Addressing Psychological Needs in Designing for a Sustainable Circular Economy

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportChapter in book/anthology/reportInvitedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Approaches and methods on designing for a sustainable circular economy are developing solutions for sustainable development. For such solutions to succeed, market and social acceptance of circular products and services must improve. Cur-rently, there is a mixed reception among consumers and hence a stagnating market share of circular solutions. In this chapter, the authors discuss these limitations and relate them to psychological aspects of consumer and user experience and behaviour. Research on user experience and experience design has delivered theo-ries, approaches and methods on how to design for people as they experience and behave in the world. One core finding is that psychological needs play an important role in human-product interaction. The fulfilment of such needs results in positive experiences and can raise acceptance of products and services. The authors illus-trate how psychological needs can be addressed in a sustainable circular design. They present a fictitious case to illustrate how specific non-instrumental qualities of offerings can address psychological needs and hence fundamentally influence overall judgements and behaviour in interaction with sustainable circular solu-tions. Finally, the authors discuss how such needs-based experience design can be implemented in design processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDesign for a Sustainable Circular Economy
EditorsGavin Brett Melles, Christian Wölfel
Place of PublicationSingapore
PublisherSpringer Nature
Chapter9
Pages153–178
ISBN (electronic)978-981-99-7532-7
ISBN (print)978-981-99-7534-1
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesDesign Science and Innovation
ISSN2509-5986

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-0937-1927/work/150329971