Connecting with the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team
The new Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) aims to make government programs more effective and efficient. Amira Choueiki from the SBST joined us to explain what the SBST does, and to discuss some of the projects they’ve worked on. Amira also shared how agencies can propose projects for the SBST to tackle, and explained how social and behavioral sciences, customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) work together to enhance government products and services.
What is the Social and Behavioral Science Team?
The SBST works to fundamentally understand how people act and make decisions, to inform design in government.
The SBST is a Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council, which is comprised of representation from more than 15 organizations from across government. The team applies findings from social and behavioral sciences to the implementation of government policy and programs. OMB requires agencies to report on how they apply evidence-based thinking to their work, and the SBST gives agencies a place to connect around this discipline.
Read about SBST projects in areas such as: health, education, retirement security, economic opportunity, sustainability and government operations.
DigtialStorm, iStock, Thinkstock
Partnering with the SBST
Think the SBST team could help you design a better product or program? Any agency can submit projects for consideration at sbst.gov/connect.
Enhancing the Government Experience
How can CX, UX and social and behavioral sciences collaborate to improve the public’s experience with government? Amira put it like this:
UX focuses on individuals interacting at a moment with a product or service, such as a person filling out a form. (How easy is it to fill out the form?)
CX focuses on the life cycle of a person’s interactions with an organization, and what influences their reactions. (What did people have to go through, start to finish, to fill out the form?)
Behavioral scientists focus on how to help people do what needs to be done. (How can we make sure people actually fill out the form?)
Each group asks a different but important question. By combining these disciplines, you can develop a great product.
Keep up with all that’s happening in government customer experience by joining the CX Community and by viewing our government customer experience playlist of on-demand training videos.
