Applied Behavioral Design [ABD]
9-Week LIVE Coaching Tutorials
A student-directed LIVE course with Dr. Cugelman,
where you’ll learn how to translate the lessons from
DBC and EDP into digital products.
Companies that train with AlterSpark
A step-by-step formula for creative behavioral science
ABD is our most hands-on course that takes you step-by-step through the behavioral design process.
It shows you how to apply the psychology and neuroscience covered in our other courses to a project of your choice.
You’ll learn a street-smart approach to behavioral science that you can use for the rest of your career.
We only teach this course LIVE, so you can shape the learning journey with us.
How This Class Works
This class runs in parallel to DBC and EDP as the applied portion of our training system. It weaves between theory and practice in a way that will help you develop a solid understanding of science-inspired design.
Part of this class covers formal lessons on applied behavioral science.
The other part covers practical applications where you’ll go through templates, share feedback, and have time to clarify any questions.
7 Steps of Behavioral Design
- Planning
- Researching
- Innovating
- Prototyping
- Piloting
- Launching & Optimizing
- Evaluating & Learning
Training Kit
The course includes a workbook, step-by-step templates, and coaching as you work through a project of your choice.
Hybrid Behavioral Design
Classic Behavioral Science + Tech Prototyping
Our behavioral design process blends classic behavioral science
with standard industry practice and street-smart project management.
It’s a hybrid process that integrates:
Classic behavioral science
We structured this process around a traditional behavioral science approach. It will keep you impact-focused, grounded in theory, and guided by metrics that matter. It’s suitable for everything from small projects to global campaigns.
Organizational psychology
Without a reliable human foundation, most tech projects fail. If you don’t use psychology internally, you may never use it externally. We cover strategies from organizational psychology and change management to help you build a sustainable project based on human relationships.
Step-by-step templates
Our process comes with a workbook and step-by-step templates. Each template includes instructions, a case study, and follows a clear progression from start to finish. To make behavioral science even easier, we’ve translated the most popular behavior change theories into intuitive design canvases.
Street-smart project management
We incorporate formal project management approaches that help you avoid problems before they happen. This will help you win political support, build a sustainable project, and ground your initiative in stakeholder-centered strategies.
Creative design processes
You’ll find the core of our system in popular approaches like Lean Startup, Design Thinking, or Design Sprints. If you want to fuse our approach with any group processes, you can easily blend our tools later. This gives your approach a behavioral science edge.
Standard industry tools
Our design tools blend behavioral science practices with tech industry prototyping tools. There’s a healthy overlap with those used in UXD, graphic design, marketing, advertising, content strategy, and more. We also use the same prototyping software you’ll find in creative departments.
Online v.s. Classroom Editions
ABD works differently when delivered online versus in class.
Online
Online, ABD is the LIVE tutorial. It’s an 8-week program that goes step-by-step through the process.
This edition covers the process in depth, with students having a week to complete each step.
Classroom
In class, we pull out the ABD workbook and start the next step of the process when it’s time to move from theory to practice.
The classroom edition does not cover the process in depth, but focuses more on the hands-on creative application.
Blending Theory & Practice
To hone your skills in behavioral design, you need to become an active participant. This course teaches behavioral science by doing behavioral science.
ABD takes you on a hands-on learning journey through a formal process. It weaves between theory and practice, from conception to final evaluation.
By the end of the course, you’ll realize that you’ve completed a full behavioral science process.
From then on, you’ll find it easy to apply behavioral science to all sorts of projects.
This class is where the rubber hits the road. Join us on the journey.
Got a challenge? Bring it to class
A hands-on approach to behavioral design
To help you internalize the content, we’ve structured the course around a behavioral design process.
We’ll take you through a step-by-step process, leading to a digital psychology-inspired product of your choosing. This will reinforce the lessons and ensure that you can translate psychology into digital practice.
You’ll develop skills in the overall process, which will touch hands-on skills in psychology-inspired software modelling, UX, information architecture, marketing, branding, and content strategy.
We’ve structured the design process across our two classes. DBC takes you through the process, ending with a testable lo-fi prototype. If you take EDP as well, you’ll extend your protype, and fine-tune it.
The classroom process is intermixed with the lessons, while the online class design process happens during the LIVE tutorials.
Street-smart Behavioral Science
The moment you start applying behavioral science, expect a wild ride.
It’s easy to optimize products when you have data. Unfortunately, you’ll rarely get your hands on quality data with real-world projects. This is a significant barrier.
You know those impressive case studies of transformative behavioral programs? Quite often, they’re cherry-picked examples.
Behind each success story is a stream of failed programs and sometimes coverups to hide programs that made things worse. (We published a study on this with MIT.)
Then there’s the finger-pointing when gold-standard programs get destroyed by the people responsible for implementation.
Let’s not forget the pressure to boost performance across the board, without the time or money needed to cover the work.
Occasionally, behavioral science teams are under pressure to engage departments that won’t cooperate and are unwilling to share their data.
Welcome to real-world behavioral science.
We want you to succeed, which is why we incorporate organizational psychology, change management, and many approaches that will help you build robust projects. This allows you to deliver products that make an impact even in unideal conditions.
Sometimes, the only way out of a problem is to not have been there in the first place. We’ll show you how to avoid these situations by taking a street-smart approach to behavioral science.
Certification
Those who complete ABD are eligible to complete our ABD Mastery Certificate.
Enroll with a training bundle
We offer three online training bundles.
Each includes 9-weeks of LIVE ABD tutorials.
After enrolling, you'll get instant access to our on-demand lessons.
Then join any upcoming LIVE ABD tutorial, where we'll show you the ropes in applied behavioral design.
Psychology for Digital Behavior Change [DBC]
On-demand video lessons
15 hours
9-Weeks LIVE ABD Tutorials
2-years unlimited tutorial access
Thursdays from 13:00-14:30 EST
Private support group
Feedback on your work during the LIVE term
Optional certification test
Digital Behavior Change Certificate (DBCC) TM
Foundational skills for the DBDC Certificate
Emotional Design Psychology [EDP]
On-demand video lessons
10 hours
9-Weeks LIVE ABD Tutorials
2-years unlimited tutorial access
Thursdays from 13:00-14:30 EST
Private support group
Feedback on your work during the LIVE term
Optional certification test
Emotional Design Psychology Certificate (EDPC) TM
This qualifies you for the Applied Behavioral Design Certificate (ABDC)TM
Complete Package [DBC + EDP]
On-demand video lessons
25 hours
9-Weeks LIVE ABD Tutorials
2-years unlimited tutorial access
Thursdays from 13:00-14:30 EST
Private support group
Feedback on your work during the LIVE term
Optional certification test
Digital Behavior Change Certificate (DBCC) TM
Emotional Design Psychology Certificate (EDPC) TM
Applied Behavioral Design Certificate (ABDC)TM
Payments
The next step takes you to our secure enrollment page. If you need a hand with our payment system or need a formal invoice, let us know.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
We’re sure you'll get a lot out of our online training. But to ensure you're confident, we offer a 48-hour window for you to receive a 100% refund if our online training does not meet your expectations.
Need a hand?
If you need a hand with our payment system or require any formal paperwork, just ask us. Reach out to us at +1 (888) 977-2055 or team(at)alterspark.com.
Corporate Training With Deliverables
We recently launched a Flipped Corporate Training program that uses our behavioral design process to educate teams while delivering products.
See our corporate training to learn more.
