101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design: Oblique strategies for changing and controlling behavior

By Cory Doctorow at 1:30 am Thursday, Jul 22

Dan Lockton, the technology scholar whose Architectures of Control in Design has been one of my favorite reads for several years now, has just released a deck of Creative Commons-licensed cards called "101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design." They are an outcome of his research toward his Ph.D., a set of illustrated cards showing how design can be used to change, prevent, or encourage certain behaviors. Mitch Kapor quipped that "architecture is politics," and Dan's research is the proof of it: the way that spaces, objects and systems are designed heavily influence (or even determine!) the way that we live our lives around them. They serve as both suggestions and critiques, showing how spaces and objects are designed to control us for better or for worse.

Dan sells the decks as a neatly boxed set of 117 cards for £24.50, or you can download them and share them for free. This is quite possibly the most provocative set of quick-read, random-access idea-bombs I've seen.

Download the cards

Order the cards

(Thanks, Dan!)