Design of Resource Scarcity

Long description

In this project, a design guide for the design of electronic consumer products in relation to resource scarcity was developed and validated.

Exponential population and economic growth coupled with limited resources will, if not changed, inevitably lead to system failure. Due to this factor, humanity is currently experiencing the mega-trend of resource scarcity. Particularly affected are critical raw materials, which are mainly present in electronic consumer goods and will be increasingly required for “green technologies”, such as solar panels, futurewise. Due to these developments, it is essential as designers, to consider these problems and to counteract them. In the work ‘Design of Resource Scarcity’ a design guide was developed, which can help designers and companies deal with scarcity in the best possible way when designing consumer electronics. Through the design of three products – using the developed guide – examples were created of what such a design could look like. Together with experts the guide was validated. The guide consists of three main categories: The materiality/ physical nature, behavior change/ awareness creation, and market positioning/ marketing strategy. In total 17 guidelines are included, sub-structured into 60 concrete design implications. Each product focuses on one of the categories. A docking station, a timer and a hard drive case were designed. Currently there are no design guides on this topic and little knowledge is available, in spite of the high relevance it finds little attention today, but will drastically impact our future.

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