Do-it-yourselfers as Lead users for Environmentally Conscious Behavior

Abstract

Much engineering effort has focused on developing more resource-efficient products. However, use behavior is clearly relevant to resource conservation. Wasteful behavior offsets at least part of the anticipated gains in resource efficiency intended by resource-saving modes and technologies. Therefore, in addition to creating more efficient products, designers should also develop products that encourage and enable users to behave in more resource-efficient ways. We identified do-it-yourselfers as lead users to gain insights on product design to support Environmentally Conscious Behavior (ECB). Specifically, we studied do-it-yourselfers who repurpose rather than replace furniture items when their original functions are no longer required.