1,720,953 research outputs found
Consumer centric design for refurbishment: How designers can enhance consumer acceptance of refurbished products
No full textGlobal warming will exceed 1.5-2°C during the 21st century unless greenhouse gas emissions are heavily reduced in the next 30 years. The average carbon footprint of a person living in the European Union amounted to 6.7 tons of CO2 in 2019, of which 70% is related to the way we live, move and consume. The production and use of electronics, is an important factor in the environmental impact of consumption. A key strategy to reduce an electronic product’s environmental footprint is to extend its lifetime through refurbishment. Refurbished products are collected after being used, tested, cleaned, and restored into an acceptable state, and subsequently, they are resold. Yet, lowering the environmental impact of consumption by using refurbished products requires that refurbished products are acquired instead of new ones. However, refurbished products are not as desirable to consumers as new products, which has the consequence that they havelower purchase intentions and are willing to pay less for them.The aim of this thesis is to understand consumer acceptance of refurbished products and how designers can enhance their desirability. Thus far, marketing strategies, aiming to improve consumer adoption of refurbished products have focused on minimizing the risks associated with refurbished products and underlining their benefits. Refurbished products are, for example, often offered at a lower price than new products and with a warranty. A central issue of these marketing strategies is that they are peripheral to the product, are not applicable to all product categories, and are not appropriate for all consumers. While they can improve the trade-off for refurbished products, they do not help to keep the product at its highest material and economic value.In this dissertation, we, therefore, explore the main research question: how can designers enhance consumer acceptance of refurbished products by design
Rake Praat: Designing for the political participation of mbo-students
No full textPolitical participation of a group representative of society is essential for the legitimacy of a democratic system. But adolescents are not heard sufficiently and receive too little attention in contemporary democracy. Their political participation is very low and not representative for their age group, as politically engaged adolescents often enjoy formal education, do not come from vulnerable groups and have positive role models at home or at school. In the participatory society, which has become the Dutch norm, participation has become vital. Differences in level of participation can result in inequalities for groups who do not sufficiently bring up their concerns. The corona crisis has exposed this is the case for mbo-students.Involving this group of underrepresented, under-involved and not-heard mbo-students is imperative to achieve the equality necessary for a legitimate democratic system. Increasing their participation will contribute to more social justice. Despite efforts by the government, the political participation of mbo-students does not appear to be increasing.The lack of participation of mbo-students is a complex problem with many causes. Mbo-students are incredibly diverse in age, ethnicity, interests, and so on, and ‘the’ mbo-student does not exists. There is a gap between politicians and mbo-students, and the current participation system does not fit students’ needs. Furthermore, they have difficulties formulating opinions autonomously and do not know how to translate these into action.The proposed design intervention is the concept Rake Praat. The process of Participatory Budgeting (where a municipality allocates a section of the annual budget to be spent by citizens) has been altered to more accurately facilitate the needs and wishes of mbo-students. Their experiences form the foundation for the process. With the use of integrated Creative Problem-Solving techniques, students and politicians define potential projects together.With four co-creation sessions, each with its own focus, mbo-students and politicians navigate together from problem to solution. A session plan can be designed by the municipality and schools with the use of the Activity Cards. These describe different types of (creative) activities, allowing the participants to go through the different stages of the creative process: diverging, reverging, and converging. The activities are shaped so that the creative facilitation does not require experts, allowing students and politicians to go through the process autonomously.The design makes creative problem-solving more accessible to non-designers, providing policymakers and politicians with the means to shape contacts with mbo-students. Simultaneously, the toolkit gives students the opportunity to express their views directly to people who can make a difference. This is necessary for both groups to understand each other better.Design for Interactio
Designing the used: Enhancing the consumer acceptance of refurbished luxury personal care products; a Philips Lumea Prestige case study
No full textRefurbishment is a critical strategy in the circular economy (Bocken et al., 2016). Despite the environmental and financial benefits, refurbished products are not a popular consumer choice (Mugge et al., 2017). Refurbished products are seen as old, used and of low quality, and consumers worry that products are contaminated with traces of a prior user (Mugge et al., 2017). This lack of consumer acceptance is perceived as too risky for companies to make the financial investments needed for refurbishment. In theory, refurbishment can be implemented in any product category. But, not every product category is equally popular. Partly due to the lack of consumer interest, the refurbishment of personal care products remains unexplored (Mugge et al., 2017). Because of this, many products and components go to scrap before the end of their functional life. To exploit this potential, consumers need to see the value of refurbished personal care products. To this end, this project has aimed to explore ways for designers to enhance the consumer acceptance of refurbished products through product design. This raised the question of how hygiene perception influences the will to buy refurbished. Hygiene is related to the consumer’s fear of contamination. Consumer interviews suggest that hygiene is mainly perceived in relation to complexity. Features like buttons, small corners, and split lines negatively influence the refurbished product’s acceptance. This suggests that product complexity negatively affects the perceived ease of cleaning. Findings also show that the colour white and smooth surface finishing are favourable for a refurbished product due to their associations with hygiene and medical products. From this research, it can be stated that improving the hygiene perception will cause a slightly increased willingness to buy refurbished. The research findings led to the following conclusion on the influence of design aesthetics on the acceptance of the refurbished product: ‘Aesthetics influence the acceptance via associations but will not be the deciding aspect for solving the overarching societal problem that stands in the way of refurbished product acceptance; misconceptions about refurbishment’. That does not mean that aesthetics have no influence at all. Creating positive associations through aesthetics can increase the willingness to buy refurbished (Huang et al., 2020). This project concludes that, for the Lumea, especially associations with luxury, hygiene and durability positively influence the acceptance of the refurbished product. Based on this redesign process, it was concluded that design for refurbishment is not a quick fix or stand-alone design activity. It is a mindset best developed through experience. Every product and context is unique. There are no guidelines or rules to follow, which apply in every situation. The proposed skills for designers to incorporate the refurbishment design mindset are (1) consumer empathy, (2) product lifetime management and (3) ecosystem thinking. To help designers to develop these skills, a tool was created in the shape of a canvas. Each box on this canvas focuses on a different aspect of refurbishment, ranging from the different consumers in different lifetimes to ideation on aesthetics features and concerns.Double Degree in Strategic Product Design and Integrated Product DesignStrategic Product DesignIntegrated Product Desig
Circular Rubber Sports Flooring: A strategic roadmap towards a circular business for Stockz
No full textRubber is by the European Union stated a critical material (Critical Raw Materials, 2020). For our society the material is essential but can be depleted. The search for circular solutions for rubber is urgent. In 2020 27.4 million metric tons of rubber has been produced globally (Tiseo, 2021). Around 70% of all produced rubber is used to create tyres (About rubber, z.d.). creating one of the biggest single product waste streams in the world.Rubber granulate is a material made by recycling tyres. Stockz is a company which creates rubber sports flooring solutions for fitness gyms and sport clubs from these rubber granules. Delivering a safe space for athletes, reducing sound and protecting the base floor from the impact of falling weights. The life of the rubber material is extended but still after this 2nd life cycle the product ends like waste. In this project circular strategies are examined to prolong product and material life as long as possible. The 3 most promising circular strategies, Reusing, Remanufacturing and Recycling were chosen to evaluate on feasibility, viability and desirability. Based on tests to create 2nd cycle granules and rubber sports flooring solutions the feasibility is proven for the recycling strategy. Reusing flooring is also possible. Remanufacturing is based on interesting ideas and therefor is plausible but not proven feasible.Interviews with clients, end-users and production partners gave valuable information on their view on the strategies. An idea generation session to redesign for remanufacturing gave new ideas how to create a more circular product. Life Cycle Analysis were made for the current situation and the 3 strategies. Resulting in a decrease of CO2 with the use of the strategy reusing by 11%, remanufacturing by 15.5% and with recycling by 17%. Next to this circular business models were examined which led to 2 different retrieval services for indirect sales clients and a rent/hire business with direct sales clients. Cost calculations were made and discussed with clients and end-users. The viability of the reuse strategy is proven. The viability of the remanufacture strategy is because of the new idea not certain but plausible after some investments. The viability of the recycle strategy was not proven because of a higher price than the current product which was not desirable. A 2nd cycle recycled flooring solution could be viable for other clients or end-users than interviewed who are willing to pay more for a more sustainable product.From these results a strategic roadmap was made towards the vision of Stockz having a circular business. A MVP to start the retrieval service in 2023 is the first horizon going towards the second horizon in 2024 were pre-loved (used) products and 2nd cycle products are being sold. Strategic Product Desig
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
No full text“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Do consumers mind contamination by previous users? A choice-based conjoint analysis to explore strategies that improve consumers' choice for refurbished products
No full textRefurbishment is an effective strategy to extend product lifetimes in a circular economy. However, consumers believe that refurbished products are contaminated with traces of prior use, which can be indicated by the appearance (e.g., scratches) or functionality (e.g., lower battery capacity) of refurbished products. This research explores strategies to improve consumer adoption of refurbished products by reducing contamination. In a choice-based conjoint analysis, 785 participants were exposed to refurbished headphones varying in features related to contamination, warranty, and price. We tested three contamination-reducing strategies, including (1). Communication about the clean object state, (2). Eliminating signs of use (aesthetic and functional wear-and-tear) and (3). Renewing parts that touch the skin (e.g., ear-cushions). Additionally, we analysed whether different consumer groups are driven by different attributes of refurbished products. Results showed that most consumers value refurbished products that show no signs of wear-and-tear and that have parts touching the skin renewed during the refurbishment process. These attributes are even more important than the reduced price or warranty, even though these are frequently used to market refurbished products. Depending on the consumer group, other contamination-reducing strategies were of great influence. While some consumer groups highly valued that signs of prior use are eliminated through an as-new appearance, others preferred refurbished products without functional wear-and-tear. In conclusion, four design strategies to deal with contamination during multiple life cycles of refurbished products are discussed.Responsible Marketing and Consumer BehaviorDesign, Organisation and Strateg
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Buying with impact: Stimulating sustainable public procurement in the construction sector through collaborative practices
No full textPublic organisations are shifting their focus towards the implementation of sustainability into their projects through sustainable public procurement, but recent studies indicated that the implementation is still lacking. Sustainable public procurement is only implemented in around 10% of the Dutch public procurement tenders (Yu et al. 2020). One of the reasons for the lack of implementation is the added complexity to the job of the procurement specialist. MVI platform helps these procurement specialists by guiding them through this complex task. During their work they found out that a lot of potential positive impact is lost at the start of a project. The most potential for impact is found in the civil construction sector, due to the size of its projects. Because of this potential, the graduation project is aimed at stimulating sustainable public procurement for civil construction projects. This graduation project focusses on the design of an intervention at the early stages of a project in order to start creating more positive social and environmental impact. This is done through the design of practices that support a pragmatic and collaborative approach. During these practices, a mix of vision, management and execution stakeholders come together to share ideas, discuss and prioritize in order to decide which role sustainability should play within the project. The community of practice theory and boundary object theory as well as the SDG procurement compass from MVI platform were used to give shape to the practices. During the graduation project, two practices were created in the form of online workshops. The first workshop focussed on the definition of sustainable ambitions within the project. During the second workshop, the participants formulated measurable goals and made a list of actions and key stakeholders. The workshops were tested during multiple case studies, and iterations on the workshops were made based on the received feedback. After iterations, the early stage intervention, also called SDG impact kick-off, is designed to be a set of three workshops. The ambitions -, actions -, and stakeholders workshop. Although it was not possible to measure the actual impact of the workshops on the projects that were used as case studies, the feedback and results from the workshop seemed promising. The workshops clarified how sustainability could be implemented and helped to create a concrete implementation plan. A plan that helps project leaders with integrating sustainability and helps procurement specialist with setting up sustainable public procurement procedures. All in all, these collaborative practices are believed to aid in the creation of more positive sustainable impact in construction projects. The workshops of the SDG impact kick-off form a beginning of a practice that makes sustainability an integral part of any project.https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1w8pZyeKlUX97snPBbjx Spotify link to the podcastStrategic Product Desig
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