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  • Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour

Lockton, Dan, Harrison, David J and Stanton, Neville A, 2008, Journal Article, Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 1 (1). pp. 3-8. ISSN 1939-7038

Abstract or Description:

User behaviour is a significant determinant of a product’s environmental impact; while engineering advances permit increased efficiency of product operation, the user’s decisions and habits ultimately have a major effect on the energy or other resources used by the product. There is thus a need to change users’ behaviour. A range of design techniques developed in diverse contexts suggest opportunities for engineers, designers and other stakeholders working in the field of sustainable innovation to affect users’ behaviour at the point of interaction with the product or system, in effect ‘making the user more efficient’. Approaches to changing users’ behaviour from a number of fields are reviewed and discussed, including: strategic design of affordances and behaviour-shaping constraints to control or affect energyor other resource-using interactions; the use of different kinds of feedback and persuasive technology techniques to encourage or guide users to reduce their environmental impact; and context-based systems which use feedback to adjust their behaviour to run at optimum efficiency and reduce the opportunity for user-affected inefficiency. Example implementations in the sustainable engineering and ecodesign field are suggested and discussed.

Official URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1939703...
Subjects: Other > Mathematical and Computer Sciences > G400 Computer Science > G440 Human-computer Interaction
Other > Engineering > H100 General Engineering > H150 Engineering Design
Other > Engineering > H100 General Engineering > H190 General Engineering not elsewhere classified
Other > Technologies > J900 Others in Technology > J910 Energy Technologies
Other > Technologies > J900 Others in Technology > J920 Ergonomics
Creative Arts and Design > W200 Design studies
Creative Arts and Design > W200 Design studies > W240 Industrial/Product Design
Creative Arts and Design > W200 Design studies > W280 Interactive and Electronic Design
Creative Arts and Design > W200 Design studies > W290 Design studies not elsewhere classified
School or Centre: Research Centres > Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
Funders: Ormsby Trust
Identification Number or DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19397030802131068
Date Deposited: 13 Jul 2016 09:21
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2018 15:44
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/1294
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