Jeremy Faludi has compiled — in an article for Core77 00 a synthesis of the work of Stanford lecturer and researcher BJ Fogg on the field of persuasive design, and applies his insights to the field of sustainability:
“Persuasion is a science; newborn and inexact, but a science nonetheless. Advertisers and marketers know this; designers should, too. Persuasive design is not marketing or advertising, it is crafting a product’s user experience so that the user’s actual interaction with the product changes their behavior.
Fogg has isolated over a dozen principles of persuasion, and grouped them into three main avenues: tools, media, and social actors. Each of them apply more to some kinds of products than others would, and since he is primarily a computer scientist, they are weighted heavily towards software and electronics. We need more physical-product designers in this field. Here are most of the strategies, in a nutshell (at least as I interpret them).”