Prosocial design: how UX can shape better online behavior

Design choices are never neutral. The choices we make influence how people act, what they value, and how they show up. That makes UX a powerful tool for building better communities.

Illustration from unDraw

Can design make us better people?

We talk a lot about making products intuitive, scalable, even delightful. But here’s a different question. Can we design things in a way that nudges people to be kinder, more respectful, maybe even a bit more human?

That’s the idea behind prosocial design. It’s something I’ve been quietly exploring for some time, but a recent paper titled Prosocial Design in Trust and Safety by Grüning and Kamin gave me the language to frame it. And frankly, it’s something we need to talk about more, especially if you’re working on platforms that host any kind of social interaction.

The paper brings a thoughtful mix of theory and practical insight. It does not overpromise or oversimplify. It just makes a solid case that the design decisions we make from microcopy to moderation tooling shape people’s behavior in more ways than we tend to acknowledge.

And that comes with responsibility.

The myth of neutral design

Let’s stop pretending design is neutral. It never has been.

When you decide where to place a comment box, how to phrase a button, or when to surface a prompt, you are shaping behavior. You are not just guiding navigation. You are reinforcing norms and creating expectations. You are building culture.

Prosocial design asks you to do that with intention. It moves beyond usability and conversion metrics. It asks what kind of social dynamics your product encourages, and whether those dynamics align with your values.

From avoiding harm to cultivating good

Trust and Safety teams tend to focus on harm reduction. And for good reason. Defining what not to allow is an essential part of running any online platform.

But prosocial design shifts the focus. Instead of asking how to stop bad behavior, it asks what good behavior should look like and how we can make it easier.

This is not about idealizing users or assuming everyone will act with perfect grace. It is about recognizing that design can help create better default behaviors. Less damage control. More contribution. Fewer guardrails. More support.

Nudges that actually change behavior

What I appreciated most in the paper were the real examples of small shifts that have measurable effects.

Reddit introduced a prompt that reminds users to “remember the human” before commenting. It lowered the number of toxic replies.

Twitter experimented with a warning for tweets containing harmful language. A significant number of people either rewrote or deleted the tweet altogether.

Twitter prompt in 2021

Wikipedia has long used social recognition like barnstars small badges of appreciation to keep contributors motivated. You can see the extensive list of badges here.

Even reframing a comment box from “share your opinion” to “help improve this post” leads to better, more constructive feedback.

None of these changes require large infrastructure or massive redesigns. They are small interventions that change how people show up.

Knowing where the line is

There is always a question of ethics. When does nudging become manipulation?

The authors do not ignore that tension. They point out that good prosocial design should be transparent and give users control. It should offer suggestions, not control outcomes. The goal is not to hide influence, but to be honest about the values you are designing for.

Users deserve to know when a system is shaping their behavior. And they should have the agency to opt out or push back. Prosocial design works best when it reinforces shared norms, not imposed ones.

Still early, still messy

This is not a mature field. Most studies on prosocial design are small, short-term, or limited to specific contexts. Metrics vary wildly, and many platforms do not even track what we might call prosocial behaviors.

Add to that the fact that most teams are siloed. Design, moderation, data, and behavioral science rarely collaborate in structured ways. So even when the intent is there, execution is hard.

But that also means there is a lot of room to shape this space. It is early enough that the people asking the right questions can help define what good looks like.

What this means for product teams

If you are building a platform where people interact whether publicly, in groups, or one to one you are already shaping behavior. Whether you do it intentionally or not.

Here are a few questions you might bring to your next planning session or feature review:

• Are we rewarding helpfulness or just volume
• Do users have time to reflect before posting something reactive
• Are positive interactions visible or buried
• Can people express boundaries or availability in simple ways
• Are we tracking anything beyond engagement and violations

These are not radical changes. They are design decisions that happen every day. What changes is the lens you bring to them.

Every interface carries influence

This is not about building perfect communities. People are complicated. Social dynamics are unpredictable. You will not solve everything with a better tooltip.

But that does not mean we get to ignore the role design plays.

Prosocial design is not about control. It is about care. It assumes that users are capable of decency, and that small, thoughtful choices in design can make that easier.

In a time when most platforms default to outrage, maybe this is where we try something different.

References

Grüning, S. and Kamin, J. (2025). Prosocial design in trust and safety. arXiv. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12792

Examples from Reddit, Twitter, and Wikipedia were based on studies and platform interventions mentioned in the paper. Other insights reflect common practices from product teams working at the intersection of UX, behavior, and platform integrity.

About the author

Jessica Galvao is a Brazilian product designer and team lead living in Barcelona. Over the past decade, she’s worked across different industries, helping shape digital experiences that sit at the edge of technology, behavior, emerging tools, and design systems. She brings a UX-first approach to complex products, combining structure, usability, and emerging technologies to support better user experiences at scale.

You can see more of her work at jessgalvao.com.