When it comes to mobile devices, off-boarding is a less well-acknowledged part of the product lifecycle, the vocabularies around endings are deficient. Both consumers and companies, however, tend to overlook the importance of the EOU consumer experience and its impact on a transition towards a CE. Companies like to introduce ‘hello’ to new products while neglecting the ‘goodbye’ stage. They hardly pay attention to what happens after the consumers no longer use them. Consumer-wise, many mobile devices are left somewhere at home because of various reasons including data safety, pollution concerns as well as denial about the ending of lifespan.

Therefore, the design opportunity exists in knowing mobile device consumers’ experiences at the off-boarding phase thus to design a valuable approach to enable them have a meaningful ‘goodbye’ at the end of the product’s lifecycle and as a result, to return the mobile devices to the corresponding refurbishment and recycle services to close the loop.