So here's the thing: we're all irrational.

People often act in ways that aren’t rational, as traditional economics would have us believe. They volunteer to do work for free, they smoke cigarettes, or they fail to take advantage of 401(k) plans.

In other words, people are often irrational, a reality that conflicts with traditional economists’ assumptions. For better or worse, all sorts of factors - including social, cognitive, and emotional factors - influence the way people make decisions in the real world.

What does this mean for design?
We're not denying that people are irrational - in fact, we think that recognizing this is the first step to better design, both from a designer or decision architect's perspective, and an end-user's perspective. Designers influence users' decision-making processes, whether they realize it or not. It is up to designers to recognize their influence, and design accordingly.

And who are "we," anyway?
We're six students at the Institute of Design working on an independent research project to explore how insights from the fields of cognitive psychology and behavioral economics can be used to design better products, services, experiences, and business strategies. Over the course of the next 10 weeks, we'll be developing and prototyping tools that integrate these insights into the design process.

Getting off to a designerly start:
sticky notes, white boards, and Macs abound

And what is this blog about, exactly?
We'll be using this blog to share our progress throughout the course of the project, document our insights, and publish our findings. We'll also use this blog to share interesting links, articles, and experiments we come across in our secondary research.