Dr. Henri J. Breault of Tecumseh, Ontario is a hero. Working as a pediatrician in a hospital, Brenault’s widow recalls him coming home from work one day and exclaiming I’m sick and tired pumping kids’ stomachs!
So he invented the childproof medicine cap.
At the time, Canada had about 100,000 cases and 100 deaths.
Breault came up with the palm-and-twist bottle. As an aside, how great is YouTube? This short video shows four different child-proof caps. I did not know how the pinch one worked! Breault’s creation is fourth.
Prior to Breault’s 1967 invention was a public education campaign.
We know that education affects behavior much less than systems affect behavior.
- Easy Money looked at how expense accounts affect behavior.
- Designer Grocers looked at how grocery stores affect behavior.
- What is this place designed for? Looked at Amazon.
And our traditional punching bag is financial education.
“If someone says financial literacy at a party I basically give them a thirty-minute lecture. The idea is that in a perfect world if someone is taught about FICO and its impact on their life, they would take action to improve their FICO score. This is just not what researchers have found – and it’s really robust…the punchline is that environment matters.” – Kristen Berman, All the Hacks, October 2021
So, don’t bring an educational solution to a design fight.
The Waiter's Pad 
The obvious question is “What are some design solutions to address the financial literacy problem?”
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Morgan Housel made a book that is cool and easy to read. Maybe that? Finance pushes against so many parts of life that’s tricky. Thanks Aaron, that’s not a specific question I’d thought about!
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[…] Don’t bring an educational solution to a design fight fits this theory. To change people’s minds you have to change their feelings. And to change their feelings you have to understand their group survival dynamics – which operate on the subconscious level. Design works because it defaults to group survival. Things are this way because people like us to things like this. […]
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[…] Related: Don’t bring an educational solution to a design fight. […]
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[…] Don’t bring information to a design fight. Want to change behaviors? Make it easier to people to take actions. Want to not change behaviors? Give people (more) information about the world. The ones who want it will get it. […]
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