Don't let the title fool you, Behavioral Insights can be used in both the Public and Private Sector.

Credit: Chiara Varazzani at OECD-OCDE

This is a great guide put together by Chiara Varazzani PhD at the OECD — OCDE — and just as an FYI — Chiara was recently hired, so go to her profile and follow her for some nice resources and occasional jobs in her team.

In this guide, Chiara talks about Sludge, and how some sludge is deliberate.

Examples:
-Subscription models that are designed to make it hard to cancel ( If you downloaded Threads, you know you can’t delete it without deleting your Instagram account — super sludgy).

-Deceptive user interfaces (i.e. dark patterns) that trick users into
buying something they didn’t intend.

And, some Sludge is not deliberate and more unintentional:

Examples:

-Information that is hard to find
-Forms that are hard to complete — who hasn’t been frustrated by a difficult form
-Complex decision points that cause cognitive overload

The guide also has a link to a repository of behavioral insights projects which you can filter by: (it’s on page 40)

-Checklists
-Simplified information
-Reminders
-Social norms

It also has other resources the OECD has for behavioral insights including BASIC and the ethics guide. Full access to the guide here.

Robert