Behavior design is about helping people make progress — on the terms they choose.
As behavior designers, we read the world by what people do over what they say. So when we see people adopting digital services by the billions — with each new generation of digital service (such as Gen AI) adopted faster and deeper than the previous one — we see this as a sign of real value for the human being. People want the convenience, the speed, the learning, the relief, the empowerment. The demand is real. Our job is to help them get it — and to make the trade-offs underneath it visible, deliberate, and theirs to make. The technology is here. The question is whether the people using it stay in the driver's seat.
Across our life as a studio, we've balanced the behavior design work we do with a transparent exposure of the tools we use to do it. Two examples:
"If you'd be embarrassed to explain a pattern to your users, don't ship it."
What we'll work on
- · Products that make a healthy default the easy one.
- · Onboarding that teaches, instead of trapping.
- · Retention loops grounded in delivered value, not sunk cost.
- · AI features that preserve human agency and oversight.
- · Public-sector services that reduce the cognitive load on citizens.
What we won't
- · Dark patterns of any flavour: forced continuity, confirmshaming, hidden costs.
- · Engagement metrics divorced from user-reported value.
- · Persuasion aimed at vulnerable populations without explicit safeguards.
- · Agentic AI systems shipped without meaningful human review.
How we decide
Every engagement begins with a short ethics review. Our tools — like the Behavior Design Canvas — have an ethical component built into them. In general, we name the behavior we're being asked to influence, the population it affects, and the worst plausible outcome if we succeed. If we can't live with that outcome, we don't take the work.
Read our thinking
Our Thinking page is carefully curated to balance the business, market, design, strategy, and commercial side of each topic with the ethical side.
— The Fabric studio, last revised April 2026.
Voices we return to.
Five talks we keep coming back to when we're working out where the line is.
The Power of Quantum Thinking
Dr. Vandana Shiva
Physicist and environmental activist Vandana Shiva on entanglement, non-duality, and how seeing the world as interconnected reshapes science, ethics, and ecological democracy.
Fighting Bias in Algorithms
Joy Buolamwini
An eye-opening talk about the need for accountability in coding as algorithms take over more and more aspects of our lives.
Why Nations Fail
Daron Acemoglu
Nobel-winning economist Daron Acemoglu on why prosperity hinges on inclusive institutions, fair laws, and transparent governance — and what it takes to protect them today.
Inside the Data Gender Gap
Caroline Criado Perez
Exposing data bias in a world designed for men — the unintended, damaging and often dangerous consequences of such bias.
Bring Back Human-Centered
Kim Goodwin
How designers can keep human-centered values at the center of practice, even when it's no longer fashionable to call it that.
Program or Be Programmed
Douglas Rushkoff
Do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it — and by those who have mastered it? Ten commands for a digital age.
How Better Tech Could Protect Us
Tristan Harris
Design thinker Tristan Harris asks what the future of technology looks like when you're designing for the deepest human values.
Have a project that lives near these lines?
The interesting conversations happen in the grey areas. We'd rather think them through with you than walk away from them.