Team: Gabrielle Bennett/ Moxue Jia/ Sebastian Ervi/ Zhaolu Song
Brief: Using the taxonomy of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) design a digital system that encourages behaviour change.
Time: 18.02.2021-25.02.2021
After doing the general research about behaviour change, this week, our group need to choose a specific behaviour.
Choose a behaviour
Considering our and others’ preferences, we did a brainstorming about the behaviours that people would like to change.
Topics brainstorming. Topics by team.
Inspired by OOO and posthumanism, I was thinking about how design can change the unequal relationship between humans and non-humans and decentralize humans. In my opinion, minimizing humans’ interference with non-humans is an answer. Besides, many people lost jobs in pandemic and need to limit their budget. So, I came up with the idea that “From ‘Consumerism’ to ‘Minimalism’”.
From “Consumerism” to “Minimalism”. Sketch by me.
“Recycling” or “Overconsumption”?
After sharing ideas, we were interested in “Recycling” and “Overconsumption”. Gabrielle argued that “Encouraging recycling” is a border topic relating to everyone while “Limiting overconsumption” only focuses on the rich. However, I think the results of overconsumption will harm all people and the recycling process is also a burden for the environment. Also, Sebastian questioned that showing people easy recycling knowledge will encourage buying more.
“The over-consumption of a wealthy minority is fueling the climate crisis yet it is poor communities and young people who are paying the price.” - Tim Gore.
After discussion, we decided on the topic of overconsumption and agreed to focus on food waste.
Practical Research
Our group decided to do practical research about “overconsumption”. Sebastian did a family’s fridge inspection and a shopping behaviour mapping, Gabrielle did a questionnaire and made “bird cakes” from waste food and Moxue did some related apps and BCTs analysis. I did a “Will you buy it” test and BCTs card soring workshop.
1.“Will you buy it” Test
Seeing some discarded oranges in my flat trash bag, I thought people care about the date of fresh food and will throw it away if it expires.
Discarded oranges. Photo by me.
So, I did a “Will you buy it” test with my flatmates and interviewed them about the expiration date and promotion. What I found interesting is that people do check the date of the fresh food and prefer to buy the fresher one. However, they won’t check the date of long-term food, like coffee, baking powder, tea bags, etc.
“Will you buy it” Test. Photo by me.
2.BCTs card sorting
Besides, I organized a card sorting workshop to figure out what kind of BCTs are useful for users. With simple examples of 15 potential BCTs cards, participants need to sort cards into three categories: the most useful, could be useful, useless, and then write down their ideas.
BCTs card sorting workshop. Photo by me.
Workshop outcome.
2nd-week Feedback
Overall, our classmates said it’s an interesting topic. Some mentioned restaurants, supermarkets are also responsible for food waste. Some worried about plastic waste if buying small package food. John reminded us “wasting food” is a behaviour including different stages, like overconsumption, poor storing, lacking recycling consciousness, and we can apply different BCTs separately. Alaistair mentioned people’s emotions about food and the perspective of posthumanism.
In the next blog, I will show my analysis of the research and our design ideas generated from previous research.
References
Bhalla, J. and Barclay, E. (2020) How affluent people can end their mindless overconsumption. Available at: https://www.vox.com/21450911/climate-change-coronavirus-greta-thunberg-flying-degrowth (Accessed on 21 Feb. 2021).
Yahoo! UK (2020) Research reveals Brits' food waste habits - but what do they waste most? Available at: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/research-reveals-brits-food-waste-habits-but-what-do-they-waste-most-165927386.html (Accessed on 22 Feb. 2021).
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