B.G.E. Goosink
Graceful Ageing of Products
A framework on how to create relations between users, their products, and the everyday.
Master’s thesis in MSDESIG Industrial Design Supervisor: Trond Are Øritsland
June 2020
Products, regardless of their utility, face the challenge of time. Whether it is through wear and tear, changes in personal and societal values, or incompatibility with unforeseen technological advancement, very few designs last a life time. This thesis title proposes to challenge this convention, exploring the principles of design that encourage the graceful ageing of
products. This refers to products that stand the test of time by keeping hold of their value in the eyes of their owner and user, being or becoming keep-worthy.
Focus of this thesis lies on the aspects of design that impact the perceived worth of products as they age.
The emphasis of this research lies on uncovering
factors that improve a product beyond aspects initially considered by users during purchase.
The motivation for this thesis proposal is two fold.
Firstly, it is about understanding graceful ageing of products in the pursuit of good design. Secondly, items that last confront today’s standard product lifecycle and consumeristic lifestyle. Lasting products create less need for replacement. Gracefully
ageing products create less want for replacement, encouraging a mindset of fostering and repair.
In the wake of climate change, a mindset shift in consumeristic behaviour would be an encouragement in the right direction.
abstract
The outcome of this thesis is a framework that
constitutes the elements needed in design to enable graceful ageing. The principle hypothesis of the framework is the notion that the stories we build around our everyday items makes them unique, and that this uniqueness makes our products worth keeping. The framework proposes building aesthetic interaction on the existing ideas around ‘good design’, namely user values, utility, and emotion. Products often loose their novelty after several use cases, and fade into the background of everyday life. Aesthetic interaction is proposed as a method to preserve
salience, for the user to have enough awareness of the products presence in their daily activities, enabling the product to eventually become part of the all important user narratives, memories and stories.
2
Topic and proposal
Document setup
Scope and limits 1.
2.
3.
4.
3
Story
The pyramid Process
Discussion
Appendix
Contents
5. 9.
6. 10.
7. 11.
8. 12.
5
TOPIC
PROPOSAL AND
1
topic and proposal
them.
7
9
DOCUMENT SETUP
2
how to read this document
theories and literature. The second part describes
11
12
13
DEFINING GRACEFUL
AGEING
3
.
15 proposition is to a user. This value can be related to product
17 plastics as apposed to aluminium as an example, even
19
SCOPE LIMITS AND
4
scope
21
22
delimitations
23
25
STORY
5
product stories
27 their prized possessions is that there stories vary
control.
29
PYRAMID THE
6
a framework
stories in the everyday
31
Fig. 1 Good design making an impact on everyday life through thoughtful interactions
32
both on a personal and social level, to be included experiences.
aesthetic resonant
interaction
33 interaction, and stories. These are the principle
good design
good design
35 product as it scales the pyramid.
Fig. 2
Fig. 3 the pyramid of keep-worthiness.
37
The pyramid
Values
is considered cultured or acceptable.
Utility
39 Emotion
experiences and memories.
Interaction
Story
DESIGN GOOD
7
others on anecdotal evidence and experience. Some
that enable story creation.
Good design?
principle I - values
individually and those held collectively. Collective
sometimes intentionally rebellious.
into a personal assessment, these values are held
norms and customs on the one side and personal
categorical perception
51 experience.
52
contextual taste
53
familiarity and novelty
55
principle II - utility
57 solution.
create pleasurable experiences the product cannot
and irritation.
59
principle III - emotion
better emotional merit.
Fig. 4
inputs. Emotional experience is the instinctual
perceive to be embodied by a product.
conscious. The subconscious processes, since they
stories.
act and self
experience of meaning described
so called self
product creates an experience of meaning.
processes that lead to aesthetic and emotional experiences
aesthetic
Fig. 5
EVERYDAY LIFE
8
the everyday
ones shoe laces.
rituals
71 Rituals &
Emotions
72
Fig. 6
73 interactions that occur.
Place and time
equipment is stored. Non material properties related
Essential and contingent elements
75 Strong and weak elements
elements may not even be noticed by the user in the
dependence, and the attributed values and identity represented by it.
To understand salience, it is necessary to understand
. To explain this, he uses the
77 incentive to explore the unexpected possibilities and
stand out and be noticed, it is no loner the product
invisible.
on rituals reaches an inconsistency. Products must be
interactions that entice the user to either explore competence and concentration. This can be achieved
place in memories and stories.
79
Fig. 7
banality of the everyday coffee ritual whilst simultaneously offering moments of salience (smell and sound during use) and exploration towards making the perfect brew.
Via unsplash.
interaction in rituals
product.
GOOD
DESIGN IN EVERYDAY
LIFE
9
the role of interaction
interaction.
meaning in action
91
Fig. 8 the components of rich interaction, from Frens (2006)
92
Aesthetic Interaction
93 Rich Interaction
three aspects.
Fig. 9 Frens’ (2017) digital camera based on the principles of rich interaction. Instead of having a static button as trigger, the latch to the right of the screen is pressed when taking a picture. This releases the screen from the camera, embodying the capturing of an image. The image can then be moved to permanent storage by sliding the screen towards the memory card on the left.
Fig. 10 A payment system that embodies the interaction of payment (Frens, 2017)
95 hand.
Interaction Frogger
until almost at the bottom.
97
the everyday
99
skills and learning
the need to learn. This can have both a positive
Social interaction
Fig. 11 boston shaker: a fairly extreme example of the social in interaction. Observers are able to enjoy seeing a user shaking a drink, as well as the user being aware that others can see the interaction.
Via prconline.
PROCESS
10
design process
have been used to build various prototypes. This
approach impossible. At this point a scope had been
Exploring
111 Interviews
much more data.
Method
possessions.
112
order to create story.
early pyramid
113
Fig. 12 Clustering factors of keep-worthiness according to there similarity and the levels of the pyramid. The numbers represent how many factors are represented per category.
the everyday
115
literature
next step. At the time the items under consideration
aesthetics. These need to be experienced, and are
117 used to concretise the usually abstract theory. The
thesis period, it became possible to trial the pyramid.
trialing
119
121
122
123
DISCUSSION REFLECTION AND
11
and the pyramid described in this document is no
Does everything need a story?
125 relatedness into account.
Second hand
127 Uncontrollable factors
129
closing words
a product unique. To the user, there are no other
and eventually stories.
131
REFERENCES
12
132
economy.
experience.
133
135
press.
Publishers.
137
139
APPENDIX
Japanese Kitchen Knife
Cast Iron Dutch Oven
on day to day basis. There are stains on the inside and outside
Bass Guitar
Bass Guitar (continued)
Leather Boots
Coffee Mug
part the community there.
(Sony) Noise Canceling Headphones
Noise Canceling Headphones (continued)
see that they are still in use.
obtained the same personal value.
(Sony) Noise Canceling Earbuds
also appreciated.
Apple Wireless Earbuds
Pulp Fiction Wallet
repair, nor has it been maintained other than the occasional
151 Sport Wireless Earbuds
and incorporate a sensor to measure heart rate. There is also
152
Hand Bag
cheaper one.
153 Dry bag (foldable top)
Coffee Maker
155 Ibanez Gio Electric Guitar
Collection of old phones and game consoles
157 Book: getting to yes by Fisher and Ury
index to suite this use case.
Chromecast
159
B.G.E. Goosink
Graceful Ageing of Products
A framework on how to create relations between users, their products, and the everyday.
Master’s thesis in MSDESIG Industrial Design Supervisor: Trond Are Øritsland
June 2020
