Abstract
Product repair can decrease the ecological burden of consumer electronics by lengthening their lifetimes, but it is still too rarely practised by consumers. Design for behaviour change can motivate consumers to undertake repair activities. An increased level of repair self-efficacy can nudge consumers towards repair. In two experiments, we tested the effects of a fault indication on consumers’ willingness to repair washing machines, vacuum cleaners and stick vacuum cleaners. A fault indication is a signal appearing on a product providing information about the occurring failure. For products that are relatively less likely to be repaired by a repair professional, the willingness to repair increased significantly when a fault indication was present. The perceived level of self-efficacy mediated these results. These results remained consistent among different types of product failures. Finally, we provide implications for designers and future opportunities on how to further stimulate consumers’ willingness to repair electronic products.
Keywords
design for repair, sustainable consumer behaviour, product lifetime, circular economy
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.335
Citation
van den Berge, R., Magnier, L., and Mugge, R. (2022) Enhancing consumers’ willingness to repair electronic products: How design can nudge sustainable behaviour, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.335
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Enhancing consumers’ willingness to repair electronic products: How design can nudge sustainable behaviour
Product repair can decrease the ecological burden of consumer electronics by lengthening their lifetimes, but it is still too rarely practised by consumers. Design for behaviour change can motivate consumers to undertake repair activities. An increased level of repair self-efficacy can nudge consumers towards repair. In two experiments, we tested the effects of a fault indication on consumers’ willingness to repair washing machines, vacuum cleaners and stick vacuum cleaners. A fault indication is a signal appearing on a product providing information about the occurring failure. For products that are relatively less likely to be repaired by a repair professional, the willingness to repair increased significantly when a fault indication was present. The perceived level of self-efficacy mediated these results. These results remained consistent among different types of product failures. Finally, we provide implications for designers and future opportunities on how to further stimulate consumers’ willingness to repair electronic products.