This thesis explores the application of Emotional Durability to Personal Audio Devices (PADs), specifically focusing on speakers, with the aim of fostering irreplaceable emotional bonds between owner and product. In response to the environmental challenges posed by excessive and premature e-waste generation, the project combines strategies from emotional product attachment with interaction design to engage users and devices, strengthening their relationship.

Following a user-centered research phase aimed at understanding what made the interaction with analog music players meaningful, as well as how the experience of using modern speakers unfolds, key strategies of Design for Emotional Durability were identified. Two main directions emerges: self-expression through visualisation and participation to elevate the ritual, which were conceptualised into two proposals through a participatory design approach.

The final concept, LEVELS OF INSTANTS, builds on a real-case model and introduces a serie of interventions aligned with both directions. Through the user’s direct involvement, the speaker visually reflects their listening habits, evolving and adapting throughout their journey together. Validation with users demonstrates its potential for implementation, and opens the door to considering the role of hybrid user experiences in cultivating long-lasting attachment with physical devices.

The fast fashion industry faces critical challenges by overconsumption and overproduction driven by high demand, coupled with a lack of transparency in supply chains for many brands. This gap in transparency has led to limited consumer awareness regarding the environmental and ethical consequences of their clothing purchases. This research explores the potential of generative visual art in raising consumer awareness and changing perceptions within fast fashion stores. It serves as a proof of concept to test the impact of AI-generated visual art on engaging consumers, evoking emotional responses, and shifting mindsets related to overconsumption. The project utilized theories from related works and elements from the Vision in Product (ViP) framework to develop a concept, which was tested through two experimental studies. In the pre-study, with evaluating the effectiveness of various aesthetic combinations of AI-generated images, among 111 participants, black-and-white, zoom-in compositions were found most effective in capturing attention and sparking reflection on fast fashion. The main study, comparing AI-generated images with traditional visuals, dividing participants into control and treatment groups, involved 254 participants. The results showed that AI-generated images had a statistically significant impact, with mean scores on attention, cognitive engagement, and behavioral change exceeding those of traditional images by 13.94% and 7.33%. One AI-generated image, depicting a critical fashion scenario of over disposal, stood out by driving significant cognitive engagement and behavioral change. These findings underscore the transformative potential of AI-generated visual art in enhancing consumer awareness and driving change within the fashion industry. By employing creative and impactful visual strategies, it is possible to foster greater consumer perception, disrupt the cycle of overconsumption, and promote more sustainable fashion practices.

Recognising their environmental impact despite ongoing circular-economy practices, Philips seeks ways to extend the lifespan of their products to reduce such loss of value at the end life of their products. This project explores the concept of Emotional Durability as a user-centred approach to sustainable product design, specifically within the context of Philips Personal Care's grooming devices. Emotional Durability refers to the ability of a product to create a long-lasting bond with its owner, fostering a desire to keep and use it for longer.
Grooming devices provide an ideal testing ground for this concept of Emotional Durability due to their context of use. Their highly frequent and recurrent use, the intimate relationship to their owners’ inner self, and their long lifespan make these devices particularly suitable to form a durable emotional connection with their users. The research aims to bridge this gap between long-lasting products and consumer behaviour through interaction and product experience design.
The project employs a participatory design approach, engaging users in the research, ideation, and evaluation stages to inform the development of design interventions aimed at fostering emotional connections between users and their grooming devices. The final intervention, All-about-One, employs engaging, personal, non-transferable, and functional interactions, found to be essential qualities for instilling Emotional Durability.
This thesis offers valuable insights and practical guidelines for the effective implementation of Emotional Durability in grooming devices, underpinned by a robust research-through-design approach.
The research findings hold potential for broader applications of Emotional Durability across other durable product categories, contributing to the growing relevance of Emotional Durability and providing actionable insights for design practitioners, researchers, and the consumer durables industry.

Smartphones are the most widely used electronic devices globally, producing vast amounts of CO2 emissions and contributing significantly to e-waste when they end up in landfills. Extending their lifespan by encouraging repairs can mitigate these environmental impacts. However, users often show resistance to repairing their devices due to a lack of knowledge about the specific issues. The barrier to diagnose a smartphone is too high. This thesis explores the design of a smartphone diagnostic tool that guides users to accurately diagnose common hardware problems in the Fairphone 3.
The four most common hardware faults in nonresponsive smartphones are issues with the screen, battery, charging port, and motherboard. A testing workflow was developed to detect these faults using an elimination approach, using testing points on the phone’s accessible battery and battery terminal. This method requires minimal disassembly and is integrated into a functional testing device compatible with the Fairphone 3.
The proposed design encourages repair behaviour through an interactive interface that effectively communicates diagnostic steps. It combines video and textual instructions to guide users through the process, motivating them to continue and directing them to subsequent repair actions.
Additionally, the device is designed to be shareable, available in public spaces such as libraries or maker spaces, which enhances accessibility and removes the need to purchase it for single use.
Furthermore, the potential for generalizing the diagnostic device to work with other smartphone models is discussed, broadening the design’s applicability and impact.
This thesis contributes to the field by combining a simple and efficient diagnostic workflow with consumer behaviour insights in a single testing device. It enables users to diagnose their phones with minimal effort, knowledge, and time, increasing their sense of competence and safety.

Keywords: Smartphone diagnosis, Consumer behaviour, Product design, Repair

Overconsumption plays a big part in the current environmental crisis, making a shift towards sufficient consumption imperative. Since overconsumption is often a habit, triggering a stop and re-think process in the consumers' minds may be the way for reduction. Societal norms, proven effective for behaviour change, could disrupt consumption habits by combining a static (present norm) and dynamic (how the norm is changing) norm. This thesis explores the impact of combining sustainable and unsustainable framings of static and dynamic norms on consumer behaviour. A laboratory study exposed participants to four norm combinations before engaging in a shopping task. No significant differences emerged in the number of items selected or the time spent shopping across groups. However, a marginally significant interaction effect hinted at the potential influence of combined static and dynamic norms: participants selected the most items with two matching sustainable norms and the least with matching unsustainable norms. Notably, upon removing older participants from the data, this interaction effect disappeared and the effect of the dynamic norm became significant. Unsustainable norms triggered significantly higher negative emotions than sustainable ones, while sustainable norms elicited significantly higher positive emotions. Yet, neither significantly mediated the relationship between static and dynamic norms and item selection. These findings are relevant for marketeers and (communication) designers of companies seeking to engage in demarketing or government agencies promoting sufficient consumption. These results can lay the foundation for more extensive research into this combination of static and dynamic norms, which could be used to make stronger messages to promote both sufficient consumption and other sustainable behaviour.

This Design for Interaction master thesis is focussed on the development of a design intervention to encourage consumer behaviour towards DIY repair and upgrading of furniture. The project was carried out in collaboration with the Behaviour Insights Team of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and Het Groene Brein.

Problem background:
Furniture is a product category which causes a large environmental impact due to the materials they contain and consumers’ current replacement behaviour. In the Netherlands, over half of the large amount of disposed furniture pieces have not reaching the end of their lifespan (Koch & Vringer, 2023). Increasing repair and upgrading behaviour can extend the life of damaged or undesired furniture pieces and thereby reduce environmental impact.

Research & design goal:
Literature research, generative sessions, a survey and expert interviews were used to determine how a design intervention can most effectively contribute to the desired behaviour change. It was concluded that the design should support 18-35 aged, high income, high education consumers, living in the big cities, to ...

1. … make a plan with a desired outcome for ...
2. … together perform ...

... DIY repair and/or upgrade activities for furniture from the low/medium priced segment made from wood and/or textile and foam in 2024.


Design proposal:
The outcome of this master thesis is a design intervention named ‘Opknappers,’ a proposal for Intergamma (the umbrella organization of Karwei and Gamma). The proposal includes DIY cards and an exposition showcasing and explaining repair/upgrade possibilities in the physical shops. Additionally, a concept for the Opknappers app has been developed, which allows consumers to visualise upgrade options for their own furniture. Finally, a plan was made for using Intergamma’s websites and social media to support consumers in the DIY process. The final design was evaluated with customers and employees of Intergamma, and final improvements and recommendations were made.

Our production and consumption patterns of electronic products exceed the limits of what one planet can handle. Prolonging product lifetimes decreases the value losses caused by the destruction of existing products and lowers the amount of e-waste. Repair is an impactful strategy to tackle the issues associated with the production and consumption of electronic products. However, most discarded products are never repaired during their lifetime. Literature proposed several design for repair strategies, predominantly from a technical (engineering) perspective. However, a technically repairable design may not automatically result in repair behavior. Consumers and their behavior play a key role in prolonging the lifetimes of our daily used products.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the role of design in stimulating consumers to extending product lifetimes via repair. A consumer perspective investigates why consumers decide to prematurely replace products and their barriers towards repair. Design and marketing strategies to stimulate repair (e.g., support in failure diagnosis, modularity, and lifetime labels) are identified from literature. The effectiveness, boundaries and the required conditions of these strategies are tested in several empirical studies. They showed that high perceived repair self-efficacy, explicit cues guiding the repair act, and specific information about product’s reliability and upgradeability can increase consumers’ repair intentions.

By adopting a consumer-centric approach, this thesis offers contributions to design research on product lifetime extension and repair. However, creating a repairing society is not solely a consumer’s responsibility. One should realize that product lifetime extension requires a shift in current industry practice and businesses organization, as well as the design of appropriate policies. Therefore, a systemic approach and cooperation between all involved stakeholders is required. Designers, researchers and policymakers can use our insights to stimulate much-needed consumer repair practices of (electronic) products within a circular economy.
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This graduation project focuses on the problem of solid waste, specifically passenger waste at Schiphol Airport. The project aimed to enhance passenger separation behaviour to reduce the amount of residual waste that would be incinerated.

The project began by exploring the FF3 bin's context, including its attributes, pilot tests, waste mapping, and user ecosystem. Design conclusions were drawn to align bin elements with Dutch recycling standards, enhance signage visibility, accommodate waste types, prioritize separation, and consider user perspectives. Insights were gained through stakeholder interviews, observations, and engagements with relevant organizations like airports and bin manufacturers. Design adjustments included organic waste separation, cultural diversity accommodation, and communication enhancement. Behavioural analysis using the FOGG model led to strategies for improved separation ability and motivation, accounting for cultural differences. These conclusions formed the problem statement, which could be translated into a roadmap. The roadmap guides actions to enhance waste separation ability and motivation. The iterative design process utilized this foundation, leading to the 'Time To Waste' proposal integrating an FF3 bin skin, campaign, and projectors. This project offered Schiphol insights into how to tackle its zero waste and circular goals, along with a strategic plan for others to achieve similar objectives.

This thesis explores user motivation and barriers in returning Bosch drills from the DIY Tools range, with the goal of proposing an effective return service. Stakeholder analysis, literature review, and customer research were conducted to inform the design process. The objective of this research was to identify key factors influencing the development of the return service. Stakeholder analysis and meetings with the company provided insights into major stakeholders, including the company, legal regulations, customers, and the environment. A literature review revealed pain points in reverse logistics and guided the selection of a behavioral model. Extensive customer research was conducted to understand the customer perspective on EOU reverse logistics. Design guidelines were formulated based on these findings. The stakeholder analysis emphasized the importance of satisfying all major stakeholders for the success of the return service. The literature review identified pain points in reverse logistics and highlighted the significance of incorporating behavioral change elements. Customer research underscored the pivotal role of customers in the success of the return service. Based on these findings, design guidelines were established, such as designing a comprehensive solution that integrates data from various consumption stages, utilizing the same data carrier as a touchpoint, and simplifying the return process while enhancing customer motivation. Motivational elements, particularly emphasizing the sustainability aspect, were identified to encourage customers to choose the return service. The research led to the development of the QR code solution, an integral approach that offers easy accessibility for customers, incorporates multiple customer stages, and collects usage data for reverse logistics purposes. This solution not only benefits customers but also has the potential to streamline post-return processing. Additionally, the proposed return service aligns with potential future legal requirements regarding the digital product passport. This thesis provides valuable insights into user motivation and barriers to returning Bosch drills, resulting in a suggested return service. The research findings inform design guidelines for creating an effective and usercentric return process, ensuring stakeholder satisfaction and promoting sustainability in reverse logistics. The proposed QR code solution offers an accessible and data-driven approach, while also preparing for potential future regulatory requirements.

This master thesis shows the research and design to tackle overconsumption of products within the context of recreational shopping practices in city centres. Thereby show the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management how they could tackle the ‘Refuse’ strategy of their Circular R-ladder, which is currently unexplored.

Why...
... this approach?

Sufficiency asks to change the way society consume
Merely relying on circular strategies is insufficient for reduce overconsumption. In order to accomplish deep emission reductions, people have to make do with less. Therefore, the focus of this thesis lies on absolute reductions of product purchases.

Practices are embedded in our everyday lives
The strategies from the Ministries National Program Circular Economy focus on product categories, but this implicitly assumes people have a need for those products, while excluding other types of products. The practice perspective shows that the ‘need’ is embedded in people’s ways of doing and if those ways change, the need can fade or shift to non-material alternatives and thereby reduce overconsumption.

... does overconsumption happen?

People like products, even more in certain circumstances
Literature research showed that people like products for multiple reasons and are influenced by the industry. A sustainability label for ‘Refuse’ won’t work and materialistic views should be tackled, especially the question: when are people materialistic?

Shopping in city centres results in unplanned purchases
Through street interviews and generative sessions with recreational shoppers, it was discovered that important elements of shopping are fueling novelty, feeling fulfilled, and bonding with a shopping companion. These are currently predominantly facilitated by the product (environments).

How?
A future perspective that involves long-term happiness
Through explorative research with stakeholder interviews and the Vision in Product approach, different futures of practices in city centres were framed of which this one showed how long-term happiness can be facilitated in the city centre.

Change orientation towards the city centre
This strategy derived from the qualitative research aims to change the current situation by changing the focus from the product environment tot the city environment.

What?
The final design, Wend, proposes a new type of practice for returning visitors in the city centre that support long-term happiness, whilst keeping it a place to achieve fulfilment, enhance bonding and fuel novelty in a low key way.
Wend offers story routes that allow people to engage in specific happiness topics and discover other perspectives together, creating a space for happiness in the current city center context, without feeling like it is a serious and effortful activity. This is achieved through:
•The storyroutes substitute the engagement with stores and instead offer multiple real-life stories of average people, which can be listend to at different points in the city.
•The activities during the route and in the app let people work on their personal happiness together, thereby improve their wellbeing and develop resilience towards materialistic tendencies.

The concepts implementation fits a bottom-up approach best, together with a municipality, and alongside more testing and validation, it could help move towards practices that support a sustainable and happier society.
A multitude of recommendations are proposed for the Ministry to tackle overconsumption that emphasize to look at practices of everyday lives, social embeddedness and long-term happiness.

This thesis explores potential causes for reduced razer blade use time, as this increases e-waste while reducing’ profit. Influenced by the upcoming energy label, impact resistance of the shaving head is deemed to negatively affect use time and strategic position. Through researching breaking behavior of the head several strategies for achieving full impact resistance are proposed, with the direction of detaching the interface legs being further explored. In the end this direction is found to not be feasible and not recommended to be researched further. However other strategies are proposed that potentially offer the razer blade an increase in impact resistance or use-time.

The sustainability adoption of sustainability practices is currently low for Small Enterprises, Freelancers and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs), while they must do their part to become more environmentally sustainable. SMEs are responsible for many greenhouse gas emissions emitted and as almost all companies in the Netherlands are SMEs, this presents an urgent call for change. However, many SMEs are not prioritising sustainability which is not without cause. Many limitations within SMEs withhold them from taking action. The most significant hurdle for SMEs is their size which comes with limited human, financial and technical resources.

Furthermore, the same limitations result in SMEs’ lagging use of digital technologies. This lagging use of digital technologies is unfortunate because ICT can positively contribute to environmental goals if an SME uses ICT in their business. A way to improve environmental sustainability with ICT is through telecommunication (telecom).

However, there is still no broadly adopted manner in which SMEs can use current telecom technologies to be less harmful to the environment. The telecom sector is in a position where it can enable its customers to become more sustainable and reduce scope 3 downstream emissions. Nevertheless, as the role of enabler is not yet optimally utilised by telecommunication companies (telcos), customers are not yet decreasing their emissions. Therefore, there is potential for KPN to guide SMEs with their sustainability expertise to transition them towards sustainability through using telecom.

SMEs face challenges when open to adopting sustainable telecom practices. The explorative research in this thesis has shown that six different topics influence whether an SME can or is willing to adopt a sustainable telecom practice. These topics are; the right means for an online way of working, collaborative effort, education of digital sustainability, management decisions for sustainability, office building restrictions and reducing physical presence.
To enable SMEs to use their telecom more sustainably, telcos should keep these topics in mind while working towards solutions. Furthermore, elements that are valuable to SMEs to adopt sustainable telecom practices are knowledge, inspiration, community and guidance.

In this thesis, a platform is designed with which KPN can support SMEs by being the provider that connects telecom to sustainability by facilitating SME customers with inspiration, guidance and education on suited sustainable telecom practices while considering specific context challenges that SMEs face. With the platform, KPN educates its SME customers by communicating sustainability information to provide the customers with sufficient knowledge to start acting. As a result, the SME customers of KPN can be inspired to use telecom more sustainably. Furthermore, the platform includes a community of stakeholders connecting KPN to customers and customers to each other to exchange sustainability knowledge. The development of the platform allows KPN to become a partner in sustainable telecom use for SMEs.

To work towards the proposition of being a sustainability partner, KPN should prioritise sustainability in their organisation and introduce it in the SME market. To do so, KPN should educate and teach its employees about sustainable telecom practices KPN conducts. To incorporate sustainability at KPN, a new design principle is designed that communicates sustainability. The design principle summarises information about SME customer values for sustainability so it can be tested on customer journeys. With the new knowledge, the employees can prioritise sustainability more in their work, resulting in its implementation in customer journeys.

Research
Disposable diapers require a large amount of new material and put a large pressure on Dutch waste disposal services. Washable diapers are a cheaper and supposedly more environmentally friendly alternative to disposables. Yet they are a niche product. This project aims to design a product service for Toddy to increase the acceptance and adoption of reusable diapers.

After doing desktop research, semi structured interviews were done with current users and employees of day-cares who either use washable diapers or had used them in the past to see how washable diapers where purchased, used and perceived.

After gathering existing information and a series of in-dept interviews two main reasons were isolated: Unfamiliarity and unreliability. It was decided to focus on unfamiliarity.

Several ideas were generated and evaluated. This process was structured by focussing on Rogers’ theory of diffusion and finding solution principles. These are used to eventually find concepts and select the most viable one to develop further in the design phase.


Result
The baby gift box (Doorgeef doos in Dutch), is a product service combination that introduces families to washable diapers by offering diapers in a pregnancy box together with other reusable baby products for a reduced price. This box gives access to information on how to use the diapers and can be passed on to a friend or family member in the future.

The idea behind the final design is to conceptualise the box as a blank slate that people can decorate and personalise themselves. This way the box visually shows its legacy, reminding people of the shared responsibility of taking care and passing on the box. The simple cardboard box also fits within toddy brand identity, the design can be implemented quickly and is relatively cost effective.

The aim of the baby gift box is to get people to eventually buy a full washable diaper set from Toddy. Therefore, the gift box is made to guide people through the acquisition process. The box focuses on familiarising people with washable diapers by creating awareness of the product during the orientation phase and creating practical experience during the try-out phase. This is also done by linking the gift box to existing products and services provided by Toddy. To show the underlying process that facilitates the baby gift box, a service blueprint was made.

With the rapid rise in consumption and production, natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. As the prevalence of the linear economy leads to neglect in the product end-of-use (EOU) phase, moving towards a circular economy (CE) can maximize the product value by recovering and reusing.
As one of the circular strategies applied by some industries, the take-back program could enable a company to take back used products from consumers and reintroduce them to the production cycle, thereby facilitating the CE. However, if consumers rarely bring back EOU products, manufacturers can hardly close the loop (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013).
This thesis project collaborates with Philips, aiming to motivate Philips Grooming consumers to return used products to Philips so that devices can be recycled or refurbish. However, consumers rarely return the device. Therefore, this project intends to explore how an effective take-back program can be developed to change Grooming consumers’ behaviour towards returning.
Fogg behaviour model is the key methodology supporting the project research. It was used for exploring the relationship between users’ behaviour and the influencing factors, thereby providing valuable insights for the design direction. Taking Fogg behaviour model as a starting point, service safari, benchmarking, and in-depth user interviews were conducted to understand the service context and target group behaviour. The data obtained from these activities were further analysed, synthesised, and formulated to executive design directions.
This project ends up with a final service concept, “Philips Grooming Take-back”, which applies various design interventions and service strategies to create a painless and seamless divestment experience for users by meeting different values that each individual needs. The concept could also create long-term value for Philips, other stakeholders, and the environment. In addition to the service concept, this project has addressed systematic design opportunities and requirements for behaviour change in the Grooming divestment context, which could be potentially leveraged for other relevant initiatives of Philips Personal Health.

Scientists have been warning for years about the consequences of the current take-make-waste system, and incremental change is needed to enable the environment to regenerate and move towards a sustainable society. Especially electronic waste (e-waste), which currently increases three times faster than regular waste and is hard to collect and recycle (The World Bank, 2021), is an increasing concern and an opportunity for improvement. In this project, the problem of premature obsolescence is addressed. The project investigates how to increase the lifetime of electronic consumer durables. By fully understanding how the consumers make replacement decisions, the decisions people make can be influenced. It turns out that as a product moves towards the expected lifetime, the perceived value of the product goes down, and the consumer is less likely to take care of the product or repair it when it breaks. Consequently, this project investigates how to increase the expected lifetime of products. This contributes to the Premature Obsolescence Multistakeholder Product Testing Program (PROMPT). PROMPT is working on a test program to assess the lifetime of products from a technical, user, and market perspective. The formulated assignment is to generate design guidelines that help to improve the expected product lifetime and illustrate this on a case example. The products that will be investigated are washing machines, televisions, vacuum cleaners, and smartphones. Two studies were performed. One qualitative study to get more insights in an explorative way, and a quantitative study to measure the most effective way to increase the expected lifetime. From the first study, it was concluded that people determine the expected lifetime at several moments throughout the lifetime of the product. Also, past experiences with the product, the average lifetime, the amount of warranty and expected change in demographics are factors that were considered by the participants while determining the expected lifetime of their products. Also, it was concluded that many people are not aware of their expectations of the (expected) lifetime of products, and therefore creating more awareness could lead to increased lifetime of products. In the quantitative study, only vacuum cleaners were studied. It turned out that warranty and the availability of spare parts are the most effective strategies to increase the expected lifetime of vacuum cleaners. However, the strategies build upon each other while increasing the expected lifetime. Therefore, to address all consumers, more strategies should be integrated in a product for the optimal result. The findings from this study can be used by PROMPT as a starting point for testing criteria. For example, criteria about the attempts of companies to increase the expected lifetime of products could be integrating in the testing program. However, before doing this, more research is needed about the influencing factors of the expected lifetime of products.

An essential step on the way to a circular economy is utilizing recycled materials for new products. Even though the use of recycled plastic has been increasing for the past decades, electronic products have been largely overlooked in this context. Currently, there are no design strategies on how to use recycled plastic in electronic products. Therefore, this master thesis aims at investigating consumers’ perception of recycled plastic, and based on the findings, create recommendations for designers on how to implement the material in their products. According to the aim, the following research question was developed: How can a designer stimulate a consumer to opt for an electronic device made from recycled plastic? In a first step, the available literature on sustainable behaviour, the factors influencing the behaviour-intention gap as well as existing findings on the overall perception of recycled plastic were reviewed. Additionally, consumers of Generation Z, who have been deemed to have strong, pre-existing environmental values, were determined as the focus group of this study. An analysis of e-products on the market provided information on how the share of recycled plastic is currently communicated. These different communication strategies were subsequently investigated through qualitative interviews. Seven participants were interviewed as to how different product aesthetics and communication strategies influence their perception of the product in question. Insights from these interviews yielded four clusters: aesthetics, trust, sustainability, and quality. Together with the findings from literature, these research outcomes provided 20 insights into the consumer perception of recycled plastic in electronic products, thus concluding the research phase of this project. The ideation phase commenced with brainstorming sessions on the detected insights. Eight design students participated and generated over 300 as to how the underlying research insights could be applied in practice. The majority regarded the product directly, but other ideas were related to a product’s “surrounding”, such as promotion of the product, its price or place of purchase. In an iterative process, these ideas were transformed into 10 product-related design recommendations and 8 additional, price-, place-, promotion-related recommendations. The total framework of insights generated throughout the research process can support designers in creating well-perceived e-products from recycled plastic. The three distinct types of information are relevant in different phases of the design process: • The 20 key insights may be seen as an enriching source of background information for designers, who are getting started on a project and are yet to build their knowledge on the overall topic. • The 10 recommendations provided may be used in the case, where a designer needs concrete tips and action points for developing a product’s design. • The 8 additional recommendations can be valuable when the design of a device is already finalized, yet it should still be enhanced in terms of consumer perception. To transfer this study’s research findings and make them readily available for product designers, a website was deemed to be most suitable means of presentation. This format allows for a structured displaying of the previously mentioned findings and recommendation categories.

This graduation project researched how the consumer acceptance of products made of recycled plastic could be enhanced. It provided a great understanding of how products made of recycled plastic are perceived by consumers. Through the process of a pressure cooker, literature review and qualitative user research resulted in eight design recommendations: Inform about product detail, make it tangible, make it attractive, make it fun, create social influence, stimulate try-out, stimulate familiarity, and build trust. These design recommendations were translated in a roadmap for the specific case of the municipality of Almere and Save Plastics, both key partners of the TRANSFORM-CE project of which this graduation project is part. The roadmap provides them with a detailed process on how they can enhance the consumer acceptance of products made of recycled plastic and grow into leaders in the transition movement towards recycled plastic as the standard norm for production by making the benefits of products made of recycled plastic tangible in a fun, informative experience for people. They will be the living example of a circular municipal plastic waste stream.

This thesis makes a contribution to Goal 12, ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, and goal 13, take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all United Nations Member States. By enhancing the consumption of products made of recycled plastic, the production of virgin plastic is limited, reducing the impact on the environment. Hopefully, it will make the world a better place!

The consequences of climate change are becoming visible more and more, also in The Netherlands. Most people consider the environment to be important and want to act sustainable, but they find it hard to really take action. “Where should I start?” “What is actually sustainable and what not?” “What can I do within my budget?” are questions that arise. As a designer, I became aware of the overflow of products that are meant to make our lives better but at the same time harm the environment, which motivated me towards this graduation project. Research shows that stuff scores the highest in the impact top 10 of the average Dutch consumer (Porcelijn, 2017). Therefore, the initial goal of this project was to make consumers aware of the impact their purchases have on the environment and stimulate them to buy less. Literature research is done towards our shopping behaviour and what can be done to motivate sustainable behaviour related to the purchase of product. This research revealed that, in the long term, activating intrinsic motivation is more successful than providing extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards for example. One way to stimulate intrinsic motivation of consumers to act more environmental friendly is to give them positive feedback about the sustainable behaviour already performed. This enlarges their environmental self-identity, which is defined as: the extend to which one sees him/her self as a sustainable person. (van der Werff, 2016). Since the effect of the positive feedback is bigger when feedback is given on multiple categories of sustainable behaviour (such as waste, energy usage, transportation etc.) instead of one category, a shift in this project is made from products alone towards more sustainable behaviour in general. Thereafter, existing initiatives to stimulate sustainable behaviour are evaluated by comparing them to the findings in the literature research and interviews are held to get a more clear image of consumer experiences. Based on this research, three possible design directions are being presented and the direction of positive feedback is chosen. The final goal of this project is defined as motivating consumers to act more sustainable
by enlarging the environmental self-identity with positive feedback on sustainable behaviour from the past. The second phase is the ideation phase where in which brainstorms are done for possible solutions towards the chosen direction. A generative session is organised to involve the target group in the design process. With the results and insights of the brainstorm and this session, three concepts are formed which are formed and tested by the use of Google forms. The results are evaluated and the concept of sustainable art is chosen, whereby the user tracks his/her sustainable behaviour by creating an artwork on the wall. In the third phase, iterations are made to the concept and two more tests are executed, whereby the concept developed into the final design: SusA. SusA is designed to make the user more conscious about their sustainable behaviour, and provide positive feedback for all the sustainable actions by creating an artwork on the wall. It stimulates interaction between the user and house mates and/or guests, and makes users aware of how much of a sustainable person they already are. The product comes with an smart phone application, where pictures and tips can be shared with friends, statistics of one’s sustainable behaviour can be found and inspiration for sustainable actions in the different categories is available. To conclude, suggestions are given to introduce SusA to the market, the concept is evaluated and recommendations are made for further research and development.

Tons of residual waste is being produced during big events nowadays, which can be expensive to manage and negatively influence the environment. Insufficient waste separation is identified as the leading cause, which is feasible to tackle in the near future. To reduce the negative environmental and financial impact of the event's waste, this thesis mainly investigates the waste management process of events held by the Dutch convention center Rai Amsterdam. Through the qualitative research conducted with exhibitors and visitors, pain points that result in a lack of ability in waste separation were identified in three aspects, lacking the support on the waste sorting facilities, difficulties in managing time during busy hours, and knowledge gaps on waste sorting. Meanwhile, exhibitors expressed their wishes to reduce the high waste management cost. Based on the problems, the thesis proposes a product-service system that focuses on stimulating the event participants' waste separation behaviors. Seizing the "predictable" feature of the event waste, the design collects data of waste streams before the event for further enabling targeted recycling activity. Meanwhile, the data of visitor flow will be shared with exhibitors to help them on time-management. Additionally, cost reduction from waste sorting activity is used as an incentive to enhance exhibitors' participation. In the long term, the design will gradually increase the awareness of waste sorting and form the habit among the event participants, which eventually contribute to a more sustainable event.

Although manufacturers, designers, product/service providers are innovating for more sustainable products and business models to promote sustainable consumption, there are still gaps between satisfactory user experience and real-sustainable use behaviours. HOMIE.B.V offers pay-per-use household appliances and services to stimulate sustainable user behaviours and aims to achieve a more sustainable white goods industry. The company developed its pay-per-use washing machine model and now introduces a pay-per-use dryer model. However, the service needs to be further developed, and the specific influencing factors of sustainable dryer use behaviours are still unclear. This thesis aimed to figure out the influencing factors in dryer use experiences and investigate how to persuade the users to use a pay-per-use dryer more sustainably. From a literature review and twelve customer interviews, the key influencing factors in accepting and performing sustainable dryer use behaviours were investigated and concluded into a behaviour model. A usage data analysis further proved that financial concern is not a deciding factor of performing sustainable actions, but the convenience concern is. The drivers and barriers generated the design challenge and design requirements, which contribute as a guideline to the design solution. The final design is a service strategy called HOMIE STAR plan, which uses a mobile app as a communication channel for providing a set of services. The service plan has two phases: the onboarding month and every 6-month evaluation. Customers can learn how to make use of the services and tools to dry their laundry sustainably and conveniently in the onboarding month and achieve sustainable goals by becoming a good laundry organizer in daily use. The service patterns to help customers perform sustainable dryer use behaviours are (1)dryer setting instructions with environmental impact; (2) a HOMIE Planner with sustainable-oriented recommendation system that connects to customers' daily schedule; (3)a community with quick Q&A and tips sharing; (4) a rewarding system with usage cost details. The prototyped concept and implementation suggestions were proposed and validated through interviews with potential dryer users, existing HOMIE customers, and HOMIE employees. HOMIE STAR plan made use of the identified influencing factors to persuade users to perform sustainable dryer use behaviours and meanwhile developed HOMIE's pay-per-use model services. The strategy provided HOMIE with a future direction of realizing its service value and sustainable goals on a larger scale and longer-term and suggested potential collaboration opportunities to influence other parts in the supply chain of the white goods industry. The project is focused explicitly on the pay-per-use dryer model but keeps an eye on the entire service of the company. The identified influencing factors and results can inspire other companies who are also trying to stimulate sustainable user behaviours.