Designing products and services for circular consumption - A circular design tool

Most circular design tools focus on how to design durable products that are fit for circular (re-)production flows, or how to design circular business models. The crucial role users play for a transition to a circular economy is often overlooked in existing tools, as is design opportunities to enable and support circular consumption. This paper presents one of the tools in the Use2Use Design Toolkit, the Circular Designs Ideation Pack, which is a user-centered circular design tool especially developed to aid designers and others to design for circular consumption. The tool supports design of products and services that can create enabling preconditions making it more convenient, and preferable for people to circulate products from use to use. In contrast to other available circular design tools, it supports exploration of circular design opportunities from a user perspective and in relation to people’s consumption processes. The tool has been tested in eight workshops with professionals and students, who considered it easy and fun to use. The workshop participants found the tool instructive and inspirational, and said that it helped them to discuss relevant design opportunities and come up with promising circular ideas. They also expressed that looking at circularity from a user’s point of view made it easy for them to address the topic. While the tool was found both usable and valuable in an educational workshop setting, the tool’s potential when utilised in companies’ regular design processes is yet to be explored. Future research will address how to integrate the tool as a part of existing processes to effectively support companies to design for consumption

The Use2Use Design Toolkit-Tools for User-Centred Circular Design

Recent research highlights that the important role users play in the transition to a circular economy is often overlooked. While the current narrative emphasises how to design products fit for circular (re-)production flows, or how to design circular business models, it often fails to address how such solutions can be designed to be attractive to people. As long as products and services are designed in a way that makes people prefer linear options over circular ones, the transition will not gain momentum. To further the understanding of how a user perspective can be valuable for circular design, this paper introduces the Use2Use Design Toolkit and presents initial experiences from using its five tools in design work. The tools were developed between 2016 and 2019 and subsequently applied in 30 workshops with professionals and students. Insights from the workshops suggest that the participants generally found the tools fun, instructive and inspirational. The tools enabled them to discuss circular processes from a user\u27s point of view and to identify challenges and design opportunities. The toolkit was considered especially relevant and meaningful by product and service designers who needed support to explore circular solutions from a user perspective

The paradox of public acceptance of bike sharing in Gothenburg

Bike sharing is one of the most promising urban planning interventions to facilitate an all-necessary transition towards a more sustainable transport paradigm. Regardless of the fact that hundreds of schemes run in more than 50 countries worldwide, bike sharing is still moderately investigated by research. This paper reports on a primarily quantitative study of 558 responses that was set to frame attitudes reflecting public acceptance towards the rapidly expanding bike-sharing scheme in Gothenburg (Styr & Ställ), in an attempt to identify the ‘formula for success’. The respondents generally believed that Styr & Ställ is a pro-environmental, inexpensive and healthy transport mode, which complements the city’s public transport services and promotes a more human-friendly identity for Gothenburg. Even the respondents that self-reported a small (or no) likelihood to use bike sharing were positive towards the scheme. This means that they recognise that bike sharing has a significant pro-social potential and is not a system favouring a particular road-user segment over others that might not be interested or able to use it. The fact that the majority of the respondents do not Bike sharing is one of the most promising urban planning interventions to facilitate an all-necessary transition towards a more sustainable transport paradigm. Regardless of the fact that hundreds of schemes run in more than 50 countries worldwide, bike sharing is still moderately investigated by research. This paper reports on a primarily quantitative study of 558 responses that was set to frame attitudes reflecting public acceptance towards the rapidly expanding bike-sharing scheme in Gothenburg (Styr & Ställ), in an attempt to identify the ‘formula for success’. The respondents generally believed that Styr & Ställ is a pro-environmental, inexpensive and healthy transport mode, which complements the city’s public transport services and promotes a more human-friendly identity for Gothenburg. Even the respondents that self-reported a small (or no) likelihood to use bike sharing were positive towards the scheme. This means that they recognise that bike sharing has a significant pro-social potential and is not a system favouring a particular road-user segment over others that might not be interested or able to use it. The fact that the majority of the respondents do not use the scheme and yet its popularity is still vast indicates that there is much potential for more use in real terms

Designing Away Waste: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Reuse and Remanufacture Initiatives

In order to transform the economy into one that is circular, that recovers most materials through reuse, remanufacturing and recycling, these activities need to grow significantly. Waste management has substantially incorporated recycling as an end-of-life treatment but has still largely failed to incorporate remanufacturing and reuse as possible material recovery routes. This article aims to provide useful information to establish centers for urban remanufacture (CUREs), by analyzing fifteen existing initiatives that facilitate reuse and remanufacture by providing access to secondary materials or manufacturing tools. The study consists of a review of selected initiatives complemented with targeted interviews to fill in missing information. Most initiatives provided access to secondary materials (13 of 15 initiatives), and almost all used different manufacturing tools (14 of 15 initiatives). Besides their regular opening hours, initiatives were mainly engaged in capacity building activities, which were done through predefined or improvised workshops. Most initiatives relied on external support to finance their operations (9 of 15 initiatives). However, one of the self-financed initiatives is the oldest initiative in the study, operating since 1998. Based on the results and tacit knowledge collected in this study, a framework is suggested to serve as a guide for establishing future CUREs

Turning Trash into Treasure is Hard Work! How The Activities of Consumers and Reuse Enablers Extend Product Lifetimes

This paper explores the process of transferring second-hand products from one home to another. It focuses on three key participants: the consumer who is divesting products from their home, the consumer who purchases pre-owned items, and the second-hand and reuse enablers that facilitate this circulation of products. Current literature tends to concentrate solely on one of these groups—either consumers divesting products, second-hand and reuse enablers, or consumers buying pre-used items. This fragmented approach leaves gaps in understanding the complete process of product circulation. To address this knowledge gap, our study examines the entire process, starting from the moment a consumer decides to part with a product until that product finds a new owner. We conducted interviews with 20 consumers who are divesting products, 11 second-hand and reuse enablers, and 20 consumers who purchase pre-owned items. Our research identified three main product circulation processes and eight sub-processes: Donation, Commission Sale, and Sell-It-Yourself. Each circulation process involves a long series of activities carried out by the consumer divesting the product, the reuse enabler, or the consumer buying the item. By comparing these processes, we highlight that successful circular product exchanges require significant effort from all participants. Additionally, we demonstrate how the responsibility for these activities shifts depending on the chosen process, revealing the challenges associated with circular product transactions and how reuse enablers can support recirculation. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the circular economy and its current struggles and opens discussions on how to overcome these challenges

Media and representations in product design education

The creation of product form, involves embodying a potential function and intended use while defining geometrical, ordering principles. This paper aims to elaborate roles of different media and representations in design activities intended to externalise form ideas (e.g. sketching, building physical models, digital modelling, etc.). Understanding and explaining this is central to helping students and practitioners engage with, reflect on, and value the roles of media for externalising ideas.To understand and explain the role of media in design activities, design diaries were analysed. These were documented as part of a course in Advanced Form Design (7,5 ECTS - master level) in spring terms 2011-2013 with a total of 38 participants. For course completion, the students were expected work in groups on a project seeking creative form ideas and solutions for a dinnerware product with a high level of novelty, aesthetic detail, and functionality. Design diaries were used as an educational method for initiating and documenting self-reflections on a weekly basis. The students were to reflect on their process and the underlying motivations behind their activities.Design progress can be seen, as interplay of moving-seeing not only within one medium of externalizing, but also across different media. In the design diaries the students engaged in a dialectic process when translating their ideas from one medium to another. The results from diary analysis show how reframing prior ideas facilitates interpretation, discovery and correction of the assumptions that are not revealed in previous representations, and thereby, learning from previous mistakes. Creating educational situations to encourage the students iterate more often using different media, may result in reaching more well-reasoned solutions.Further, the paper discusses issues regarding skill in manipulation of material and media. Eloquence in using media facilitates idea generation without necessarily being bounded to and distracted by technical problems. This accentuates a need to help design students become more skilled in using different media, thereby enabling a fluent exploration of novel solutions.The paper provides a platform for students and, educators to engage with, reflect on and discuss how different media may support design, but in some cases also constrain creativity and ability to work with three-dimensional form

New design challenges to widely implement 'Sustainable Product-Service Systems'

Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) carry great potential to deliver social well-being and economic prosperity while operating within the limits of our planet. They can however be complex to design, test, implement and bring to the mainstream. To increase our understanding of the potential benefits, drivers and barriers in S.PSS design, the research community has been inspired to collect and analyse an extensive number of cases in diverse sectors and to develop and test several design methods and tools. This Special Volume on "New Design Challenges to Widely Implement 'Sustainable Product-Service Systems'" presents results of key studies in the following areas: user satisfaction and acceptance of S.PSS solutions, how industrial partnerships and stakeholder interactions can be designed for environmental and socio-ethical benefits, how knowledge of socio-technical change and transition management feeds S.PSS design processes, and the role of policy instruments to foster their implementation and scale-up. This Introduction reviews the current state of research and summarises the articles presented. The articles demonstrate increasing confidence in integrating approaches and theoretical frameworks from other arenas. These approaches include sociological practice theory, to shed new light on consumer practices in S.PSS configurations, and strategic niche management, to foster a suitable design and experimentation milieu. Experimentation, iteration and cyclical design processes were also seen by many authors as crucial to implementing and stabilising S.PSS solutions, but also their continuous sustainability evaluation. Several articles highlight the importance of local authorities, in developing S.PSS-enabling policies as well as supporting novel networks of stakeholders in the co-production of value. Finally this Introduction highlights key issues for a design research agenda, including but not limited to the development of new knowledge to support S.PSS designers (such as S.PSS design in low and middle-income contexts) and the role of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the diffusion of knowledge and know-how to companies. Together, the papers in this special volume provide insight into the promise of the S.PSS concept for understanding, advancing and accelerating sustainability