The Advantages of BX Design and Separation from UX

What’s a behavior?

A basic definition of behavior, as outlined by BJ Fogg, is an action performed by a person in a specific context. For instance, taking out the trash in the morning on your way to work is a behavior. A behavior occurs when a person is sufficiently motivated, has the ability, and is prompted to act. This concept is encapsulated in the Fogg Behavior Model equation, B = MAP.

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Difference in focus

UX designers are fantastic at creating products that are easy to use, enjoyable, and effectively meet users’ needs. However, this does not necessarily translate into frequent use or high retention. These aspects are where BX designers excel.

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So, who exactly are Behavioral Experience designers?

Behavioral Experience (BX) designers are UX designers trained in the theory and practical application of behavioral methods and models (e.g., Fogg Behavior Model, Nudge Theory, behavioral economics, sociology, different fields of psychology) in digital product design. Unlike UX, every BX designer can identify behaviors, their components, when behavior occurs, and what prevents it from happening, and so on.

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Why should we differentiate BX from UX designers?

As BX designers, we focus on understanding and influencing user behavior through design. Our primary goal is to elicit relevant user behaviors, often leading to habitual use. Hopefully ones that benefit user wellbeing. We aim to align user goals, behaviors, and perceptions with those of the product or service to create a fundamentally engaging experience.

At its core, BX design is about understanding and leveraging human behavior to design digital products that endure over time. BX design differs from the typical UX design approach in the following ways:

• First, it prioritizes behaviors in the structured design process, digging deep into users’ motivations and what prompts them to action.
• Secondly, it’s focused and cost-effective. Designing for specific behaviors and habits eliminates the guesswork regarding which features, functions, or mechanics will impact KPIs, as demonstrated by applied BX design frameworks.
• Thirdly, a well designed behavioral experience results in user engagement, retention and loyalty. Once users form a new behavior, it becomes very difficult to shift them away. This is a well-understood principle among our BX designer peers from leading social media platforms and the reason why you sometimes see carbon copies of popular futures in competing products.

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What do you think?

As you may have noticed, it’s a scenario where every BX designer is a UX designer, but not every UX designer is a BX designer. For these reasons, I believe BX should be considered separately from UX.

What is your opinion? Are these differences between BX and UX significant enough, or is there too much overlap to separate the two?