Johannes Zachrisson Daae

Dimensions of behaviour change

There is a significant potential for obtaining environmental benefit from designing products in a way that makes people use them optimally. Recent literature has proposed a number of dimensions to be considered in the process of designing such products. However, the selection of these dimensions appears to be based mostly on the intuition of the researchers, with no documented empirical investigations. The study described in this paper investigated this potential, through five workshops with designer practitioners. This resulted in the identification of 55 variations of how to affect behaviour, which are categorised into nine dimensions. These cover both the dimensions already known from literature and suggest new dimensions, and contribute as such with new perspectives for understanding how design for sustainable behaviour can be successful. These dimensions have formed the basis for the development of a tool, Dimensions of Behaviour Change, which was prototyped and tested in a design workshop. The results from the testing suggest that the tool helps designers consider more aspects of how to affect behaviour through design.

Opportunities and challenges for addressing variations in the use phase with LCA and Design for Sustainable Behaviour

For Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of products where the use phase is responsible for a large share of the total environmental impact, variations in the way the products are being used may have a significant impact on the results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a better understanding of the use phase, and possibly techniques and experience applied in Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB), may contribute to the way LCA deals with uncertainties related to variations in the use phase. To inform the investigation of how variations in the use phase are dealt with in the LCA literature today, three previously published LCA studies are analysed. Among these studies, there is a clear variation in where the (limited) attention given to this uncertainty is directed to, and how this is done. Improving the understanding of the potential variations and thereby the ability to take them into account in the LCA may require additional measurements. For situations where limited resources make extensive real-life user studies problematic, a small-scale approach is suggested. The DfSB literature both contains insight into how a large number of user research methods best can be applied to investigate the environmental aspects of how people interact with products and a growing database of case studies that may contribute to reducing the uncertainty of the use phase in LCAs.

Reinforcing preliminary design strategy selection guidelines with insight from Fogg's behaviour grid

In 2010, Zachrisson & Boks presented a set of preliminary guidelines for when different types of design strategies should be applied, according to information about the user and the context [1]. This paper describes an investigation of how these guidelines may be reinforced by combining them with insight about the selection of design strategies from Foggs behaviour grid [2]. The conclusion is that the suggestions from Foggs behaviour grid of requirements for behaviour change according to the type of change, and the sequence to address these requirements, may add valuable insight to the guidelines. In addition, there are some factors affecting behaviour that are not covered by the guidelines, which could be included.

Towards an Increased User Focus in Life Cycle Engineering

Traditionally, Life Cycle Engineering has had a limited focus on the use stage of products; also sustainable product design research and education has mainly focused on material and end-of-life aspects. With a new found focus on the use stage, as in the research area of Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB), a better understanding of how a focus on behavioural aspects can reduce life cycle impacts has emerged. Preliminary findings from on-going DfSB research were used as basis for the development of a method to guide designers in selecting promising design principles that can contribute to change user behaviour into more environmentally friendly patterns. This method is presented, and it is reflected upon to what extent this method is suitable and relevant for Life Cycle Engineers to apply. It is concluded that the embedded requirements for designerly thinking may make earlier steps in the method less suitable for engineers to participate in, but collaboration between designers and engineers in the last steps may be key to make the most out of the synergy between designerly and engineerly thinking.