By Uwin Lugoda
In an increasingly interconnected world, there exists an opportunity to create a closer relationship between customers and brands. It has also interconnected several disciplines in an effort to better understand consumer behaviour, such as psychology and economics, in order to create behavioural economics (BE).
BE is a relatively new field of study that has been developed over the last three decades, first coming into prominence in the 1970s, and seeks to understand how people make decisions by examining psychological, behavioural, emotional, and social factors. This concept has changed the way we think about why people choose as they do and what motivates their decisions and actions. BE has complemented valuable insights to brands and professional digital designers all over the world.
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"Human beings are not purely logical beings. It is a part of our design process now, so we mostly just focus on the actual strategic and tangible design deliverables now" Nescius Co-Founder Dhyresh Mendis [/caption]
One international example of this concept being adopted is by the world’s largest subscription-based streaming service, Netflix, where behavioural economics has allowed the team to reduce friction in consuming content and playing the next piece of content that allows consumers to enjoy, binging on their favourite shows. This was done by the introduction of features such as “skip intro” and “autoplay”.
Another example of BE is when it was used after the London riots in 2011, when the “Babies of the Borough” was introduced – the faces of babies were painted on storefronts in London to reduce vandalism of local businesses, looting, and anti-social behavioural problems. More recently, the concept has also been frequently adopted in a lot of social platforms and is used by international user experience designers.
This same concept finally made its way to the Sri Lankan market in 2018 via Nescius, where the two co-founders, Dhyresh Mendis and Duval Weerakoone, began integrating BE into their design process.
Nescius is a studio dedicated to using a scientific approach to create an authentic connection between brands and their consumers. The company plays with design and psychology to give these brands a memorable framework.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Mendis explained that good design takes into account how someone uses something that automatically makes most problems, especially around interactions, that consumers have with brands, design problems. He stated that this could be something as simple as a Facebook post, a poster, or even something more complex, and shows how someone’s actual use of a product boils down to design. This makes design a core part of any campaign or ad brands want to run in order to promote their products.
He stated that due to the importance of design, having psychological, behavioural, and cognitive insights into how someone uses a product gives them a strategic method of developing a better solution, instead of an inconsistent hit-or-miss system. He pointed out that most people would prefer buying things that look good over things that do not.
“Behavioural economics is a field of study that looks at human beings as psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural, and social creatures as opposed to the classical economic theory that assumes a rational consumer.”
Mendis stated that in the local market, design is thought of as something closer to art than as something that grapples with the psychology of viewership or usage, which is what designers are supposed to do, and BE is just a new tool which gives Nescius an edge on other local competitors.
“This is what design has been trying to do for almost a hundred years since the era of the Bauhaus, a German art school which became famous for its approach to design, which attempted to unify the principles of mass production with individual artistic vision and strove to combine aesthetics with everyday function. And thanks to the current wide-scale awareness of BE, we have accomplished to do just that by weaving the science into the design process.”
When it comes to adoption in the local market, Mendis stated that a few companies have been very interested in the concept and that they currently have ongoing engagements with these companies. However, he stated it is tough to get brands to buy into something which is, in their eyes, illogical, despite this being the reality of the situation.
“Human beings are not purely logical beings. It is a part of our design process now, so we mostly just focus on the actual strategic and tangible design deliverables now.”
In the last two years since Nescius adopted BE, they have gone on to design for several brands here, most notably the National Law Conference 2020, a project they got published in the World Brand Design Awards. They also worked with companies like Infomate, the business process outsourcing (BPO) and shared service arm of the John Keells Holdings (JKH) group; Backyard Events; Elegance co-working spaces; and Happy Pill, an artisan cookie company, to name a few.
"Human beings are not purely logical beings. It is a part of our design process now, so we mostly just focus on the actual strategic and tangible design deliverables now" Nescius Co-Founder Dhyresh Mendis [/caption]
One international example of this concept being adopted is by the world’s largest subscription-based streaming service, Netflix, where behavioural economics has allowed the team to reduce friction in consuming content and playing the next piece of content that allows consumers to enjoy, binging on their favourite shows. This was done by the introduction of features such as “skip intro” and “autoplay”.
Another example of BE is when it was used after the London riots in 2011, when the “Babies of the Borough” was introduced – the faces of babies were painted on storefronts in London to reduce vandalism of local businesses, looting, and anti-social behavioural problems. More recently, the concept has also been frequently adopted in a lot of social platforms and is used by international user experience designers.
This same concept finally made its way to the Sri Lankan market in 2018 via Nescius, where the two co-founders, Dhyresh Mendis and Duval Weerakoone, began integrating BE into their design process.
Nescius is a studio dedicated to using a scientific approach to create an authentic connection between brands and their consumers. The company plays with design and psychology to give these brands a memorable framework.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Mendis explained that good design takes into account how someone uses something that automatically makes most problems, especially around interactions, that consumers have with brands, design problems. He stated that this could be something as simple as a Facebook post, a poster, or even something more complex, and shows how someone’s actual use of a product boils down to design. This makes design a core part of any campaign or ad brands want to run in order to promote their products.
He stated that due to the importance of design, having psychological, behavioural, and cognitive insights into how someone uses a product gives them a strategic method of developing a better solution, instead of an inconsistent hit-or-miss system. He pointed out that most people would prefer buying things that look good over things that do not.
“Behavioural economics is a field of study that looks at human beings as psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural, and social creatures as opposed to the classical economic theory that assumes a rational consumer.”
Mendis stated that in the local market, design is thought of as something closer to art than as something that grapples with the psychology of viewership or usage, which is what designers are supposed to do, and BE is just a new tool which gives Nescius an edge on other local competitors.
“This is what design has been trying to do for almost a hundred years since the era of the Bauhaus, a German art school which became famous for its approach to design, which attempted to unify the principles of mass production with individual artistic vision and strove to combine aesthetics with everyday function. And thanks to the current wide-scale awareness of BE, we have accomplished to do just that by weaving the science into the design process.”
When it comes to adoption in the local market, Mendis stated that a few companies have been very interested in the concept and that they currently have ongoing engagements with these companies. However, he stated it is tough to get brands to buy into something which is, in their eyes, illogical, despite this being the reality of the situation.
“Human beings are not purely logical beings. It is a part of our design process now, so we mostly just focus on the actual strategic and tangible design deliverables now.”
In the last two years since Nescius adopted BE, they have gone on to design for several brands here, most notably the National Law Conference 2020, a project they got published in the World Brand Design Awards. They also worked with companies like Infomate, the business process outsourcing (BPO) and shared service arm of the John Keells Holdings (JKH) group; Backyard Events; Elegance co-working spaces; and Happy Pill, an artisan cookie company, to name a few.