THE FRAMEWORK
The BehaviorUX Canvas
A structured methodology that integrates cutting-edge behavioral science with design thinking to drive innovation at the product, service, and experience levels.
The BehaviorUX Canvas guides teams through three phases of behavior-centered design — from understanding your audience’s behavioral landscape, through evidence-based ideation, to structured prototyping and testing.
The philosophy is simple: science and creative problem-solving go hand in hand. By structuring behavioral science into an actionable canvas and toolbox, teams can start applying it immediately.
HOW IT'S DIFFERENT
The BehaviorUX Canvas is the first methodology to integrate cutting-edge behavioral science with design thinking.
STANDARD DESIGN THINKING
Define your challenge
Identify relevant people
Empathize — Ideate — Prototype
THE BEHAVIORUX APPROACH
Utilize behavioral theory to understand needs (Empathize)
Use behavioral theories, biases, and effects to create solutions (Ideate)
Discover experimental designs to use in rapid testing (Prototype)
PHASE 01
Empathize
Understand your audience not just as “users” but as “behavers” — people with specific psychological capabilities, social opportunities, and reflective and automatic motivations.
This phase uses the COM-B model from behavioral science to map the behavioral landscape:
What you'll learn
- Understand your audience in terms of "behavers"
- Learn to use prompts from the behavioral toolbox
- Categorize behaviors using the COM-B system
PHASE 02
Ideate
Apply validated behavioral theories, cognitive biases, and psychological effects to generate solutions that are grounded in evidence, not intuition.
This phase integrates your KPIs directly into the ideation process and scores solutions against:
1-10
Desirability
1-10
Viability
1-10
Feasibility
What you'll learn
- Apply plug-and-play validated behavioral theories
- Integrate your KPIs into the solution-creation process
- Use behavioral biases and effects in your design process
PHASE 03
Prototype
Storyboard behavioral interventions, choose experimental designs from the toolbox, and iterate through a structured build-and-test cycle.
The prototype phase has three steps:
What you'll learn
- Become an expert at behavioral storyboarding
- Learn how to choose your prototypes based on science
- Explore the process of creating a behavioral prototype
COMPANION RESOURCE
The Behavior Toolbox
The canvas comes with a companion reference — a curated collection of behavioral science principles organized by where they’re used in the framework.
Empathize Prompts
Knowledge & Skills
Social/Professional Identity
Beliefs about Capabilities
Beliefs about Consequences
Reinforcement
Intentions & Goals
Memory/Attention/Decision Processes
Environmental Context
Social Influences
Emotion
Behavioural Regulation
Optimism
Ideate: Theories, Biases & Effects
Common Theories
Theory of Planned Behavior
Social Cognitive Theory
Operant Learning Theory
Health Action Process Approach
Common Biases
Loss Aversion
Anchoring
Default Bias
Hyperbolic Discounting
Goal Gradient Theory
Herding
Scarcity
Self-Signaling
Status Quo Bias
Endowment Effect
Sunk Cost Effect
Reciprocity
The toolbox helps you become an expert in simple yet effective behavioral theories, explore and apply a wide range of cognitive biases and effects, and put yourself in the shoes of a professional behavioral prototyper.
INTRODUCTION
Watch the introduction
Ready to use The BehaviorUX Canvas?
Download the canvas and companion toolbox. Free, open-source, and ready for your next project.