VISUALIZING GREEN: COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS THROUGH PRODUCT DESIGN AND APPEARANCE
Before Pekka takes you through the concepts we created, I’ll shed some light on the motives driving our study.
Design can be regarded as communication - as a language of its own; products function as means of communication and self-expression. Now, if design really is a language, what does it tell us? Product semantics is the study of symbolic qualities of man-made shapes, in the cognitive and social context of their use (Krippendorff and Butter 1984). A product tells something about itself and about the person who owns it. Through its design and function, the product expresses values that people then interpret. Through its semantic content and expression, the product can create positive or negative perceptions, emotions, values and associations within a person.
Emotional design, on the other hand, is a field of research that examines how people project their own emotions, motivation and beliefs into everything they are in contact with (Norman 2004) - everything people do is linked with emotions and at the same time, emotions affect thoughts. We interpret everything we experience and see. Through our own interpretation, we evaluate products and also judge or feel empathetic towards them. We can say that a product is sad, aggressive, feminine or, for example, environmentally friendly. A product’s message consists of more than what merely its most outer layers communicate to people.
Environmental friendliness is generally considered as a positive quality in products. Companies are expected to actively fulfill their responsibility towards the environment and act in the name of sustainable development. The general public’s values are greening, but however, their actions are not yet following the same path. Consumers are not willing to make personal sacrifices to the environment. Therefore, the attractiveness of the product can not be compromised; a green product can not lose out to other products in any area. Greenness is rarely seen as the most desirable product attribute and, therefore, it rarely compensates the underperformance in other areas. Yet, based on the notion of consumers’ positive attitude towards environmental friendliness, it is beneficial for the product to communicate a pro-environmental message. The physical aspects of the product should be used to attractively convey the message of an environmentally friendly product, with the means of product semantics and emotional design. (Peattie 1995; Ottmann 1998; Torvi & Kiljunen 2005; Haanpää 2005.)
The aim of our study was to find design clues for perceived environmental friendliness and apply them in a manner that assures an attractive product entity. Thereby, the product could do both: communicate green values and be attractive to consumers. The focus is on studying product design and technologies as communicative tools. Is communicating environmental friendliness through the design style and appearance of products possible in the first place and, if so, how is it done? In other words, we are determining whether a product can be used as a means of visualizing green.
