What does experience design have to do with sustainability?
by Alexa“Is there such a thing as sustainable experience design?” In our internal discussions of The Designers Accord, Jesse posed this question. Not being industrial designers, we generally aren’t qualified to address product life-cycle issues such as materials & processes or transportation logistics in any meaningful way. But, as Jesse suggested, perhaps we can bring a new perspective to the sustainability conversation that other disciplines haven’t yet considered.
Experience is closely tied to sustainable behavior: People act un-sustainably because it’s often much easier or results in a better experience than doing otherwise. (It’s much more convenient and pleasant to drive my car wherever I want.) Thus, experience designers are uniquely-poised to encourage sustainability by capitalizing on what we know about human behavior as well as business strategy. We have the capacity to:
Make sustainable experiences more compelling than the alternatives. How can we make doing what’s best in the long run more attractive in the short run? (e.g., Make transit a better experience than driving.)
Understand and appeal to people’s motivations, values and aspirations. As ethnographers, we know how to tap into the subconscious motivations that unwittingly shape behavior. How can we appeal to these tendencies at points of decision so that right choices become the most natural choices?
Harness the power of information to help people make better decisions. As information designers, we know how to make the abstract concrete and make hidden costs visible, visualize the future, and tell stories. The right information can not only influence decisions when presented at critical moments, it can also shape underlying attitudes and values — a necessary component of lasting change.
Promote a service-mindset vs. a product-mindset. As Liya Zheng put it in her post on Service Design and Sustainability: “Think about how to appeal to consumers and businesses with a complete solution that goes beyond the product itself, and where possible, minimize the use of products by delivering great services.”
Communicate the business value of sustainability. Green sells! Businesses for whom green is central to their identity, value proposition or business strategy are more successful than businesses that adopt a cause just because they ought to. As design strategists, we can help companies find ways to turn sustainability into profitability.
But while it’s easy to identify how we COULD contribute, the tricky part, especially for us as consultants, is finding real opportunities to exercise these skills. While design educators can shape future generations of designers and business-people, and in-house designers can shape their company’s culture and product/service strategy, we’re often brought in for specific, often screen-based projects that seemingly have nothing to do with sustainability.
Does it really make sense, as the Accord calls for, to have a sustainability conversation with every client? How can we avoid coming across as pretentious do-gooders?
What best practices can we promote in our interaction design work (e.g., strive to reduce computer use by promoting more energy-efficient means of information access such as mobile)?
How can we identify clients and projects where the skills outlined above can be applied?
These are the questions we’re left wondering about and debating. If anyone has any thoughts or perspectives, we’d love to hear them.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
[...] ãã£ã¨ã§ãè²·ã… wrote an interesting post today on What does experience design have to do with sustainability?Here’s a quick excerpt“Is there such a thing as sustainable experience design?” In our internal discussions of The Designers Accord, Jesse posed this question. [...]
January 30th, 2008 at 9:17 am
_Cradle to Cradle_ mentions that if business models change from an experience of owning to one of renting products, the manufacturers are incented to make their products more sustainable, reusable, and long-lasting.
Designing experiences, then, built on a pattern of reusing materials and temporary product ownership could be more sustainable than our current own-and-throw-away ones.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am
On the one hand I agree with Bob. Don’t talk to clients about sustainability; talk them out of the linear river selling economy and into the lake circular leasing economy. Don’t talk about Extended Producer RESPONSIBILITY but Extended Producer REVENUES (leasing to multiple users = selling the same product several times). Then at last designers might start to deliver on the promise of software upgradability in durable hardwares.
But on the other hand, I think it is very important to be a bit worried about the focus on the consumer/user, as at the Sustainale Interactions IxDA gig the other night. The consumer/user should do ‘their bit’, but the problem these days is less about getting people to be aware of sustainable options (they more and more know), or getting them to have a great ‘interaction experience’ when doing the sustainable option (they are more and more prepared to do it whether it’s enjoyable or not), than in creating the structural opportunities to do the sustainable option. I can only save energy in my house, no matter how slick the interface on the energy monitor if I can install insulation, new glazing, change the fuel source. I can only drive my Prius in ways that avoid the petrol motor if I am not charging from work to school because the kids had to go to a school out of the area because the local ones are full or underfunded. There is a risk that focusing on the consumer ‘bit’ excuses governments from doing their bit. Designers need to talk not just to clients, but to politicians and planners about funding the conditions that will allow clients to ask designers to do the right thing.
I am kind of with this spray about the apolitical naivety of design thinking: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3464/the_revolution_will_not_be_designed/
January 30th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Thanks for this. Like you, we’re pondering what actions the Designers Accord suggests for our own practice. I don’t have much new to offer on that question just yet, except for one observation….
My problem with most of the consumer-focused buzz on being green and sustainability is that consumer behavior seems like the leaf-end of the problem tree. The most damaging behaviors — and therefore the ones that could make the biggest positive contribution if changed — are on the industrial side. Manufacturing processes. Choices of material. Investment in making new choices available to consumers. And cetera.
So, it’s not that we’ve yet figured out how to have an effect on all this, but since we’re working with product design and development organizations, it does seem like we’re only once removed from the right conversations. If we can figure out how to have an impact on the trunk of the tree instead of the twigs, that would be very satisfying.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I would agree with Marc concerning products. It takes a while for consumer behavior to trickle through the market and for industrial producers to get the message. Something like energy consumption, whether it be for transportation or domestic use, is very different. A person’s decision can be immediately felt in the energy market. “Sustainableness” is a decision made by the user, not the manufacturer. As such, user experience experts have the ability to intervene.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
[...] adaptive path » blog » Alexa Andrzejewski » What does experience design have to do with sustainab… [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 11:33 am
[...] What does experience design have to do with sustainability – Adaptive Path [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 5:20 am
[...] adaptive path » blog » Alexa Andrzejewski » What does experience design have to do with sustainab… “Is there such a thing as sustainable experience design?” (tags: sustainability experiencedesign design experience blogs usability web blog) [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] I racked my brains on what I could add beyond a link to this interesting post at the Adaptive Path regarding designers thinking about sustainability. And I can’t think of anything…
The bottomline of all design, both physical and electronic, comes from making products appealing in the short-term and worthwhile for the long-term, therefore, becoming a sustained product. [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
[...] Adaptive Path’s Alexa Andrzejewski asks What does experience design have to do with sustainability? in the context of discussing Valerie Casey’s Designers Accord. The post caught my eye because I recently worked with Valerie on an interview for an upcoming issue of ACM Interactions. And it seems to me that sustainability has a lot to do with experience design [...]
February 7th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
[...] The good folk at Adaptive Path had an interesting recent blog post on experience design and sustainability. I’d like to add an item to their list of ideas: Don’t punish users for making sustainable choices. [...]
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 am
[...] Reading: Chapter 8 of textbook and the following articles (there will be a quiz on them next week): Web 2.0 ‘neglecting good design’ Some theory behind Mac OS X’s menubar 10 Usability Principles to guide you through the Web Design Maze What does experience design have to do with sustainability? [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
[...] at the Commonwealth Club of California. We covered quite a bit of ground in an hour, from how experience design could offset conspicuous consumption to issues like making meaning in the lives of customers, [...]
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I am totally agreed with the point to have service-mindset instead of product-mindset. But the most difficult thing is not about service or platform, the point is what’s the mediator that could guide user to involve all the experience.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Great issue, Cradle to Cradle, Design like you give a Damn, and even Cristopher Alexander’s Pattern Language from the 70’s are great examples, interaction design could give a new sence to all these history of sustainable teory and practice.
Pedro Soares Neves, from Lisbon, Portugal
Userdesign.org
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
[...] conflicted with good experience design? These were important questions and my colleague, Alexa, blogged it. Nevertheless, with overwhelming support we decided to sign-on to the [...]