Principles of Green Design: Analyzing User Activities and Product Feedback

This study investigated the design principles applicable to environmentally friendly product design. An experimental approach was taken to examine principles that aid designers in producing an eco-friendly product that consumers will enjoy and use. Another important aspect to this study was to determine whether a user’s positive environmental attitude or a willingness to change for the environment relates to environmentally responsible behavior. Two hypotheses were developed for successful eco-friendly products and then appropriate products were purchased and modified to test these hypotheses. The activity hypothesis claims that if a product adds user activities, is less likely to be used. The feedback hypothesis states that a product that gives clear feedback is more likely to be used than a product that does not. Student participants took home products to use for one week, recorded each time they used the products, and then completed surveys afterword. For the activity hypothesis, we supposed that the product not adding user activities would be used more than the product adding activities. However, the experimental results have shown that this may not always be the case. For the feedback hypothesis, we speculated that visual reminder feedback and energy savings feedback both increase product usage. An increase in eco-friendly product usage would lead to a lessened negative impact that products are having on our environment. Experimental results indicate that there were errors in the experimental design, but these problems also aid in future work for this research.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

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