Behavioural design as process ecosystem: A review and synthesis

Abstract

Behavioural design processes have proliferated in recent years across a diverse set of fields including policy, product development, and health. However, this diversity of perspectives also increases ambiguity regarding which (and when) processes should be enacted, which hinders research and practice across fields. This drives two research questions: 1) How are behavioural design processes currently framed, described, and enacted? 2) How can we consistently understand commonalities and differences across behavioural design processes? In response to these questions, we adopt a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) approach, reviewing 12 processes from academic and practitioner sources selected through purposive sampling and analysed using a theory-informed coding protocol. Through interpretive synthesis, we re-characterise behavioural design in terms of an ecosystem of distinct but complementary processes rather than its typical presentation in fixed sequences of steps. This increases behavioural design’s ability to respond to different degrees of uncertainty and dynamism in the problem and solution as well as its ability to reflect diverse assumptions about uncertainty, iteration, outcomes, and practitioner capability. This research supports an important and developing interdisciplinary area by bringing design process into a design science research context through which many of these topics can be further discussed and developed.

Cite as: Cash, P., Schmidt, R., & Baxter, W. (2026) Behavioural design as a process ecosystem: A review and synthesis. Design Science.

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