Glossary
Behavioral Product Critique
What is a behavioral product critique?
A behavioral product critique examines a product or service and proposes explanations for how its design may affect behavior. It is a review activity that can identify questions for research and possible changes to test.
What to examine in a behavioral product critique
A critique can examine instructions, choices, defaults, feedback, and the conditions needed to complete a task.
- First specify the action the product is meant to help someone perform.
- Check whether that action fits their needs and circumstances.
- Then distinguish what you can observe from what you infer about their reasons.
For example, an application might hide document requirements until the last step. That observation gives the team a reason to investigate why applications are interrupted; it does not prove how many users leave or why each person leaves.
Using a framework
The COM-B framework can organize questions about capability, opportunity, and motivation. It does not turn a reviewer’s judgment into a measured finding.
Examples across products
- Websites and apps: examine navigation, instructions, and steps needed to finish the task.
- Financial services: check how fees, alternatives, and consequences are presented before a decision.
- Health and wellness: examine how someone moves from opening the app to performing the intended activity.
- Educational technology: look at the learning task and feedback, not just time spent or points earned.
What a critique can establish
A critique alone cannot determine whether a health product improves health, an educational product improves learning, or a financial product improves decisions. Those claims require studies that measure the relevant outcomes.
Recommendations should state their supporting observations, their assumptions, and what would test them. A literature finding may justify a hypothesis while leaving its relevance to this particular product uncertain.