Dr. BJ Fogg – Design for Behavior Change (2026)

Description

Course Overview

Design for Behavior Change by Dr. BJ Fogg is a comprehensive Behavior Design course focused on understanding how human behavior works and how intentional design can make desired behaviors easier to perform. The program is designed for entrepreneurs, educators, coaches, marketers, product designers, leaders, and professionals who want to apply behavioral principles to habits, products, services, learning experiences, and everyday decision-making.

Behavior change is often approached as a matter of willpower or motivation. However, lasting change can be influenced by many factors, including motivation, ability, prompts, environment, and the design of the behavior itself. Understanding these factors can help people create more practical approaches to changing behaviors rather than relying entirely on motivation.

The program begins with the fundamentals of behavior design. Students explore how behaviors occur and how different elements can come together to influence whether an action happens. This foundation helps learners analyze behaviors more systematically and identify opportunities for improvement.

A major focus of the curriculum is behavior change design. Participants learn how to break desired outcomes into specific behaviors and consider what makes those behaviors easier or harder to perform. Turning broad goals into clearly defined actions can make behavior-change efforts more practical and measurable.

The course also explores motivation and ability. Learners examine how willingness to perform an action interacts with the difficulty of that action. When a behavior is difficult, reducing the effort required can sometimes make it easier to perform consistently. This perspective can be useful when designing habits, products, educational experiences, and workplace processes.

Habit formation is another important component of the training. Students explore how small behaviors can become part of regular routines and why starting with manageable actions can support consistency. Developing sustainable habits involves designing behaviors that fit realistically into everyday life.

The curriculum also emphasizes prompts and behavioral triggers. Participants learn how reminders, environmental cues, and other prompts can encourage a specific behavior when the appropriate conditions are present. Thoughtfully designed prompts can help people remember actions without relying solely on conscious effort.

The program also covers the design of tiny behaviors. Learners examine how reducing a behavior to a very small and manageable action can make it easier to begin. Small actions can provide a practical starting point for developing larger routines and building confidence through repetition.

Behavior analysis forms another essential part of the learning experience. Students can examine why a particular behavior is or is not occurring and identify potential barriers within the surrounding environment. This approach encourages designers to focus on the actual behavior rather than making assumptions about people’s intentions.

The course also explores applications in product and experience design. Designers and business professionals can apply behavioral principles when developing products, interfaces, services, educational systems, and customer experiences. Understanding behavior can help create experiences that make useful actions clearer and easier for users.

Marketing and communication can also benefit from behavior-design principles. Participants can consider how messaging, prompts, timing, and user context influence actions such as engaging with content, completing a process, or using a product. Ethical application remains important when designing experiences that influence behavior.

The program encourages a practical and human-centered approach to behavior change. Instead of assuming that people simply need more motivation, learners can examine the environment, ability, prompts, and specific actions involved in a behavior. This can lead to more realistic and user-focused solutions.

Whether you’re designing products, developing educational programs, coaching people, improving workplace processes, building healthier routines, or studying human behavior, Design for Behavior Change by Dr. BJ Fogg (2026) provides practical frameworks for understanding and intentionally designing behaviors.

By combining behavior design, habit formation, motivation, ability, prompts, tiny behaviors, behavioral analysis, human psychology, product design, and practical behavior-change strategies, Design for Behavior Change equips learners with a structured approach to creating experiences and systems that support meaningful behavioral outcomes.

FAQs

What is Design for Behavior Change?

It is a Behavior Design course focused on understanding human behavior and applying behavioral principles to habits, products, services, and behavior-change systems.

Who should take this course?

The course is ideal for entrepreneurs, educators, coaches, marketers, product designers, leaders, researchers, and professionals interested in behavior change.

Is this course beginner-friendly?

Yes. It introduces behavior-design fundamentals before progressing to habit formation, motivation, ability, prompts, behavioral analysis, and practical applications.

What topics are covered?

The course covers behavior design, behavior change, habit formation, motivation, ability, prompts, tiny behaviors, behavioral analysis, psychology, product design, and practical behavior strategies.

Why is behavior design important?

Behavior design helps people understand the factors that influence actions and provides a structured way to create environments, products, and systems that make desired behaviors easier to perform.