Designing Products to Encourage Conservation: Applying the Discretization Principle

摘要

We applied lead-user methods to identify product design principles that encourage environmentally significant behavior (ESB) in individuals. Previous work studied Mennonites as lead users due to their low consumption lifestyles, and found that resources in discrete units instead of continuous flows facilitated resource conservation. This paper describes our efforts to apply the discretization principle to product design. We identified how discretization is evident in current products, and discovered challenges in applying discretization while considering user and facilitator needs. Revised concepts were produced to combine various needs, and preliminary tests on one prototype appear promising for encouraging water conservation.