Psychology for Digital Behavior Change (DBC)

Learn how to build psychology-driven websites, apps & campaigns

Classroom & self-paced training

Enroll in DBC

Join our students from beginners to pros in top companies:

Build psychology-driven products
that are motivating, usable and engaging

This course will teach you the skills and knowledge required to build psychology-inspired websites, apps and digital campaigns.

We cover 50+ behavioral change principles, psychological design patterns and a step-by-step behavioral design process that you can bring back to the office and apply immediately.

The class includes examples from many fields and industries, but you’re invited to bring a challenge of your choosing so you can focus on applications specific to your work.

Our training will inspire you with new ideas, deepen your understanding of digital psychology and help you develop new skills in human-centered design.

We recommend this course as the starting point for most participants.

Skills and knowledge you’ll gain

By the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to:

Name and apply over 50 psychological principles
Combine psychological principles into high impact architectures
Integrate psychology into websites, apps, campaigns and ads
Boost user acquisition, engagement, conversion and retention
Start your next project with psychological design patterns

Reverse engineer your competitors’ success factors—then outflank them
Better justify your design choices when speaking to colleagues or clients
Save time and money by using behavioral science design patterns
Make better decisions when facing design or marketing dilemmas
Avoid “psychological backfires”, where psychology damages your work

Build psychology-driven segments, personas and user journeys
Build a behavioral insights report and use it to inspire design
Avoid misleading claims about behavioral science
Integrate psychology into digital strategy and UX prototyping tools
Conduct behavioral design

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 design process is intermixed with the lessons, while the online class design process happens during the LIVE tutorials.

Modules

In class or online, we’ll cover:

Day 1

Using psychology in digital media
A realistic look at digital influence
Targeting the core drivers of behavior change
Building behavioral segments & personas
Psychology of human-computer relationships
Brand/product credibility & user trust
Behavioral science 101
Behavioral design process
Psychological wireframing
Controlling user attention
Boosting user comprehension
Motivating users with emotional neuroscience
Nudging users with decision science
Pricing psychology
Winning users’ trust & building confidence

Day 2

Rapid persuasive design testing
How users conceptualize virtual space
Facilitating behavior change
Behavioral processes & user flows
Building intuitive navigational systems
Motivating & training users to complete tasks
Managing disengagement
Journey mapping through stages of change
Prototyping for behavioral design
Media psychology & perception
Digital social psychology
Digital context psychology
Psychological design audit
Psychology-inspired strategy & design
Behavioral science simulation game

Day 3

Behavior insights software
Behavioral insights report
How to combine psychological principles
Managing psychological backfires
Building psychological architectures
Motivation & efficacy design patterns
Landing page psychology
Data capture & storage strategies
Personalized feedback psychology
Feedback loop design patterns
Coaching & gamification design patterns
Architecting long-term processes of change
Building multi-channel engagement sequences
Reinforcing & shaping user behavior
Behavioral science & creative design experiments

Here’s what you get

Classroom training kit

Training guide
Reference manual
Behavioral design workbook
Wireframe kit
Cheatsheets

Online training resources

On-demand video lessons
LIVE tutorial recordings
Wireframe kit (mini)
Behavioral design workbook
Closed community
Cheatsheets

Classroom vs. self-paced editions

We offer this course in both classroom and self-paced editions.
It’s also available in team training too.

Here’s how our classroom and online editions work.

	Classroom	Self-paced
Duration	3 days	15 hours of on-demand with 5-weeks LIVE-tutorials
Timing	9:00–17:00 with 1 hour lunch and two 15 min breaks	Self-paced, but during the LIVE tutorial term, plan 4 hours of video lessons per week and 1.5 hours of tutorials
Instructional hours	19.5 hours over 3 days	15 hours of focused lessons
Logistics	The class runs 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (but please arrive by 8:50 as we start at 9:00 sharp). There is a 15-minute break in the morning, an hour for lunch, and another 15-minute break in the afternoon. We’ll provide all the training materials, so you’ll only need to bring a pen, some paper, and, if you’d like to participate in our live polling, bring a smartphone or tablet.	We’ll grant you immediate access to the videos as soon as you register, plus access to the waiting room for the upcoming LIVE tutorials. You’ll have access to the lessons, and then we’ll start the behavioral design process during the LIVE training term.

Meet your instructor

Brian Cugelman, PhD

With an extensive career running online projects and studies for industry, non-profit organizations, governments and the United Nations, Dr. Brian Cugelman has been working as an online behavior change specialist since 1997.

If you'd like to learn more, read Dr. Cugelman's bio or see what he has to say about his training system.

Have a question?

Check out our FAQ or give me a shout. I'm happy to help out.

+1 (888) 977-2055
brian (at) alterspark.com
@cugelman
linkedin.com/in/cugelman

Prerequisites

This is our most popular class and the one we recommend as a starting point for most people who want to learn how to apply digital psychology.

This class is suitable for those who use digital media across a range of applications, from tactical hands-on builders to strategic planners.

Looking to decide whether it is at the right level for you or want more information? Check out our FAQ or give us a shout.

Certification

After completing all modules, covering 19.5 hours of instruction over 3 days in class, or 15 hours online, you will receive a certificate of completion.

If you wish, you may write the test to earn you “Digital Behavior Change Certificate (DBCC)”. Three attempts to pass are included.

Learn about your certification options.