Prakash, Amrutha and Mandlik, Neha (2022) Made From Parts: Creating emotionally durable products to increase product longevity. In: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD11, 3-16 Oct 2022, Brighton, United Kingdom.

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Abstract

The journey of our consuming self started more than 100 years ago. We have slowly become a community that depends on products for our identity. Material consumption mainly depends on the meaning a product provides to its consumers. It is the sustainability of this meaning which helps in increasing the longevity of products. The role of designers is to nudge people into a path of conscious consumerism and help to create a more sustainable community. As stated by Ikea, “Change begins at home”. It is from the residence that a designer should start making the change. To understand whether involving the user in creating a product could bring a change within the users, I created a research experiment using the Participatory Method. In this experiment, I handed a kit to several participants and asked them to create a lamp for their homes. By doing this, users helped co-create the lamp, and it became valuable to them as it created a bond and a narrative with the product. The experiment resulted in generating a meaningful product that has value and attachment to the user, due to which the users wanted to sustain it for a longer period. This fundamental character of humans, that ‘made from parts’ is trying to tap into.

Item Type:	Conference/Workshop Item (Poster)
Divisions:	Faculty of Design
Date Deposited:	07 Jun 2024 15:51
Last Modified:	07 Jun 2024 15:51
URI:	https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/4562

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