Product design, as an essential way to achieve sustainability, plays an indispensable role in sustainable design. However, the innovation of products often focuses on technical improvement, while ignoring the use phase of the product - which has great potential for reducing the environmental image. Therefore, in this project, the research focuses on exploring the interaction between user and products, and how to guide users to reform existing unsustainable water use behaviors through product design. Affordance theory reveals the subtle interaction between users and objects. It points out that the object itself can guide user's behavior, and applying affordance to product design can free user’s minds from thinking about how to use the product and make the interaction easier and smoother. The "Tel" showerhead is the redesign of an ordinary showerhead. It draws on the way the user interacts with the public telephone, aims to stimulate the user to carry out the behaviors that result from the body memory of using public telephone so that users can naturally turn off the water flow like hanging up the phone. The "Tel" showerhead combines the switch with the showerhead and uses the button on the handle of the showerhead to control the water flow. The action of removing the showerhead from the holder is also the way to turn on the water flow, and when the user puts the shower back in the holder, he or she also unconsciously turns off the water flow at the same time. In this way, “Tel” showerhead can help users to carry out sustainable water use behavior in the shower, that is, to stop the water flow promptly when not in use. A physical prototype is used in this project to test the water-saving performance of the "Tel" showerhead. Participants need to use the provided timer to record the sum time they keep the water flowing in the shower when using the ordinary shower and using the "Tel" showerhead. The test results show that the "Tel" showerhead can effectively reduce water consumption in the shower. However, since the design does not support luxurious bathing habits, and also the prototype cannot reach the ideal level in the concept map, it may reduce the user experience to some extent. The final result of the project proves that affordance product design can help users adopt more sustainable water use behavior. On the other hand, it also raises questions about how to meet sustainability requirements and user experience at the same time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-96672 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Xue, Shuhao |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för design (DE) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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