Design: Encouraging Sustainability Through Persuasion

The thesis proposes a mobile app design along with an innovative business plan aiming to encourage sustainable purchasing. To uncover the limitations in current design practices, firstly, represented examples of sustainable design were reviewed. Then, in an attempt to bridge the gap between sustainability and design commercialization, the techniques of persuasion were studied. It is to figure out how to incorporate hot triggers into computational technologies. As an outcome of the study, the final deliverable is a social networking application that provides sustainable product reviews.

Instead of following a traditional sustainable design framework, the final deliverable focuses on creating an efficient supply-and-demand circulation for sustainable products. It delivers a unique corporate proposition showing how the system works, gaining modest profits while promoting sustainable development. Based on an online survey and the user study, the value of the proposed idea was validated. Also, the usability and functionality of the app were improved based on participant feedback.