Applying behavioural insights to improve policy outcomes.
Folk’s research and design work is increasingly informed by behavioural economics. In health, education, social services and justice we’re being asked to solve problems where the aim is to help people make better decisions – in keeping with their own best interests.
To help build shared understanding and capability in this area we’re supporting an executive education forum with Harvard Professor Michael J. Hiscox - Applying Behavioural Insights to Public Policy Forum 19th & 20th November in Canberra.
The forum will provide a detailed introduction to behavioural economics along with a practical guide to applying behavioural insights to improve government programs, policies and administration.
The field of behavioural economics focuses on the many ways in which people are typically not like rational, calculating machines pursuing their maximum material self-interest. We all have limited attention spans and find it cognitively taxing dealing with complicated choices with uncertain consequences, and our decisions thus tend to reflect a variety of biases and our reliance on simple heuristics or rules of thumb.
These are not occasional aberrations or minor deviations from rationality, these are systematic and predictable patterns in human behaviour.
Many governments around the world have recently created behavioural insights teams to rethink traditional approaches to design and develop new solutions to policy problems in a range of key areas, including health care, social welfare, employment, education, taxation, crime and energy use.
In this forum, we will examine the key insights revealed by behavioural economics and how these insights are being applied and tested by governments to address critical policy problems.
Professor Hiscox is an acclaimed leader in the field of applied behavioural insights, serving as founding Director of BETA in Australia and advising behavioural insights teams in several other countries. At Harvard, he teaches the popular course, Behavioural Insights and Public Policy, examining applications of behavioural economics to policy design, along with Field Experiments for Policy and Program Evaluation. This executive forum draws from both those Harvard courses.
For more information on the event and Professor Michael J. Hiscox:
https://www.criterionconferences.com/event/behavioural-insights-executive-forum-canberra/
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19 December 2019
Poster’d by Folk 2019
Another year goes bye
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29 November 2019
Cooking for a Cause with OzHarvest
A socially responsible Folk social
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15 November 2019
Real Value(s)
Brands and Trust, and doing the right thing.
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05 November 2019
Mentally Healthy and User Friendly
A new website for the National Mental Health Commission
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28 October 2019
Curly comes home
The second-hand excitement is high for our client, Code Barrel, as Atlassian’s most recent acquisition
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30 September 2019
Resilience and brilliance
How is well-being and performance connected at your organisation? Introducing the Oranges Toolkit
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23 August 2019
Hey UXa’s – Look out for Folk(s) at UX Australia 2019
Folk are proud to be supporting UX Australia again in what is going to be its 11th year running.
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16 August 2019
Designing for extreme users to fuel better solutions for everyone
It’s human nature to assume that our experiences of using something are the most common experiences, and that everyone is starting from the same place we are. As designers ...
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04 July 2019
Weave proved popular
Our “Close Knit…” Community poster: Sold!
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25 June 2019
Folk stars in Channel (K)9’s pet project
21 June was Bring Your Dog to Work Day around the world
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11 June 2019
San Francisco Design Week 2019
Our “Close Knit…” Community poster
One hundred top design agencies were invited to submit an ‘artefact’ for San Francisco Design Week 2019.
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18 February 2019
Poster’d: 2018
Our year-long self-initiated project
Poster’d is an annual, internal challenge we set ourselves as 2015 ended:
• design a poster of each month’s most notable event/s
• keep it surprisingly obvious.We identify a ‘first-three-pages-of-the-Telegraph’ news story. Depending on the month, the topic can be light-hearted or heart-breaking.
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11 February 2019
Who’s in!?
Folk get their socks off at Balmain Bowling Club
It was Macs away, jacks away! round here last week as we rolled our trouser-legs up and let our hair down with a spot of lawn bowls and cold beer.
Summery fun was had by all, except maybe the grounds staff. We’re not sure who was the winner (but it definitely wasn’t lawn bowls).
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15 February 2019
Say it with… strategy
Folk appoints Michael Bloom as Strategy Director.
Michael joins in the newly created role as part of the design consultancy’s move to deepen its expertise across brand, UX and service design.
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09 October 2018
Central Coast Council launches new website
Central Coast Council is a newly created council, formed through the amalgamation of the former Gosford City and Wyong Shire Councils. With over 300,000 people, the newly formed Central Coast Council is one of the fastest growing regions in NSW and has the ninth largest population in Australia.
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04 September 2018
Carer Connect UX, UI and identity design
We’d like to congratulate the Queensland Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women on the recent and successful launch of Carer Connect.
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04 June 2018
Thought for food.
A campaign to help fight food waste.
We were delighted to be invited to help the remarkable OzHarvest.
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13 April 2018
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16 March 2018
Welcome Nick and Renato
New grey matter. No grey hair. Yet.
Meet our new Client Services Director and UX Project Director.
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15 March 2018
Graham hosts AGDA Pecha Kucha evening at Sydney Design Festival
AGDA’s annual Pecha Kucha event has become one of its most prestigious. Now a part of the Sydney Design Festival, the sold-out event is held at the Powerhouse Museum’s 300-seat theatre here in Sydney.
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07 February 2018
ThinkUKnow… what your child does online?
Today’s SMH reports “Kids as young as four posting explicit images and being groomed online.”
As a result, the AFP-led ThinkUKnow program will now be introduced to teach online safety to kindergarten children. These classes already exist for grades three upwards.
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05 February 2018
Solar Powered Folk
Our cool old Annandale chocolate factory warehouse sprung a leak. In a recent massive storm, the roof flooded and part of the ceiling caved in. Damn. This was promptly followed by an invasion of Possum/s – anything edible left out was devoured in place. Our furry visitor often expressed thanks all over the desk/floor in a way that’s unacceptable at a dinner party.
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14 December 2017
You can’t A/B-test your way to greatness
You can’t A/B-test your way to greatness
Recent years have seen great developments in the design industry, with the practice achieving higher levels of maturity in verticals where it had been historically inexistent until not long ago, such as in Finance and Insurance, and in many places even earning a seat at the executive table.
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08 December 2017
Poster’d: 2017
A self-initiated project by Folk
Poster’d is an annual, internal project we set ourselves at the end of 2015.
• design a poster of each month’s most notable event/s
• keep it surprisingly obvious.The whole studio contributes.
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06 December 2017
Behavioural Economics: Design for good
How many times have you been puzzled or surprised by people’s behaviour, particularly when their actions seem counter to their own best interests?
Depending on how mindful you are at the time, we routinely notice these things and wonder ‘why?’ Why does it seem so hard for most of us to act in keeping with our good intentions?
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30 November 2017
Maddy and Graham talk for AGDA at The Distillery
AGDA’s ‘Where To From Here’ is an opportunity for final year students and recent grads to have their most pressing questions, about entering the industry, answered.
Folk were delighted to be invited to spea
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04 April 2018
Embrace Learning UX research and design
We’d like to congratulate Queensland's Department of Education and Training (DET) on the recent and highly successful launch of the Embracing 2018 Global Education Program.
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30 October 2017
Folk makes a doonation to Ronald McDonald House
Our Giftmas-in-July fundraiser is put to bed
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17 October 2017
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29 August 2017
Bringing investors and their trends to life, online
Deloitte Access Economics for the ASX
Bringing investment trends to life, online. Next Generation, Wealth Accumulators, Retirees and Non-investors all have a place. And a face.
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02 August 2017
Unpacking Plastic Free July
Getting out of it what we put in
Thank you and well done to all – including everyone at Folk – for their efforts this Plastic Free July.
A month ago we decided to do our bit in the War On Waste – inspired by the ABC program of the same name. As a company, we aimed to refuse or re-use as many single-use plastic bags, cups, and containers as possible.
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24 May 2017
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18 May 2017
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16 May 2017
Easy does it
Brand identity for Easy Agile
Easy Agile is a software development company offering unique online productivity tools for teams using Atlassian software.
Put more simply, they enhance what’s already in use.
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07 April 2017
Good work at work
The cost of mental health in the workplace
Georgie Harman, CEO of beyondblue, spoke recently on ‘The cost of mental health to your workplace' at a CEDA event supported by Folk
In the course of putting together a few notes to introduce Georgie I had cause to reflect and think through my experience, both as an employer and as someone who is lucky enough to do interesting and challenging work, in a friendly and supportive place...
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07 March 2017
Encouraging ‘geeks’ to speak
What Readify don’t know about software technology is not worth knowing. They know what they are talking about. However…
They’d stopped talking about it. Publicly, at least.
Readify wanted to take centre-stage again in the software tech community and share their knowledge...
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24 February 2017
Alignment and dialogue
Rebrand for Health Justice Australia
It’s common for GPs to refer patients to mental health practitioners, to nutritionists, to physiotherapists… Rarely, if ever, to lawyers.
Health Justice Australia exists to highlight and facilitate that change. And Folk had the pleasure of bringing their brand to life.
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15 February 2017
Deloitte’d
Congratulations to Deloitte Australia, rated by as most popular choice for the nation’s newly credentialed graduates in the Australian Financial Review / Grad Connection Top 100 Graduate Employers 2017.
Folk worked with on bring their new brand to life for Australian Graduate recruitment in 2017.
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05 October 2016
Self raising power
To raise money for the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea initiative, we stirred up a little healthy competition, with a not‑so‑healthy one.
We indulged in a Bake Off.
Bake a cake. Bring it in. Give and take (donate and eat). Bring it on!
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07 December 2016
Money for something
Folk made a charitable donation to Alzheimer’s Australia in the form of Graham, our creative director.
We can explain.
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03 November 2016
We're back! At Service Design 2016, Canberra
Once again we’re supporting Service Design 2016 - but this time it's in Canberra, on 22-23 November.
We’re looking forward to seeing our Experience Design Lead, Suzie Haddock, talk about “The unexpected results of going digital.”
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28 October 2016
Good Giving with Google
Folk is a long-time supporter of a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) event series. The most recent event in Sydney, “Innovative and effective corporate philanthropy that achieves social benefit”, saw Michael introduce Jacquelline Fuller, who leads Google.org
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20 October 2016
Equalising the gender diversity ratio, across the board
BoardLinks is a Government initiative supporting women’s leadership opportunities and representation on Government boards. It is a key tool in assisting the Australian Government achieve its 1:1, male to female, boardroom gender diversity target.
Folk worked with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to create the visual identity and key messaging.
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31 August 2016
We're in the (digital) Marketplace
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has created a marketplace for digital service professionals and Government buyers.
Folk has joined the marketplace with service capabilities of User Research, Service Design and Interaction Design available through our recent appointment to the DTO’s Digital Service Professionals Panel.
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05 August 2016
See you at UX Australia 2016!
UX Australia has been this country’s premier user experience design conference since its inception and each year it goes from strength to strength. We're proud to be on board as a sponsor.
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26 May 2016
Congratulations to Barnardos Australia for MyStory
Congratulations to Barnardos Australia and their MyStory case management system for winning the Connecting Up Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Innovator of the Year award.
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29 April 2016
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04 May 2016
Welcome, James!
Things are getting creative over at Folk with news the branding and design agency has hired James Welch into the design director role...
Originally published in B&T Magazine
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02 May 2016
500 pennies for our thoughts
(in B&T Magazine)
With the news of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s release of a new Australian $5 note, B&T Magazine reached out to Folk to ask for our considered design perspective.
We very happily obliged.
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14 April 2016
No answers, just better questions
Like everyone at Folk I have a professional development plan – learning goals and objectives. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to improve how I work and what I bring to my role at Folk. This year, I went to Harvard Business School in Boston for the “Leading Professional Services Firms” program...
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22 March 2016
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22 March 2016
'Walking in the shoes of others' listening to@almondalexandra talk about accessibility journey mapping for public transport #SD16 -
26 February 2016
Many hands make bright work
How Folk’s 2015 Christmas Card took shape:
“Err, we could do Hash-tags…. Gift tags, in the shape of a hashtags…?”
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24 February 2016
Folk sponsoring Service Design 2016
Service Design 2016 is all about designing great services, and a great fit with Folk’s focus on connecting brand identity and experience design.
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22 February 2016
Stoked Folk is supporting @UXAustralia Service Design 2016 conference. http://www.uxaustralia.com.au/news/new-sponsor-for-service-design-2016-folk #UX -
29 January 2016
We will remember them
In 2015 the Department of Veteran’s Affairs engaged Folk to develop a content marketing strategy that would help people all over Australia to connect with stories, support projects and events in their area to commemorate the Anzac Centenary.
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17 December 2015
Folk’s own elected AGDA NSW Chair
We’re delighted to announce our own Creative Director, Graham Barton, has recently been elected as the Chair of the Australian Graphic Design Association NSW Council.
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15 December 2015
Searching for the obvious
Where do ideas come from?
It’s less a case of knowing how or even where to look, more of being prepared to look – and think – hard.
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07 December 2015
Market Day at Susan Street Studios
Something new in our Annandale neighbourhood is the Market Day at Susan Street Studios – held last Saturday around the corner from Folk’s Albion St Studio...
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26 November 2015
Kicking the habit can be hard.
But the experience is getting better, thanks to Cancer Institute NSW.
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17 November 2015
Pretty happy with Team Folk's 17th place (out of 66) in the @AdNews Challenge. Fit as! -
29 July 2015
Thanks Bob
It’s always good when our clients have good things to say about working with Folk.
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10 August 2015
Taking justice online
Sometimes, we are given the opportunity to work on projects where we really feel the output can make a difference to the greater good....
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09 October 2015
Folk break the boss - The AdNews Challenge http://po.st/cQipf8 -
19 August 2015
Making legal information accessible
Continuing this month’s theme of making a difference, check out the new Legal Aid NSW Best for Kids website, launched by the NSW Attorney General, Gabrielle Upton, on Tuesday morning.