Product Longevity: Is it related to our emotional attachments to a product?

1. INTRODUCTION

Emotional attachment or emotional design have became phrases potent within the world of design. Emotions play a big role in the way humans react to and experience products and play an important role in influencing how we relate to objects. Creating positive emotions towards products could have positive effects on the design process. HIGHLIGHTED QUOTE IN BOOK The longevity of a product varies depending on the product. Some products have single use and some may last through many years and generations, but the longevity of a product is a crucial aspect that must be considered when designing the product whether the product is disposable or created to last a lifetime. These ideas are drawn from the theories of the authors Donald Norman and Jonathan Chapman who focus their theories on the user.

2. STATEMENT OF INTENT

This dissertation aims to identify and analyse the link between the users emotional attachment and the durability of a product, taking into account the viewpoints of influential thinkers such a Donald Norman and Jonathan Chapman critically analysing products such as ‘The Sims’, ‘The Philippe Starck Juicer’ and ‘The Cup and Saucer’. It looks at how it’s possible to create positive or negative attachments with a product through the way it’s designed from different perspectives such as function, colour, aesthetics, form and emotion and is split into three sections: the first section justifies the need for increased product longevity followed by section two which shows how and why emotional attachments are developed; from the increased attachment through to the loss of attachment. Some approached to these issues are eco-design, emotional design which are tools that designers use to increase the life-cycle of a product. We live in a world that rapidly changes in taste and trends and our role as designers is to create objects and experiences that create lasting relationships between consumers. Even from the point of view of sustainability as designers, it’s important to create products so that users are psychologically aware of which will help build product attachment for the consumers. This essay questions why emotions plays a big part in how long consumers choose to use a product by including the ideas of the designers mentioned above.

3. DESIGNING AND SUSTAINABILITY

In the world today, there is constant environmental problems rising around sustainability which has become a hot topic amongst designers and consumers. With the environmental awareness rise nowadays, the impacts that products have on the environment cannot be ignored. The longevity of a product, or its lifespan is the main aspect of the sustainability strategy but it’s easy for designers to think that designing a product with a long physical lifespan would directly affect the sustainable credentials of the product but it goes beyond that. It could be argued that although products have designed to last longer from a material point of view, it may be pointless if the user isn’t prepared to keep it for the duration of its life.

‘We are a generation born to consume. We have rowing machines we never exercise on dining tables we don’t eat at and ovens we don’t cook in’ (Deyan Sudjic, The Language of Things, 2009). This book brings across the idea that we’re a generation that have determined our own needs and cultures of purchasing things for the sake of it without actually having a need for it. In other words, the 21^st Century generation are a generation hungry for new products on the market, continuing the culture of mass consumption. “If we’re really honest with ourselves most of that we design ends up in a landfill” (Tim Brown, IDEO, 2005). Tim Brown, like Deyan Sudjik refers to consumerism and the extent of the throw-away culture.

The eco design of a product has a big impact on the environment as in products with short lifespans such as phones are produced in their millions and generally speaking, they are disposed of after an average of two years. Not because the phone becomes unusable but because a newer one will come out and the older phone seems ‘outdated’. This cycle can cause a worse impact on the environment than products produced in lower numbers with longer lifespans and disposed of less often. The attachment developed with a phone is solely to the service that it provides and the wide range of things that can be done with it, so when the chance for an upgrade is offered, the user will jump at the opportunity. This being the case, it means that designing products produced in lower numbers which lasts longer on an emotional level is a more valuable way to reduce the amount of waste. Or even better, being able to design a product that might never be disposed of by the throw away generation.

So, an increased attachment between product and user has a positive effect on the longevity of a product  and would benefit it’s sustainability, this aspect could be reconsidered by designers today.

4. ATTACHMENT

This section is looking at how attachment is created and explores feelings experienced before purchasing a product through to the feelings felt after the discarding of it. People develop different attachments with different products through time depending on their taste. It could be argued that many products which last through years are ones that are given as gifts, have significant family importance or are souvenirs from holidays and generally have a memory or a nostalgia attached to it. For example, associations with family are influential in longer lasting products such a handed down watch by a grandfather would be valuable as it could be a reminder of the man, or a grandmothers antique box or furniture piece. These often elicit a memory that people are attached to.

4.1  INITIAL STAGES

Jonathan Chapman’s theory of the “Honeymoon Period” is very useful in discussing the types of attachment between people and products. In this section, the first stages of product-emotion is explored through to perhaps some of the last emotions before discarding a product. The “Honeymoon Period” theory by Chapman (2005) as “the passionate early stages of a subject-object relationship” can be used as a way of describing the first stages of a products lifespan as short and intense, climaxing in an “awakening jolt” unlike a successful marriage. In his writing, he compares the development in product longevity to social trends away from a long term relationship and more towards one-night stands. Designers have to provide something new and exciting for the consumers of today’s society so they remain excited about that product for as long as possible as when the attachment to the product begins to fade, it may be discarded or replaced. In comparison, Hendrik N. J. Schifferstein * and Elly P. H. Zwartkruis-Pelgrim (2008) have a different view which is that the strongest attachment to a product is formed after 20 years. Through their findings, it’s evident that the attachment is strongest in products younger than a year and older than 20 years because early on, enjoyment may be the major essence of attachment whereas, for old products memories may be stronger.