Evaluating reframing in behavioural design

Reframing is key to mitigating the risks of implicit and inaccurate assumptions when dealing with complex, open-ended problems. While behavioural designers regularly face such problems, reframing is overlooked in current behavioural design guidance. Therefore, there is a need to better understand and demonstrate reframing's potential impact in behavioural design. We address this need via an exploratory, controlled experiment with design-engineering students responding to a complex, open-ended problem with a significant behavioural component. We evaluate the impact of three reframing stimuli against a control, measured with respect to behavioural design quality. The three stimuli included a structure-only stimulus (sequential steps of actions), a content-only stimulus (unordered prompting questions), and a combined structure-content stimulus. To evaluate behavioural design quality, we conduct a mixed-methods assessment of design outputs at different points in the design task: ideation of possible problem-solution perspectives, mindmapping, and proposition of a final solution (concept). Our findings confirm that all three stimuli are effective in increasing behavioural design quality, with increased emphasis on behavioural aspects and enhanced integration of behavioural and technical aspects of problems and solutions. This contributes to understanding the importance of reframing in developing problem-solution understanding in behavioural design, with significant implications for theory and practice.