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Designing Meaning to Change Consumer Behaviour: An Exploration

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ICoRD’15 – Research into Design Across Boundaries Volume 1

Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 34))

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Abstract

The focus of our research is to support designers in fostering a more sustainable behaviour of consumers by creating meaning in products and services. The paper describes the results of a literature study into the process of meaning making and the mechanisms through which meaning affects consumer behaviour. Meaning is defined as a mental representation of possible relationships. An initial model, the Meaning-Behaviour Model, is presented, integrating the mechanisms found in literature. Five possible interventions, derived from the model, show how designers can use meaning as a lever to foster enduring behavioural change. The paper contributes to the discussion of introducing meaning through design by exploring the link between meaning and behaviour.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Krippendorff [17] “meanings are invoked by sense”.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Fonds Nationale de la Recherche Luxembourg for funding this research. Furthermore, the authors thank Renee Wever for the valuable feedback on the interventions and the reviewers for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit in Engineering Science, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Gregor Waltersdorfer, Kilian Gericke & Luciënne Blessing

Authors
  1. Gregor Waltersdorfer
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  2. Kilian Gericke
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  3. Luciënne Blessing
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gregor Waltersdorfer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Amaresh Chakrabarti

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Waltersdorfer, G., Gericke, K., Blessing, L. (2015). Designing Meaning to Change Consumer Behaviour: An Exploration. In: Chakrabarti, A. (eds) ICoRD’15 – Research into Design Across Boundaries Volume 1. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 34. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2232-3_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2232-3_30

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi

  • Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2231-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2232-3

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