ICE Breaker 8: Designing Frugality
1
ICE Breakers by IMPACT ON UX 8 DESIGNING FRUGALITY Frugal Design is no more just about designing products and services that will change the lives of the world’s poorest citizens. Faced with ecological devastation, the great challenge of our time is to find ways for us all to live with decent material conditions within planetary limits, now and in the future. Design can be both successful and responsible by focusing on a new type of value creation, one that has efficiency and sufficiency of resource use at its heart and as its aim. Several emerging technologies, designs and businesses are making frugality an integral part of their practices and systems. EF Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973) “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.” Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO, Amazon.com “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” Smart Meters British Gas’s smart meters comprise one electricity meter, one gas smart meter, a communications hub and a smart energy monitor. They all work together wire- lessly to relay energy usage back to customers and present that information in an easy-to-understand package. Being able to see their usage of electricity and gas in terms of money puts the customer in control of how they use energy, giving them the opportunity to save money and precious resources. British Gas has already fitted more than a million smart meters to homes and businesses across Britain. (http://www.britishgas.co.uk/smarter-living/control-energy/smart-meters/what-are-smart-meters.html) Replenish Refill System Up to 95% of the substance in household cleaning products is water, and disposing of the packaging when the bottle is empty is wasteful. This design from Replenish offers a concentrated recharging cartridge screwed into the bottom, which when inverted fills a chamber with sufficient liquid that can then be topped up with tap water. Less waste equals less cost, which means more money saved for manufacturers, retailers and customers. Reusable refill components reduce plastic, energy and pollution by 80-90%, while conserving natural resources. (http://www.myreplenish.com/#home) How can we make products more durable, reducing the need for frequent, future replacements? How can we design products to encourage customers to use them until the end of their lives? How can we conceive products to perform an important cultural function alongside their “real” function, to create “timeless” design? How can we emphasize functionality and features that enable sharing? How can we persuade customers to save money, time and effort in the short term, and impact and heal the environment in the long term? How can we adopt business models that create value with fewer, better objects? E.g. replacing sales-based models with the “access-based” models of leasing, renting or servicing.
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Transcript of ICE Breaker 8: Designing Frugality
ICE Breakers by
IMPACT ON UX
8DESIGNING FRUGALITYFrugal Design is no more just about designing products and services that will change the lives of the world’s poorest citizens. Faced with ecological devastation, the great challenge of our time is to find ways for us all to live with decent material conditions within planetary limits, now and in the future. Design can be both successful and responsible by focusing on a new type of value creation, one that has efficiency and sufficiency of resource use at its heart and as its aim. Several emerging technologies, designs and businesses are making frugality an integral part of their practices and systems.
EF Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: A Study of
Economics As If People Mattered (1973)
“I think frugality drives innovation, just like other
constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is
to invent your way out.”
Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO,
Amazon.com
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to
move in the opposite direction.”
Smart MetersBritish Gas’s smart meters comprise one electricity meter, one gas smart meter, a communications hub and a smart energy monitor. They all work together wire-lessly to relay energy usage back to customers and present that information in an easy-to-understand package. Being able to see their usage of electricity and gas in
terms of money puts the customer in control of how they use energy, giving them the opportunity to save money and precious resources. British Gas has already fitted more than a million smart meters to homes and businesses across Britain.
(http://www.britishgas.co.uk/smarter-living/control-energy/smart-meters/what-are-smart-meters.html)
Replenish Refill SystemUp to 95% of the substance in household cleaning products is water, and disposing of the
packaging when the bottle is empty is wasteful. This design from Replenish offers a concentrated recharging cartridge screwed into the bottom, which when inverted fills a chamber with sufficient liquid that can then be topped up with tap water. Less waste equals less cost, which means more
money saved for manufacturers, retailers and customers. Reusable refill components reduce plastic, energy and pollution by 80-90%, while conserving natural resources.
(http://www.myreplenish.com/#home)
How can we make products more durable, reducing the need for frequent, future replacements? How can we design products to encourage customers to use them until the end of their lives?
How can we conceive products to perform an important cultural function alongside their “real” function, to create “timeless” design?
How can we emphasize functionality and features that enable sharing?
How can we persuade customers to save money, time and effort in the short term, and impact and heal the environment in the long term?
How can we adopt business models that create value with fewer, better objects? E.g. replacing sales-based models with the “access-based” models of leasing, renting or servicing.
