Sustainable Happiness

Abstract

The goal of this project is to find a way to get people to consume less, by changing what they do to improve their subjective well-being. It was found that the main issue that needed tackling is the fact that, currently, people are addicted to consumption - they depend on consumption for their happiness. The best way to remedy this would be to teach them how to make themselves happy; this can be done by getting them to derive their happiness from Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia can be defined as happiness or contentment derived from your life and the things that you do having meaning, and from good relationships with people you care about. Design intervention testing was used to explore how people would best be taught how to make themselves happy. After some initial explorations of the subject matter, three more effective designs were developed to be tested more thoroughly. Fifteen people tested the designs; they were interviewed before and after using the design to see if any changes occurred. The interviews tried to establish if the designs had any influence on what people’s life goals were, on whether the actions they took were in line with eudaimonia, and on if they would buy items that they did not need for these eudaimonic actions. This testing process yielded three main design principles. In order to help people get better at making themselves happy, a design should:
● Help you reflect on which eudaimonic activities they already partake in
● Get you to connect these actions to the items necessary for them
● Urge you to avoid non-eudaimonic actions and items
Aside from these three principles, some insights on how to best implement each of the principles were found as well. To illustrate how these principles and insights are best put to use, some design examples were developed. Firstly, a time capsule was designed which people can put items they are not sure they need into; during the month that the items are locked away in the capsule, it gets people to reflect upon whether they need the items. Afterwards, people are urged to give away any of the unneeded items. This helps people gain an understanding of what they do and do not need. Aside from this, redesigns to eBay, Bol.com and Climate Activist websites were developed to give some examples of how the findings could be used by other designers.