We’ve spent years "nudging" people. It’s time we started empowering them.
In the world of public service and digital strategy, we’ve become very good at the "nudge", those small, psychological prompts designed to get people to pay taxes on time or recycle more. But there’s a thin line between helpful guidance and quiet manipulation. As we lean harder into AI and behavioural science, we have to ask: are we building systems that respect people, or just systems that manage them?
In my latest article, The Ethical Architect, I argue that we need to move past simple Gamification and Nudge Theory. We shouldn't just be looking for "compliance"; we should be architecting for Civic Agency.
This piece covers:
Beyond the Trick: Why behavioural tools are failing when they aren't backed by a moral framework.
The Autonomy Trap: How "dark patterns" in design erode trust between the state and the citizen.
Designing for Equity: How to build a "Choice Architecture" that prioritises transparency and genuine human benefit over mere efficiency.
The goal isn't just to make systems work better, it's to make them work for the people they serve. It’s time to move from being designers of behaviour to architects of integrity.
