Different diets for weight loss

“What this told us is that this one-size-fits-all diet is probably flawed. We understood that rather than measuring foods and giving them a number, we should measure people instead,” Elinav says. It sounds simple, but people’s bodies react differently to different foods. (This likely has something to do with the gut microbiome, the mix of healthy bacteria that live in the colon and aid in our immune response.) 
Read More

‍

The obsessive quest for simplicity in design 

“In our modern world, it’s easy to junk things up. Simple is hard. We’re quick to add more questions to research surveys, more buttons to a digital interface, more burdens to people. Yet more words, screens, pages, boards, or tasks are seldom the answer. In design school, critiques—the practice of pinning up work and having peers discuss what is and isn’t working—helps us learn to chop and evolve ideas.”
Read More

‍

Amazon expands gamification program for warehouse employees

Sinister and dystopian metrics or a way to engage and involve employees? This completely optional program at Amazon is exploring ways to gamify workdays and reward employees- playing anonymously or not. It consists of six arcade-style mini-games that can be played only by completing warehouse tasks in the workplace that are set to roll out to fulfillment centers in 20 states. Would you opt in?

Read More

‍

Repeating the same nudges? When do they stop working?

“The effects of our tax filing nudge did not persist over time for those organizations that only received it during the first year. Timing is critical and planning prompts must be provided at key points during the decision-making process to be maximally effective, not just one-off interventions. Our results also provide some early evidence that when interventions are deployed multiple times, it may be possible to utilize the same nudge without diminishing returns on efficacy.”

Read More