Behavioural Design
Project type
Design Research, Behavioural Design & UX
Stakeholder(s)
HvA / Victim Support Netherlands / Q42 (Hack the Planet)
Project duration
3 months
The concept of behavioural design focuses on changing the behavior of a specific target group through design. Our project aimed to raise awareness about online sexual violence among high school students. This project was a collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, Victim Support Netherlands and Q42 (Hack the Planet).
Figure 1: Raising awareness where high schoolers would see
Through extensive research, we concluded that, as designers, we cannot eliminate the problem of online sexual violence but can effectively raise awareness about it and try to prevent it from happening. One challenge we identified was that high school students tend to ignore posters and other informational materials provided by the school. To address this, we decided to display the information in school toilets, a place where students naturally spend time and feel exposed, making them more likely to notice and engage with the content.
Figure 2: Awareness poster for high schools
Today, many social movements effectively raise awareness, so we decided to try and start a movement ourselves. In behavioural design, this principle is known as social proof, which refers to the influence that the actions and attitudes of others have on our own behavior. We needed to consider which social media platforms high school students use most frequently and identified Snapchat and Instagram as the primary ones. These apps are also commonly used in cases of online sexual assault. Therefore, we created a camera filter for these apps, allowing students to send pictures with these filters to each other, thereby spreading awareness.