away.
Three months later, participation is zero. Which component of COM-B is missing
A UX team runs usability testing with 60 participants and gets glowing feedback. They launch. Within a week, three employees — one blind, one colourblind, one using a screen reader — cannot use the product at all. The team is surprised.
What did the UX team fail to do?
Accessibility was never tested
A country switches organ donation from opt-in to opt-out. Donation rates jump from 28% to 82%. No law changed, no campaign ran.
What explains the dramatic behaviour change?
Nudge/Default Nudge
A website works perfectly with a mouse but a user who navigates entirely by keyboard cannot access any dropdown menus or forms.
What specific principle is being violated?
Operable/Operability
What year did Laura graduate from MCXI?
2018
A company wants employees to recycle more. They move the bins to visible spots, make the signage colourful, and show a live display of how many colleagues have participated today. Recycling improves slightly but drops off every day after 2pm.
What is missing from this intervention?
Timely principle from EAST
You walk into a psych exam and you see this number sequence on the screen:
DPSTROQNIO
What could the examiner be testing with this question, and what would be a good strategy to remember the full sequence
Hicks Law & Chunking
A person who considers themselves environmentally conscious is shown their personal carbon footprint for the first time. Half the people in this situation engage and change. The other half never open the app again.
Which TWO effects explain the two different reactions?
Cognitive Dissonance & Ostrich Effect
A company redesigns its onboarding by removing long instructions
and instead, it now walks users through one action at a time
Users complete onboarding faster and with fewer errors.
What is the key UX improvement driving this outcome?
Reducing Cognitive Load
A developer builds a platform that works perfectly on Chrome today. Six months later, a browser update breaks half the features for screen reader users.
Which specific principle does this violate?
Robust from POUR