Thinking

Essays from the studio.

We write to think clearly. These are the working notes — sometimes finished, sometimes not — that come out of our engagements, classes, and arguments.

April 30, 202612 min read

How AI is changing the Attention Tax

AI may finally make ads useful enough to eliminate the Attention Tax. But if advertising becomes too good at predicting what we want, the price may shift from wasted attention to shaped intent.

Apr 26, 202612 min read

From Things to Intentions

AI is shifting design's center of gravity from making artifacts to authoring intent — a more demanding discipline of judgment, systemic foresight, and accountability for what gets put into the world.

April 2, 20268 min read

Embodied Minds, Narrow Machines

AGI is not imminent. Current systems are advanced narrow intelligences — extraordinary inside their lanes, brittle outside them, and structurally incapable of carrying accountability. That distinction shapes how to build with them.

Mar 18, 202614 min read

Persuasive Agents

Agentic AI introduces a new category of persuasive system. We need a working ethics for it — before product teams ship one without thinking.

Mar 3, 202618 min read

Government in the Cloud

Satellite connectivity, mesh networks, AI-mediated public services, and DeFi are turning governance into a stack — and the question of who controls it is political, not technical.

Feb 02, 20266 min read

Behavioral debt is the new technical debt

When teams ship features faster than they understand the behaviors they trigger, the bill comes due in churn, support, and trust.

Jan 14, 20267 min read

Habit loops vs. rituals: a more humane retention model

Habits are automatic. Rituals are chosen. Designing for the second produces stickier — and more honest — products.

May 9, 20256 min read

Why Societies Need Positive Persuasion

Persuasion isn't manipulation. It's the connective tissue of a functioning society — and the new front line is product design.

Apr 29, 20258 min read

From Models to Minds

As AI capabilities mature and models proliferate, the real challenge product teams face today is not which model to choose — but how to design the cognition their conversational AI product should exhibit.

Mar 21, 20255 min read

Behavior is a Moving Target

Human behavior is never static — it co-evolves with the technologies meant to shape it. Designing for that feedback loop is the real job.

Sep 18, 20245 min read

Bullies in a Hyperaware World

As societies grow more attuned to autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the rigid dominance hierarchies that fuel bullying are giving way to cooperative networks.

Jun 17, 20245 min read

Enable, Don't Drive, User Behavior

“Driving behavior” treats users like drones. Enabling them treats them like adults — and that's what builds products people want to keep using.

Nov 27, 20219 min read

Unraveling the Metaverse

The metaverse isn't a stack of technologies — it's a psychosocial construct realised through our entanglement with technology, and a clear shift in how we perceive value.

Sep 13, 202110 min read

Look Ma, No Hands!

Ray-Ban Stories puts social tech inside an iconic fashion product. A look at what that means for voice UX, deep adoption, and the still-unsolved privacy asymmetry of smart eyewear.

Aug 22, 2021Podcast

What is Behavior Design?

Fabric founder Ashwin Rajan joins the Nodes of Design podcast to discuss Behavior Design — a framework for using design to positively impact users and stakeholders, plus dark patterns, behavioral metrics, and key thinkers in the field.

Sep 24, 20208 min read

The Social (Design) Dilemma

The Social Dilemma is a much-needed alarm bell, but its solutions don't go far enough. The real fix lives in the domain of design — and in learning to design for liminal experience.

Sep 16, 20206 min read

The Plough, the Smartphone, and Digital Intent

Technologies aren't neutral. From the agricultural plough to the smartphone, bias is baked into the medium itself — and in digital, it morphs into the interface for human intent.

Aug 1, 20208 min read

What makes TikTok unique?

Most TikTok deconstructions focus on its algorithms. Here's a look at how the app's design drives novel user behavior — and why it might be the first true memetic platform.

Apr 24, 2020Webinar

Why Entrepreneurs Should Care About Behavior Change

How can entrepreneurs leverage Behavior Design to create more relevant and impactful products? An online webinar for Helsinki entrepreneurship society XES.

Mar 27, 20206 min read

COVID-19 Adaptiveness as a Competitive Advantage

A hypothetical and contrarian view on why some teams will pull away from competition by embracing remote-first behavior change at this inflection point.

Oct 28, 2019Talk

Gamification & Behavior Change

Watch the talk in full by Fabric founder Ashwin Rajan at the Games Research & User Experience Group in Helsinki, Finland.

Oct 9, 20197 min read

Startups — A Mission to Enrich Human Behavior

Behind every successful product is a usage model — a clear picture of why and how the product is used. It's the foundation of a good behavioral strategy.

Sep 24, 20197 min read

The Human Algorithm Adapts to Digital

While digital algorithms get smarter, the human algorithm is quietly adapting in response — turning a 'like' into a paintbrush, and signaling intent in ways platforms still can't read.

Sep 12, 20196 min read

The De-Centralization of Your Digital Life

The smartphone centralised our digital lives. Now, as people seek to minimise smartphone use, five experience contexts — the Body, the Home, the Car, the City, and Space — are competing to become the next primary interface.

Aug 23, 20195 min read

E-Scooters & the 'Abandonment Economy'

E-scooters belong to a category of their own: products you abandon, not own. That tiny shift may rewrite a generation's expectations of what owning anything even means.

Jun 28, 20194 min read

To be Data-Driven is to be Decision-Driven

Experience cannot be measured. Behaviour can. The trick is to be decision-driven first — then design the data and behaviours that get you there.

Oct 3, 20182 min read

Music for Every Moment

Spotify is making behavioural moves into the moments of our lives — from the shower to the road.

Sep 15, 20182 min read

Apple Watch pivots to 'Guardian of Health'

Apple Watch's pivot is clear: from companion to guardian. Painkiller products sell better than vitamins — and boomers are now firmly in scope.

Sep 7, 20189 min read

Conversational AI, Mesh Networks, and the Art of Listening

Voice interfaces will become therapists, friends, storytellers — and finding moments to connect is what turns them from vitamin to painkiller.

Jun 28, 20185 min read

Goals, Gamification and the Future of Financial Services

Future financial services will be built around human behaviour — designed to change behaviours rather than to sell homogeneous products at volume.

Apr 26, 20185 min read

Seeking the Adaptive Airport Experience

Airports run two conflicting user journeys at once — shopping mall and navigation. Travellers pay the cognitive price.

Mar 10, 20187 min read

What's Driving the Gig Economy?

If gig platforms don't tap into intrinsic motivations — fun, community, purpose — they'll lose their workforce to platforms that do.

Oct 17, 20171 min read

Emerging Traveller Behaviors Keynote

A keynote from Reboot Finland DDay for Travel on new and emerging traveller behaviour and how to design winning experiences for them.

Jun 25, 20177 min read

Thoughts on Joon, Air France's new 'Millennial Airline'

Joon is a bold play. But branding for millennials and actually delivering the experience that earns their loyalty are very different things.

Apr 18, 20175 min read

Two Behavioral Shifts Re-Defining Banking

Feminity and pooling are reshaping financial services from the ground up — and incumbent banks need to adapt.

Apr 6, 20176 min read

Driving Adoption of Voice Interfaces

Voice is unlike any other interface — users immediately expect sentience. The design challenge is faking 'humanness' until we can deliver it.

Nov 11, 20162 min read

On Bikes and Bike Lanes

A well-designed bike has appeal. But it's the bike lane that turns the non-enthusiast into a regular rider. Think beyond bikes — think bike lanes.

Oct 20, 20163 min read

What Defines A Digital Market?

Digital markets are defined at the intersection of two human resources: time and attention.

Sep 29, 20167 min read

What Makes the Digital Future Obscure?

The future is not just an emerging world of objects and technologies; it is a world in which people behave in new and unfamiliar ways.

Aug 19, 20166 min read

A Design Approach for Autonomous Cars

With full autonomy, cars stop being designed from the inside out. The driver becomes part of a wider social experience.

Jul 19, 20165 min read

Monetising The Core Digital Interaction

Tinder shows how a single core interaction, well-designed, can become the engine of scale and monetisation for the entire product.

Jun 29, 20164 min read

How Users Really Invest in Products

Every second a user gives your product is an investment. You need to repay it back with interest — or else it's bye bye.

Jun 18, 20163 min read

Scaling Beyond the Core Behavior

Even unicorn products struggle to engage users beyond the single core interaction the product is built around.

Jun 11, 20165 min read

Feminity: A Digital Age Megatrend

Connected tools are democratizing the means of cultural narrative across genders — and reshaping every product category along the way.

Jun 2, 20165 min read

What Drives Health Behavior?

People aren't really interested in 'health' — they're interested in its benefits. Symbols of health (scores, badges) are landmarks, not the landscape itself.

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