Integrated approach to intervention design using human-centered design (HCD) and behavioral economics (BE)
Although myriad structural factors prevent young women from accessing SRH services, insufficient understanding of individual motivations, preferences, and behaviors leaves many interventions unable to overcome the pressing daily concerns of young women that ultimately drive behaviors.
To fill this need and therefore develop acceptable, applicable, and accessible interventions for demand-creation, we adopted a human-centered design (HCD) methodological process. HCD can yield strategies that are highly-tailored, person-centered, and hold greater promise for being effective compared to more traditional public health approaches.
Layered onto this method, we integrated theoretical constructs and approaches from BE, which blends elements of economic decision-making with cognitive psychology to understand and predict how people behave under certain conditions.
We also used elements of implementation science to apply a more rigorous and transparent approach to documenting our process of design and testing. We started with empathizing with the population and understanding what matters to them. This is followed by defining the problem from the user perspective, and ideation, whereby dozens if not hundreds of solutions are generated using a structured process. The most compelling ideas advance to prototyping, where simple representations are tested with potential users and stakeholders. Feedback is used to iteratively refine solutions during the final testing step that embraces rapid assessment and fast failures.