Switch the channel: using cultural codes for designing and positioning sustainable products and services for mainstream audiences

An important step towards achieving sustainability is to encourage a wide uptake of more resource-efficient consumption patterns by the mainstream of society. In this paper, it is argued that by paying more attention to the elaboration of meaning – or symbolic value – designers can develop innovations that are more appealing and relevant to a wider range of potential users, especially by positioning sustainable products, services, and systems as aspirational choices that lead the user to improved well-being and happiness. The theoretical proposition is explored in the context of sustainable Product Service Systems (sustainable PSS), analysing the opportunities they pose for systemic disruption as radical innovations, and proposing a design framework for tackling the cultural barriers for their mainstream adoption. Based on the theoretical propositions, an initial methodological framework for the integration of semiotic and cultural analysis methods to the design process is discussed, in order to better support designers in identify the cultural codes that can make sustainable PSS innovations more relevant and desirable in their socio-cultural context. In exploring the potential of semiotics and cultural analysis methods as a strategy to improve the value proposition of sustainable innovations, we offer a new perspective for understanding the symbolic aspects of consumption as social signifier, and highlight the opportunities this opens for sustainable design to influence societal transformation

Cultural context and service design: developing critical and meaning-making capacity

This paper reports on the experimental introduction of a socio-cultural lens to the design process, to aid in mapping symbolic aspects of consumption: i.e. users’ expectations, aspirations and identification needs and the sociocultural rules at play in the context of the innovation. An action research intervention was implemented with design students to investigate how applied semiotics and cultural analysis methods support user research and meaning-making during the design process. Students were provided with theories, activities and templates to facilitate the exploration of global and local socio-cultural trends, positioning of innovation in the cultural category and mapping codes and other contextual socio-symbolic signifiers that influence users’ preferences and choices. Results indicate that cultural context analysis contributes to build critical thinking skills and capacity in designers, and enables a wider awareness of the mediating role of design in the acceptance and diffusion of innovations

Service design meets strategic action: Exploring new tools for activating change

Design can positively contribute towards the highly complex social, economic and environmental problems we face today. One key area in design for social change is to empower citizens to activate change that disrupts built-in systemic inequalities and exploitative practices. This workshop presents the ‘Action Heroes Journey’, a resource kit co-developed by designers and CitizensUK community organisers to enable active citizen participation in public life. Based on Joseph Campbell’s (2008) Hero’s Journey storytelling framework, the toolkit integrates methods from service design and community organising and is aimed to help users to discover and align their personal values with the future development of their community. Although the resource was co-designed with and for young people initially, the archetypal structure allows the embedding of vernacular goals and meanings – i.e. increasing leadership, participation and co-creation that is meaningful at a personal level. It also connects with other stakeholder’s priorities, for example, NGOs and local government citizen and sustainability strategies. Participants will learn how service design can be used to develop creative leadership capacity and enhancing wider and more diverse engagement in the socio-political sphere

Switch the Channel: using cultural codes for designing and positioning sustainable products and services for mainstream audiences

An important step towards achieving sustainability is to encourage a wide uptake of more resource-efficient consumption patterns by the ‘mainstream’ sector of society. At present, one of the barriers for this uptake is that sustainable choices are often perceived as ‘constraining and sacrificing’ (losing out) rather than ‘liberating and beneficial’ (being better off). The initial theory of this research proposes challenging this perception. Design can contribute to encourage more people to adopt sustainable lifestyles by ensuring that the intrinsic values and benefits of sustainable lifestyles are communicated effectively using a culturally relevant discourse. In this paper, we propose a theory and methodology for positioning of sustainable products, services, and systems as culturally aspirational choices that lead the user to improved well-being and happiness. It deals with the cultural perception of sustainable lifestyles and proposes the implementation of a framework to inform designers on ‘aspirations’ and ‘relevance’ factors at the early stages of the innovation process. Semiotic and cultural analysis are central to this framework. Their methodologies can be valuable tools to collect data on the aspirations of users and the active cultural codes within a particular context. This data is used by the design team in the early stages of the innovation process to develop sustainable products and services which are more in tune with the user, as they are perceived as culturally relevant, meaningful and thus more desirable choices. Implementing deep rooted and contextualised cultural analysis at the innovation stage of sustainable PSS can contribute greatly not only to enhance their perceived value by making them more desirable, but also to extend their purpose into switching lifestyles from a culture of consumerism to a culture of sustainability

Planet or people? Redefining the ideological position of sustainable design

Despite the growing awareness of the concept of sustainability society-wide, the diffusion and uptake of sustainable innovations and practices remains slow and niche. Many have attributed the lack of uptake to an ineffective sustainability discourse, which fails to drive the desired behaviours due to the limited appeal, relevance and meaning it bears in people’s lives. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the discrepancies between intended and perceived meanings generated by discourse framing and representations. The study first maps a trajectory of the sustainability concept in culture (its past, present and emerging cultural associations) using Raymond Williams (1977) Residual, Dominant and Emergent methodology. The analysis is structured in three periods, reflecting two important cultural shifts in the sustainability discourse: the ecology era, the sustainability era and the innovation era. These map the transformation of the meaning of sustainability over time, and from ‘marginality’ towards (potential) ‘popularity’. Secondly, as the ‘value proposition’ of sustainability poses an unapparent opposition of interests between ‘planet’ and ‘people’ – a dilemma posed by sustainable consumption – we set to analyse the positions and ideologies in tension within the discourse by mapping these polarities in a Greimasian square. Some conclusions are drawn upon how these positions might influence people’s views, engagement and behaviour towards sustainable products and practices. The results suggest that propositions which present sustainability as a means for ‘environmental protection’ (environmental benefits) might be unfavourable to generate mainstream appeal and engagement, while discursive frames which present it as a means to enhance ‘quality of life’ (personal and/or social wellbeing benefits) may offer better predisposition and appeal. The study also exemplifies the value of integrating socio-semiotic and cultural analysis methods into design research and design ethnography for ‘decoding’ possible unarticulated socio-cultural meanings of artefacts and communications. In this particular case, the methodology has helped to identify a favourable path to strategically advance the legitimation and appeal of sustainability values and accelerate its cultural transition

Design for users: The global studio

User-centred design (UCD) has deployed methods such as user surveys and interviews, user focus groups, personas, user scenarios and participatory design to identify users’ needs and desires. Although UCD has become a dominant design innovation strategy, we argue that design major students are insufficiently versed in their user constructions. To illustrate this, we will examine students’ take-up of UCD within an international cross-cultural collaborative project undertaken within the Global Studio which involved 7 universities located in Austria, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. From the data analysis, we have concluded that most of the students failed to derive genuine insights from a ‘real’ user and developed only superficial insights about their users. We argue that this was mainly due to a failure to involve the ‘real’ users from the start of the project, which meant that users were only represented as fictional characters in later design development stages