Persuasive Design and Building User Engagement

To perform well, buildings require not only good design and construction but also good operation - and designers cannot dismiss operation as the solely the responsibility of occupants. All our designs are teaching or reinforcing behaviours in building occupants, therefore the question to ask ourselves, as designers, is what messages are we sending? This paper presents a conceptual framework for analysis of persuasive designs and applies it to a wide range of examples designed to support or encourage particular behaviours in building users, particularly those which optimise environmental performance.