Recognising their environmental impact despite ongoing circular-economy practices, Philips seeks ways to extend the lifespan of their products to reduce such loss of value at the end life of their products. This project explores the concept of Emotional Durability as a user-centred approach to sustainable product design, specifically within the context of Philips Personal Care's grooming devices. Emotional Durability refers to the ability of a product to create a long-lasting bond with its owner, fostering a desire to keep and use it for longer.
Grooming devices provide an ideal testing ground for this concept of Emotional Durability due to their context of use. Their highly frequent and recurrent use, the intimate relationship to their owners’ inner self, and their long lifespan make these devices particularly suitable to form a durable emotional connection with their users. The research aims to bridge this gap between long-lasting products and consumer behaviour through interaction and product experience design.
The project employs a participatory design approach, engaging users in the research, ideation, and evaluation stages to inform the development of design interventions aimed at fostering emotional connections between users and their grooming devices. The final intervention, All-about-One, employs engaging, personal, non-transferable, and functional interactions, found to be essential qualities for instilling Emotional Durability.
This thesis offers valuable insights and practical guidelines for the effective implementation of Emotional Durability in grooming devices, underpinned by a robust research-through-design approach.
The research findings hold potential for broader applications of Emotional Durability across other durable product categories, contributing to the growing relevance of Emotional Durability and providing actionable insights for design practitioners, researchers, and the consumer durables industry.