Compact living

This project was executed during the spring of 2016 as a master thesis at Chalmers University of Technology, at the Department of Product- and Production Development, Division of Design & Human Factors in cooperation with the company Electrolux in Stockholm

New technologies creates new excess products that increase the energy consumption around the world. The design of future products therefore have a great impact on this effect. New trends with the desire to decrease these effects have raised an awareness of the challenges of global warming and compact living. Sustainable products is therefore becoming more common on the market but the field of sustainable small household appliances is still small. Therefore, this project focuses on Design for Sustainable Behavior (DfSB) and Compact living within small household appliances. By moving focus from green washing to Green branding companies can radiate sustainability in a more effective way and therefore the aim of this project also is to analyze the field of Green branding.

The deliverable of this project is guidelines on how to work with Design for sustainable behavior, Green branding, and Compact living within small household appliances, on a product series of coffee maker, kettle and toaster. The guidelines are summarized in a booklet that explains how a company can work with these areas by applying the guidelines to a product series of this kind.

The first part of the project, the pre-study, aimed to identify and investigate areas that are important when creating guidelines connected to Design for Sustainable Behavior, Green branding, and Compact living. The second part of the project, the idea generation, was a process with the goal to investigate how expressions and design cues can be brought to a product using guidelines. In the final part of the project, visualizations of the final concept in relation to the guidelines was made. A booklet for the company to use in their further development of sustainable products was also created.

The result of this project is a product series consisting of a toaster, a coffee maker and a kettle developed with focus on Design for Sustainable Behavior, Green branding, and Compact living. All choices in relation to development of the product series was motivated by using the guidelines. A conclusion is therefore that the developed guidelines within the fields of Design for Sustainable Behavior, Green branding, and Compact living can be applied to this type of product series.
The project also resulted in the insight that there is a need for sustainable products within small household appliances on the market today.