Words of Woundedness. Designing for Behavior Change Through the Power of Vulnerability

Abstract

Vulnerability has become a key concept in modern society, relating to all dimensions of human existence, and the main determinants of health. Vulnerability is subject-dependent and so a subjective condition deeply rooted in selfhood. Addressing vulnerability means talking about resistance, resilience, and strength, essential characteristics of adaptation, the main requisite for survival. Affecting both physical and emotional bodies, chronic disease is a main cause of vulnerability. Any comprehensive effort to understand and treat illness should take a holistic view of health, thinking in wholeness and interconnectedness terms, and focusing on the interactions between mind, body, and behavior. Design impacts people's lives and influences human behavior. New approaches to promote and facilitate behavior change can be created through design for behavior change. This work seeks to understand the relevance of vulnerability as an analytical frame of reference and a multidisciplinary concept and find its contributive potential to designing for behavioral change in chronic health. As a symbolic interaction mechanism, stories can play an important role in strengthening and building resilience, regaining trust, and favoring forgiveness. Through design for behavior change, stories with a higher level of resonance can be created, thus more success-prone for person engagement and behavior change.