Designing for ‘use phase’ energy losses of domestic products

Elias, Edward; Dekoninck, Elies; Culley, S J

doi:10.1243/09544054jem1295

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Design for sustainable behaviour is emerging as a research area at the intersection of sustainable design and interaction design, applying insights from multiple disciplines to the problems of influencing more environmentally friendly use of products, services and environments (e.g., Combe et al, 2010;van Dam et al, 2010;Froehlich et al, 2010;Elias et al, 2009;Matsuhashi et al, 2009;Lilley, 2009;Bhamra et al, 2008;Pettersen and Boks, 2008;Wever et al, 2008;Lockton et al, 2008;Rodriguez and Boks, 2005). However, as Blevis (2007) puts it, "[i]t is easier to state the kinds of behaviours we would like to achieve from the perspective of sustainability than it is to account for how such behaviours may be adequately motivated".…”

Section: Introduction: Design For Sustainable Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models of the user: designers' perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour

Lockton

Harrison

Stanton

2012

JDR

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Influencing more environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviour is a current focus of many projects, ranging from government social marketing campaigns, education and tax structures to designers' work on interactive products, services and environments. There is a wide variety of techniques and methods used, intended to work via different sets of cognitive and environmental principles. These approaches make different assumptions about 'what people are like': how users will respond to behavioural interventions, and why, and in the process reveal some of the assumptions that designers and other stakeholders, such as clients commissioning a project, make about human nature. This paper discusses three simple models of user behaviour -the pinball, the shortcut and the thoughtful -which emerge from user experience designers' statements about users while focused on designing for behaviour change. The models are characterised using systems terminology and the application of each model to design for sustainable behaviour is examined via a series of examples.Keywords: behaviour; sustainability; modelling; designers; patterns. David Harrison is Professor of Design Research at Brunel University, andLecturer in Sustainable Design and Environmentally Sensitive Design, specialising in sustainable design, innovative approaches to electronic manufacturing and printed electronics, via the Cleaner Electronics Research Group, which works on a range of environmentally sensitive design research. He worked for six years at the BBC as an Engineer, Researcher, Director and Assistant Producer, mainly on the BBC Computer Literacy Project. He also lectured in robotics for five years at the University of Portsmouth, and joined Brunel University as a Lecturer in Design in 1994.Neville A. Stanton holds the Chair of Human Factors in Transport at the University of Southampton. He has written and edited over a dozen books and a hundred peer-reviewed journal papers on applications of human factors and ergonomics, and has helped organisations design new human-machine interfaces. Other work covers human reliability in high risk systems, evaluation of control room interfaces, work design, social organisation and environment, and product design. His research interests include situation awareness, task analysis, cognitive work analysis, human error, socio-technical systems, naturalistic decision making and human reactions in emergencies.This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled 'Modelling the User: How design for sustainable behaviour can reveal different stakeholder perspectives on human nature', presented at 14th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) conference, Delft, The Netherlands, October 2010.

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Section: Introduction: Design For Sustainable Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models of the user: designers' perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour

Lockton

Harrison

Stanton

2012

JDR

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“…In order to effectively tackle this task, designers require knowledge of user behaviour: how they use refrigerators, the rationale for their actions, and where/when inefficient use occurs. These behaviours were collected and discussed by Elias et al (2009) and have been used to inform the various types of information stimuli presented to the teams. A more detailed analysis of the primary experimental results will be presented elsewhere.This study was selected as it represented a typical small-scale design research study (see Section 1).…”

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confidence: 99%

Methodological insights from a rigorous small scale design experiment

et al. 2012

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This paper discusses the methods used to conduct high quality small-scale design experiments. It aims to provide a demonstrator promoting the uptake of more rigorous methods in design research and based on this it aims to specify a body of further work for linking study types and contexts. A small-scale experiment was conducted using methods specifically developed to mitigate four core problem areas identified from review: context, system understanding, methods and controls. The techniques were then critiqued in detail and used to draw several insights for design researchers including the value of control techniques and triangulation of metrics. Finally, the critique is used to specify further research aimed at linking design experimentation and design practice more effectively for design research.Design researchers have used experiments and observational studies extensively over the last forty years to explore the working practises and performance of designers and design teams (Cross, 2007). Recent examples includeHoward et al.'s (2010) work on ideation, Dong's (2005) work on analysing design team communication, Bakeman & Deckner's (2003) work on behaviour others across a range of areas (Ball & Ormerod, 2000; M. A. Robinson, et al., 2005). Empirical study forms a valuable part of design research, providing essential insight into many areas of design whilst also supporting theorybuilding (Stempfle & Badke-schaub, 2002) and the development of real world impact as emphasised by Briggs (2006) and Cross et al. (1996) . However, there is an ongoing challenge to improve the quality of empirical studies in design research (Blessing & Chakrabarti, 2009).One standard approach to improving quality has been to develop large-scale statistical studies, however, these are very time/resource intensive and not always appropriate for design research topics as such are rarely used in design research. A common technique that is widely used is small-scale studies. Thus, this paper examines how small-scale studies can be made more rigorous, with the aim of providing a demonstrator to support uptake of underutilised methods in design research. To this end, a laboratorybased design experiment has been developed to explore what methods can be used to improve validity, replicability and reliability. Although these studies are not a substitute for large-scale statistical validation, this paper will show that, with improved rigorous methods, small-scale studies can show possible trends and give insights into design situations. This is demonstrated using a case study experiment with the hypothesis: design teams benefit from having design relevant information presented to them during the early design phases of a product development process. The experiment also aimed to investigate what format would be most effective for the pushed information: video footage of users interacting with the product or numerical data describing the same interactions. Five design teams were each tasked with generating design ideas for a domestic refrigerator with ...

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“…According to Elias et al, user-related losses constitute a significant share of the energy use by domestic products. Such losses are also likely to increase in proportion as technological development of appliances continues to reduce intrinsic energy losses from, for instance, poor insulation or excess heat [15]. Hager and Morawicki highlighted the need to address user behavior and practices to reduce the environmental impact of cooking [16], and Hobman et al identified the category of household kitchen practices as one of the most promising areas for behavior change in the home [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing for Circularity—Addressing Product Design, Consumption Practices and Resource Flows in Domestic Kitchens

et al. 2020

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Both the daily use and renewal of kitchens significantly contribute to the overall environmental impact of domestic buildings. To identify design implications related to circular consumption in domestic kitchens, 20 household interviews and one focus group session were performed, investigating how kitchens are used and transformed to meet households’ wants and needs. This study determined that daily kitchen resource use is greatly affected by kitchen design and that typical kitchen design generally does not promote sustainable resource use. Key factors that support minimization of resource use in the kitchen are the availability and planning of storage and workspaces. Furthermore, kitchens should be equipped with functions that enable households to use energy and water efficiently. Regarding kitchen renewal, various motivations that may initiate kitchen renovations can be summarised as follows: (1) Functional demands and changing needs, (2) aesthetic demands and changing trends, (3) obsolescence due to wear, and (4) linkage to another home renovation. This article concludes that a combination of design strategies is needed to reach a higher level of kitchen circularity. Moreover, these design strategies must be accompanied by circular business models and efforts to increase awareness of the environmental impact related to activities in and involving the kitchen.

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Designing for ‘use phase’ energy losses of domestic products

Cited by 16 publications

References 8 publications

Models of the user: designers' perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour

Models of the user: designers' perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour

Methodological insights from a rigorous small scale design experiment

Designing for Circularity—Addressing Product Design, Consumption Practices and Resource Flows in Domestic Kitchens

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