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The Desire Code Framework

Over the past few decades, behavioural science has unveiled nearly 200 unique mental shortcuts, biases, and heuristics that influence human decision-making. These principles, ranging from cognitive biases to emotional triggers, form a complex web of factors that can dramatically affect how we choose, buy, and engage with services and products. However, with such a vast number of insights, it can be challenging to translate this wealth of knowledge into practical design tools or methodologies.

That's where Desire Code comes in. Developed over the last 15 years, our framework takes this extensive body of behavioural economics research and distills it into five core themes. The first four focus on enhancing the desirability of a service - making it more attractive, compelling, and engaging. The fifth theme focuses on simplifying the experience, ensuring that even the most desirable service is easy to access and use. Together, these themes provide a powerful tool for creating enduring customer engagement.

Emotional
People are more persuaded by an emotional message than a rational one.

Short term
People prefer things they can have now over things they can have in the future.

Certain
People prefer things they can definitely have over things they may or may not get.

Positive
People prefer to work towards the things they want than away from the things they don’t want.

Simplified
To really engage with customers, services need to be desirable... and easy to access.

By integrating these five themes, Desire Code provides a streamlined, effective approach to designing services that are not only more appealing but also more user-friendly. This framework has been crafted through years of hands-on experience with clients, ensuring that it is both practical and grounded in real-world application.


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Desire Code, the book

Get a serious taste of how we think with 216 information-rich pages of our design methodology

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The Desire Code Experience

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