Fatimah El-Rashid

As an environmentalist, I try hard to adhere to sustainable living practices; but sometimes it can be a struggle. Does that mean I’m reluctant to change my behaviour? Or could there be a fundamental flaw in our understanding of human behaviour, and in turn, designing for behaviour change?

Despite the very high profile of sustainability, this increased global awareness and intent is not translating into consumer action, and for many of us, it has not fundamentally changed the way we behave. There appears to be a paradox at the heart of it all, commonly referred to as the ‘intention-action gap’. This gap is the difference between what people believe, or say, and what they do.

I explored the opportunity to close the intention-action gap in the context of mega-events, partly chosen as my form of escapism from the global pandemic and lockdown restrictions, but largely because the global reach and mass appeal of mega-events means that they have huge potential to catalyse behavioural change in millions of people around the world.

The final concept is COOEE, an Augmented Reality (AR) platform that helps event organisers facilitate pro-environmental behaviours during events without compromising the spectator experience. 

COOEE leverages the power of behavioural economics to understand specific points of decision-making that are crucial to nudging user action towards a desired behaviour. As such, COOEE has the potential to drastically improve behaviour with only a few tweaks. As the saying goes, “it’s small habits that lead to big changes.”