How to Extend a Product Psychological Lifetime from Design Perspective: Case Study of Young Generations’ House Furniture in Tehran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University.

2 Industrial Design Department, Fine Arts Faculty, University of Tehran

Abstract

The rapid expansion of consumerist lifestyle in the societies and nations worldwide seems to be one of the main causes of the present environmental, social and economic crisis in a global scale. As the profession of Industrial Design has had an active role in facilitating and promoting such a lifestyle, the correction or improvement of sustainability situation of the products is therefore one of its major concerns and agendas currently. The main focus of the researches concerning the product sustainability is mostly on the environmental impacts and economic issues. The lengthening of the product psychological lifetime could be one of the effective tools for the reduction of consumerism. Within this research, first, the different approaches for extending the product psychological lifetime are reviewed comparatively and categorized semantically. Next, as the outcome of a field study done on the case of house furniture of the youths living in Tehran through a qualitative research method, the factors affecting the length of psychological lifetime of such products are extracted. Because of the especial role of furniture in lifestyle as well as the importance of its subjective/psychological issues, this kind of products has been chosen for the case study.
The required information for this qualitative case study is gathered by using the methods of interview and observation. The samples are chosen among the youths living independently in Tehran and agreeing to be interviewed in their houses. Meanwhile, their own furniture is being observed as well. The interview with the samples and the observation of their furniture have been continued until the theoretical saturation is reached. The obtained data are initially processed by using the methods of Initial Coding, Open Coding, In Vivo Coding and Pattern Coding. To draw the distribution graph of data derived from the coding process, as a base for the final Theoretical Coding, the data are then analyzed by using the method of Quantification Theory Type III. Within the Theoretical Coding of the data, the users’ expectations from their furniture and their furniture particulars, which could be remained stable or changed, are compared. Accordingly, the different types or patterns of their equilibrium and also the users’ expectations items and the products particulars involving with each pattern are drawn. To extend the psychological lifetime of such products, the results of this research reinforces, on one hand, the importance of the product adaptability with the user’s personal changes depending on the context. On the other hand, the results emphasize the necessity of stability of product from the viewpoint of the user’s permanent values in terms of contextual and temporal changes. Furthermore, to conclude the design tactics for extending the psychological lifetime of the furniture of the youths’ houses living in the city of Tehran, the implication of the findings of this research are firstly compared with the categorized approaches for extending the product psychological lifetime derived from the literature review. Then, the findings have been discussed from design viewpoints to be arranged into the main design issues including design guideline, design strategy, design/research tools and framework regarding the above mentioned subject and case.   

Keywords

References

استراوس، ا.، کربین، ج. (1998). مبانی پژوهش کیفی - فنون و مراحل تولید نظریه‌ی زمینه‌ای. (ا. افشار، مترجم) نشر نی (1392).
بودریار، ژ. (1970). جامعه مصرفی. (پ. ایزدی، مترجم)، چاپ نهم، نشر ثالث (1399).
داودیان، آ. (1398).بررسی چگونگی ترویج سبک زندگی پایدار برای جوانان با استفاده از تفکر طراحی. مطالعه موردی: مبلمان آپارتمانی در تهران. پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد رشته طراحی صنعتی (منتشر نشده)، پردیس هنرهای زیبا، دانشگاه تهران.
سالدانیا، ج. (2013). راهنمای کدگذاری برای پژوهشگران کیفی. (ع. گیویان, مترجم) انتشارات علمی و فرهنگی (1394).
فلیک, ا. (1998). درآمدی بر تحقیق کیفی. (ه. جلیلی, مترجم) نشر نی (1393).
Borjesson, K. (2008). Affective Sustainability. Is this what timelessness really means? Undisciplined! Design Research Society Conference (pp. 153/1-153/16). Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Hallam University.
Braungart, M., & McDonough, W. (2002). Cradle to Cradle - Remaking the Way We Make Things.
Brinkmann, S. (2008). Interviewing. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS (pp. 470 - 472). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Chapman, J. (2005). Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences and Empathy.
Chapman, J. (2009). Design for (Emotional) Durability. DESIGN ISSUES, 25(4), 29 - 35.
Dobers, P., & Strannegård, L. (2005, September/ October). Design, Lifestyles and Sustainability. Aesthetic Consumption in a World of Abundance. (S. I. Design, Ed.) Business Strategy and the Environment, 14(5), 324-336.
Griskevicius, V., & T. Kenrick, D. (2013, JUL). Fundamental motives How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior. JOURNAL OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY, 23(3), 372-386.
Griskevicius, V., Cantú, S. M., & Van Vugt, M. (2012). The Evolutionary Bases for Sustainable Behavior: Implications for Marketing, Policy, and Social Entrepreneurship. JOURNAL OF PUBLIC POLICY & MARKETING, 31(1), 115-128.
IDEO (Firm). (2015). The Field Guide to Human-centered Design: Design Kit. IDEO.
Lilley, D. (2009). Design for sustainable behaviour: strategies and perceptions. DESIGN STUDIES, 30(6), 704-720.
Mugge, R., Schifferstein, H., & Schoormans, J. (2010). Product attachment and satisfaction: understanding consumers' post‐purchase behavior. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 27(3), 271–282.
Mugge, R., Schoormans, J. P., & Schifferstein, H. N. (2005). Design Strategies to Postpone Consumer Product Replacement. The Value of a Strong PersonProduct Relationship. Design Journal, 8(2), 38-48.
Mugge, R., Schoormans, J. P., & Schifferstein, H. N. (2008). PRODUCT ATTACHMENT: DESIGN STRATEGIES TO STIMULATE THE EMOTIONAL BONDING TO PRODUCTS. In H. N. Schifferstein, & P. Hekkert, Product Experience-Elsevier Science (pp. 425-440).
Mugge, R., Schoormans, J., & Schifferstein, H. (2009). Emotional bonding with personalised products. Journal of Engineering Design, 20(5), 467-476.
Page, T. (2014). Product attachment and replacement: implications for sustainable design. International Journal of Sustainable Design, 2(3).
Papanek, V. J. (1973). Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Bantam.
Papanek, V. J. (1995). The green imperative: natural design for the real world.
Ramani, K., Ramanujan, D., Bernstein, W.Z., Zhao, F., Sutherland, J., Handwerker, C., Choi, J.K., Kim, H. & Thurston, D. (2010). Integrated Sustainable Life Cycle Design: A Review. JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN, 132(9).
Tseng, Y.-S., & Ho, M.-C. (2012). Creating Sustainable Emotional Value through Personalized Design. Design for Innovative Value Towards a Sustainable Society - Proceedings of EcoDesign 2011: 7th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, (pp. 257-260).
Van Krieken, B., Desmet, P., Aliakseyeu, D., & Mason, J. (2012). A sneaky kettle: Emotionally durable design explored in practice.
Vezzoli, C. A. (2018). Design for Environmental Sustainability: Life Cycle Design of Product, Springer.
Young, G. (2011). Design thinking and sustainability. Zumio.
Zafarmand, S. J., Sugiyama, K., & Watanabe, M. (2003). Aesthetic and Sustainability: The aesthetic attributes promoting product sustainability. The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, 3(3-4), 173 – 186.
Zafarmand, S. J., Tauchi, T., Terauchi, F., Kubo, M., & Aoki, H. (2010). Product Subjective Sustainability: Comparative Analysis of Psychological Lifetime of Short-lived and Long-lived Products through Kansei Engineering Approach. 7th International Conference on Design & Emotion, Chicago, US, October 4-7, 2010.
Zafarmand, S. J., Terauchi, F., & Aoki, H. (2011a). Product Subjective Sustainability: Analysis of the Japanese Users’ Kansei Evolutions over their Short/Long-lived Products’ Lifetimes. 7th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (EcoDesign 2011), Kyoto, Japan, Nov.30-Dec.2, 2011.
Zafarmand, S. J., Tauchi, T., Terauchi, F., Kubo, M., & Aoki, H. (2011b). Conceptualization of Product Subjective Sustainability. Bulletin of Japanese Society for the Science of Design, 58(1), 1-6.
Journal of Fine Arts: Visual Arts
Volume 26, Issue 3
November 2021
Pages 65-76

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics