Design for sustainable behaviour: Investigating design methods for influencing user behaviour

This research aims to develop a design tool for product and service innovation which influences users towards more sustainable behaviour, reducing resource use and leading to a lower carbon footprint for everyday activities. The paper briefly explains the reasoning behind the tool and its structure, and presents an example application to water conservation with concept ideas generated by design students

Concept generation for persuasive design

Designing ‘persuasive’ products and services for social benefit often involves adopting and adapting principles and patterns from other disciplines and contexts where behaviour change is a goal. This poster briefly reports on a series of controlled trials of an idea generation toolkit which aims to make this transposition of patterns easier, with designers and students applying the toolkit to four ‘design for sustainable behaviour’ briefs to generate new concepts for influencing user behaviour. While only a small sample, results show that using the toolkit does lead to an increase in the number of concepts generated for a majority of participants, compared with the control condition

Advancing image quantification methods and tools for analysis of nanoparticle electrokinetics

Image processing methods and techniques for high-throughput quantification of dielectrophoretic (DEP) collections onto planar castellated electrode arrays are developed and evaluated. Fluorescence-based dielectrophoretic spectroscopy is an important tool for laboratory investigations of AC electrokinetic properties of nanoparticles. This paper details new, first principle, theoretical and experimental developments of geometric feature recognition techniques that enable quantification of positive dielectrophoretic (pDEP) nanoparticle collections onto castellated arrays. As an alternative to the geometric-based method, novel statistical methods that do not require any information about array features, are also developed using the quantile and standard deviation functions. Data from pDEP collection and release experiments using 200 nm diameter latex nanospheres demonstrates that pDEP quantification using the statistic-based methods yields quantitatively similar results to the geometric-based method. The development of geometric- and statistic-based quantification methods enables high-throughput, supervisor-free image processing tools critical for dielectrophoretic spectroscopy and automated DEP technology development

Modelling the User: How design for sustainable behaviour can reveal different stakeholder perspectives on human nature

Copyright @ 2010 TU DelftInfluencing more environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviour is a current focus of many projects, ranging from government social marketing campaigns, education and tax structures to designers’ work on interactive products, services and environments. There is a wide variety of techniques and methods used—we have identified over 100 design patterns in our Design with Intent toolkit—each intended to work via a particular set of cognitive and environmental principles. These approaches make different assumptions about ‘what people are like’: how users will respond to behavioural interventions, and why, and in the process reveal some of the assumptions that designers and other stakeholders, such as clients commissioning a project, make about human nature. In this paper, we discuss three simple models of user behaviour—the Pinball, the Shortcut and the Thoughtful—which emerge from user experience designers’ statements about users while focused on designing for behaviour change. We characterise these models using systems terminology and examine the application of each model to design for sustainable behaviour via a series of examples

An initial investigation into the low-cost manufacture of diffracting objects

In this letter we report on an initial investigation into the printing of diffracting objects via the high-speed, low-cost, printing process of offset-lithography, a method more commonly used in the printing of books and newspapers. A series of diffracting objects were printed onto clear substrates and evaluated with a coherent light source. The diffraction patterns generated correlate well with the Fourier transform of the printed image

Choice architecture and design with intent

Motivation – Choice architecture (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) is a phrase of the moment among politicians and economists seeking to influence public behaviour, but the relevance of the concept to designers has received little attention. This paper places choice architecture within the context of Design with Intent—design intended to influence user behaviour. Research approach – The concepts are introduced and choice architecture is deconstructed. Findings/Design – Affordances and Simon’s behavioural model (1955) help understand choice architecture in more detail. Research limitations/Implications – This is only a very brief, limited foray into what choice architecture is. Originality/Value – User behaviour can be a major determinant of product efficiency: user decisions can contribute significantly to environmental impacts. Understanding the reasons behind them, a range of design techniques can be identified to help users towards more efficient interactions. Take away message – The intended outcome is a useful design method for helping users use things more efficiently

Manufacturing flexible light-emitting polymer displays with conductive lithographic film technology

We report on a new low-cost manufacturing process for flexible displays that has the potential to rapidly expand the market into areas that have traditionally been outside the scope of such technology. In this paper we consider the feasibility of using offset-lithography to deposit contacts for polymer light-emitting displays. We compare and contrast manufacturing criteria and present a case study detailing our initial results. It is expected that these developments will stimulate further progress in multilayer device fabrication. Cheap, flexible conductive interconnects have the potential to find applications in a wide variety of device structures. For the more challenging exploitation areas in multilayer devices, such as displays, it was found that the properties of conductive lithographic films were not optimal in their current form. Three parameters (conductivity, surface roughness and surface work function) were identified as critical to device fabrication. Calendering and electroless plating were investigated as methods to improve these properties. Both methods aimed to modify the surface roughness and conductivity, with the plating study also modifying the work function

Influencing interaction: Development of the design with intent method

Persuasive Technology has the potential to influence user behavior for social benefit, e.g. to reduce environmental impact, but designers are lacking guidance choosing among design techniques for influencing interaction. The Design with Intent Method, a ‘suggestion tool’ addressing this problem, is introduced in this paper, and applied to the briefs of reducing unnecessary household lighting use, and improving the efficiency of printing, primarily to evaluate the method’s usability and guide the direction of its development. The trial demonstrates that the DwI Method is quick to apply and leads to a range of relevant design concepts. With development, the DwI Method could be a useful tool for designers working on influencing user behavior