Behaviour, design and the public sector

All levels of government and public bodies focus on influencing behaviour: with the lines on the road, the laws made, the messages communicated and more. Behavioural economics and insights have been used by government to create policies and services that impact outcomes in everything from health to environmental sustainability to financial wellbeing and beyond. Government has also increasingly drawn on human centred design, co-design and other design perspectives to ensure policies and services are aligned with the needs and expectations of citizens.

This panel is for those interested in ways government looks to understand and influence behaviour as it creates policies and services that meet their needs, as well as public servants, insights specialists and designers interested in how these methods can best interact. 

We will explore when and how it’s useful to apply behavioural economics and insights as well as design; why these methods have been embraced by government; examples of how they been used by Australian government bodies; and the ethics surrounding this. 

This panel is hosted by Melbourne School of Government as a part of the Melbourne Design Week 2023 program.