Abstract
Users' decision to care for end-of-use products and share them with other users or return them to the manufacturer offers the potential to extend a product's lifespan and material circulation. Applying the theory of care practice in the design process for product detachment has potential implications for sustainable design and can increase the efficiency of resources. This paper presents the findings of a survey of 257 hibernating end-of-use products and interviews with ten families who have experience moving houses. The survey explored product ownership and reasons for keeping end-of-use products. Two types of lingering attachment have been identified that suggest opportunities to promote sharing. A relationship among these factors was observed, leading to the theoretical construction of the care motivation model for sharing. Furthermore, understanding owners' product care motivation to re-recognize its value and provide a choice to share products is vital to reduce the product hibernation period for material circulation. Therefore, four motivational caring themes, for which insights were taken from behavioural change and interviews, were introduced. The communicable knowledge is gathered under the concept of caring factors for sharing in the form of a design toolkit. Through action research processes of iterative development and evaluations involving a workshop method with designers in specific industry sectors, these insights were integrated into a toolkit for designers.
Keywords
product hibernation; care practice; sharing; circular economy
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.362
Citation
Choi, Y.(2023) User decision making for end of use product: Exploring the reasons for keeping and care motivations for responsible sharing, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.362
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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User decision making for end of use product: Exploring the reasons for keeping and care motivations for responsible sharing
Users' decision to care for end-of-use products and share them with other users or return them to the manufacturer offers the potential to extend a product's lifespan and material circulation. Applying the theory of care practice in the design process for product detachment has potential implications for sustainable design and can increase the efficiency of resources. This paper presents the findings of a survey of 257 hibernating end-of-use products and interviews with ten families who have experience moving houses. The survey explored product ownership and reasons for keeping end-of-use products. Two types of lingering attachment have been identified that suggest opportunities to promote sharing. A relationship among these factors was observed, leading to the theoretical construction of the care motivation model for sharing. Furthermore, understanding owners' product care motivation to re-recognize its value and provide a choice to share products is vital to reduce the product hibernation period for material circulation. Therefore, four motivational caring themes, for which insights were taken from behavioural change and interviews, were introduced. The communicable knowledge is gathered under the concept of caring factors for sharing in the form of a design toolkit. Through action research processes of iterative development and evaluations involving a workshop method with designers in specific industry sectors, these insights were integrated into a toolkit for designers.