Longer Lasting Products

In this provocative book, the creation of product durability and the design of longer-lasting products emerge as an absolutely vital element in the pursuit of sustainability. Its multi-disciplinary approach consolidates the significant growth in product life-span knowledge from an impressive range of experts. Contributors to Longer Lasting Products discuss the different means of product life: historical, design, engineering, marketing, law, politics, consumer behaviour, technology and systems of provision, and the economic context of each.

The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables – vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods – as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods.

The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables - vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods - as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods.

Emotionally Durable Design presents counterpoints to our ‘throwaway society’ by developing powerful design tools, methods and frameworks that build resilience into relationships between people and things. The book takes us beyond the sustainable design field’s established focus on energy and materials, to engage the underlying psychological phenomena that shape patterns of consumption and waste. In fluid and accessible writing, the author asks: why do we discard products that still work? He then moves forward to define strategies for the design of products that people want to keep for longer. Along the way we are introduced to over twenty examples of emotional durability in smart phones, shoes, chairs, clocks, teacups, toasters, boats and other material experiences. Emotionally Durable Design transcends the prevailing doom and gloom rhetoric of sustainability discourse, to pioneer a more hopeful, meaningful and resilient form of material culture. This second edition features pull-out quotes, illustrated product examples, a running glossary and comprehensive stand firsts; this book can be read cover to cover, or dipped in-and-out of. It is a daring call to arms for professional designers, educators, researchers and students from in a range of disciplines from product design to architecture; framing an alternative genre of design that reduces the consumption and waste of resources by increasing the durability of relationships between people and things.

This book aims to map out ways of designing and planning products so that their value is sustained and they can be kept in use for a longer time. It tells the story of Vivian, a name that represents any product. The life oF Vivian is traced from preconception, through development, purchase and long period of use, right up to oblivion. Vivian's story is embedded in the information and experiences that the Eternally Yours Foundation has gathered over the past years, culminating in the 'Time in design' conference organized in October 2003 in cooperation with the Long Now Foundation. This book includes most of the lectures by, among many others, Ezio Manzini, Brian Eno, Gustaf Beumer and John Thackara - introduction.

This chapter will focus not so much on “what” we do as consumers, but “why” we do it, leading to a broader evolutionary and behavioral discourse on the meaning and role of objects in our lives, drawing into focus the essential relationship between our enduring need for material experiences, and the impacts this has on the natural world. This chapter examines the meaningful proxies, triggers, and metaphors embedded within material experiences, exposing alternative understandings of the immaterial culture underpinning our stuff, and the manifold dialogues we are continually engaged in with the designed objects that touch our lives.

Product longevity is one of the cornerstones in the transition towards a more sustainable society and a key driver for the circular economy model. This book provides designers, developers, and creators with five distinctive expert strategies, detailed case studies, action guides and worksheets that support both beginning and advanced design practitioners in creating new product concepts with long-lasting strategic fits. Designing for Longevity shows how expert design teams create original and long-lasting product concepts from the early development phase. It focuses on integrating business knowledge, market conditions, company capabilities, technical possibilities and user needs into product concepts to make better strategic decisions. It demonstrates how, for products to be durable, designers must create a long-lasting strategic fit for the customer, company, and market. Key case studies of products such as Bang & Olufsen’s A9, LEGO Ninjago and Friends and Coloplasts’ Sensura Mio, among others, offer readers inspiration, guidance and real-world insights from design teams showing how the strategies can be applied in practice. Action guidelines and worksheets encourage broad, analytical problem-solving to identify and think through challenges at the early concept stage. Beautifully designed and illustrated in full colour throughout, this book combines original research and the hands-on tools and strategies that design practitioners need to create useful, sustainable products.