Product design of consumer electronics in the face of resource scarcity
The goal of this project was the creation of a design guide, focusing on the optimal design of consumer electronics in concern to resource scarcity.
Particularly affected by resource scarcity are critical raw materials, mainly present in electronic consumer goods, which will be increasingly required for "green technologies". This guide serves as a toolbox for considering the linked issues and counteracting them - creating future-proof products and clearing the way for a sustainable future.
National
Germany
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Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Raphael Last name: Jung Gender: Male Age: 23 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Germany Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Waldäckerstraße 9 Town: Stuttgart Postal code: 70435 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 178 3252938 E-mail:raphaelbernardjung@gmail.com
The project 'Design and Resource Scarcity' has the goal of creating an open-source design guide focusing on sustainable product design in the face of resource scarcity. It was developed within the framework of a bachelor thesis by us, Jan Sagasser and Raphael Jung in the field of product design at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd.
With increasing consumption of electronic products - especially in the European Union - and limited resource availability, we experience a mega-trend of resource scarcity. Particularly affected are the so-called ‚critical raw materials‘ which are mainly used in electronics. These materials are highly important for our safety and well-being, due to their role in essential functions such as energy production, infrastructure, or the defense industry, while having a seriously threatened supply. Contemporary product design of consumer electronics often results in even higher requirements of critical raw materials, ineffective use of such materials, and bad recycling properties.
Based on these major problems, the project aimed at empowering designers and producers of affected products and parts to improve their own work, efficiency, and sustainability impact whilst creating awareness and behavior changes in the affected stakeholders.
The design guide is based on a 103-page research paper. This was created on the basis of various experts from the electronics industry, suppliers, a sociologist and experienced design experts. In addition, previously developed research documents, methods and models were used and analyzed to create a well-founded design guide. Complementary the guide is accompanied with three exemplary products, which serve the function of validating and communicating the different guidelines: A docking station, a timer and a hard drive case.
Currently there are no design guides on this topic and little knowledge is available, despite the high relevance it finds little attention today, but will drastically impact our future.
Circular Economy
Critical Raw Materials
Consumer Electronics
Design Guide
Resource Scarcity
The topic of resource scarcity will likely lead to impacts across all product sectors and aspects of life in the EU, as currently experienced in politically induced resource scarcities linked to the war in Ukraine and the associated sanctions. The resulting cost increases result - even at this low level compared to other potential scarcities - in severe effects, especially for disadvantaged population groups. Such scarcities can be of political nature but also out of limited resource stocks or decreasing sourcing capabilities and increasing costs of sourcing. Many of the affected materials experience a drastic increase in demand due to their role in green technologies, e.g. in solar panels.
Another factor are the harmful effects linked to the sourcing of critical raw materials and the disposal of electronic waste. One example of many is the extraction of rare earth elements in the Bayan Obo mine in China, resulting in a radioactive and highly acidic slag lake, the Baotou-toxic-lake, threatening the health of millions. Not only the production but also the disposal causes major damage. Currently, there are 347 megatons of un-recycled e-waste on earth, increasing with each year, while the global recycling rates are only at 17,4%. A major factor for these low rates is product design which makes recycling highly difficult or even impossible.
The above mentioned sustainability factors are targeted in the created design guide by minimizing critical raw material use, optimizing material efficiency, creating parts suitable for the use of recycled plastic, maximizing product lifespans and optimizing recycling properties.
While the guide specifically targets the consumer electronics market, most factors are relevant across the majority of product sectors and consumption patterns. It can therefore be seen as an example of how the status quo of consumption and production can be transitioned towards improved sustainability impacts.
As statistics show, human well-being doesn’t improve with increasing consumption rates, rather the opposite happens. This shows, that rising consumption rates not only pose a major threat due to their environmental impacts but also don’t provide any benefit for one's well-being. Thus, behavior changes and awareness creations are one of the central pillars of this project, specifically targeted as a category in the design guide and as core functions of the exemplary products.
Adaptability and repairability are crucial aspects of a product to ensure longer lifespans and should be taken into account from the outset. It is equally important to enable both the customer and manufacturer to update the product at any stage.
For the manufacturer, this approach eliminates the need to replace the entire product, requiring only updating technical modules, thus reducing development and tooling costs. By offering upgrade kits, the manufacturer can create a conscious purchase impulse through better technical optimization and generate continued income even after the sale. Over the long term, this can prevent the creation of demand for new products based purely on changing styles without any real technical development. For the customer, involvement in product adaptation and customization improves technical product understanding and strengthens the bond with the product. Moreover, if such a system is implemented, the social pressure to always own the latest product will be alleviated. Companies such as Apple play with this social phenomenon; observe the design of the iPhone, which changes its edge shape from generation to generation, from square to rounded and back, to visually differentiate the new from the old, visible to everyone.
The design guide served as the framework for incorporating all relevant aspects of designing long-lasting and upgradeable products, which were used to design the DS01 docking station, one of our concept products.
While the countries with the most consumer electronics consumed per capita lie in Europe, Oceania, and North America, both mining and disposal have the most harmful effects in Asia, Africa, and South America.
The project targets two central factors concerning this social inequality. Firstly reducing the initial input of resources reduces the harm linked to sourcing and secondly reducing waste by maximizing product lifespans, repairability, and reusability reduces harm linked to the disposal. The resulting products are suitable for circular systems by offering easy repairability, long lifespans, optimized reusability of elements, and finally optimized recyclability for the end-of-life components. Circular economies foster localized and closed systems reducing named harmful impacts in Asia, Africa, and South America and providing jobs on a regional level.
Another aspect is the competition of critical resource use between consumer electronics and essential technologies such as medical devices and infrastructure. As shortages worsen, such technologies will become much more expensive, if not unavailable at all. These effects will particularly harm disadvantaged communities and population segments. A responsible and efficient handling of affected materials is therefore essential to protect safety and well-being. This is enabled by the created design guide offering another positive social impact.
In order to minimize the hurdles of utilizing the created design guide it was decided to offer it as an open-source tool. The group targeted is therefore heterogeneous, ranging from corporations to design students. The goal is to maximize the number of projects it is used in. This not only has beneficial impacts on the environment and society but also helps generate experience to improve the tool itself.
As the open-source design guide functions as a quality gate and knowledge base for professional work, all directly affected citizens are industry professionals, both in the creation and development of this guide and in its use. As they primarily fall under the two following texts, their involvement is described further there.
The end users of the product developed with the design guide are of high relevance to the guide itself, mainly due to their behavior with the product, their purchasing decisions, and their awareness of the covered topic. Due to limited resources, these aspects were covered by working with experts (e.g. a sociologist and a brand communication expert) and only conducting small-scale observations and interviews with the potential customers directly.
Indirectly benefitting from this project are all citizens, as the targeted sustainability issues will likely have great impacts on their daily lives, safety, status of living, and well-being.
The project was created in collaboration with the Swiss consumer electronic producer Punkt (the nature of that collaboration was solely based on the transfer of data, knowledge, feedback, and contacts, it was non-monetary and we, Jan Sagasser and Raphael Jung still have complete ownership over the project). This allowed us to engage with several stakeholders on an international level. Examples for an international level are stakeholders from product development, strategy/ management, business communications, and industrial design. Other stakeholders contacted directly on a national level were suppliers, designers, and end users.
This extensive engagement allowed the project to become viable, well-founded and closely based on reality. As the design guide targets designers and consumer electronic companies, the engagement with Punkt. and other stakeholders were essential for validating the guide, products, and research.
As the project was a bachelor thesis in the field of product design, it is the central field of this project. Other disciplines included in the project were sociology, engineering, material science, and communications. The representatives shared both their knowledge and their feedback on the project. The interaction was conducted in presentations, discussions, and written communication between us as the authors and the different representatives. In some cases, these interactions were conducted between multiple disciplines, and in other cases only between representatives of the field design.
As the topic handled in this project is of high complexity the incorporation of the most relevant, affected disciplines was essential for the creation of a well-founded design guide. Examples are behavior models which were discussed and reviewed by a sociologist, product structures and material requirements discussed and reviewed with a product developer/ engineer, the overall framework of the project structures and developed with a communication expert, and all design-related content with experienced designers from different industries.
The mega-trend of "resource scarcity" affects the so-called critical raw materials in the most extreme way. These are essential for our security and our standard of living but are significantly threatened. The most common use of these materials is in consumer electronics. While the consumption of electronics continues to grow, the reserves are shrinking and the demand is increasing due to their role in essential developments (e.g. the energy transition).
The field of product design and product development holds particular relevance in addressing the topic of resource scarcity, as it continues to be fueled by ever-new resource-intensive, short-lived trends. Although initiatives such as the "right to repair" introduced by the European Commission mark a turning point, frequent purchases, short product life cycles, and a lack of product maintenance and repair have been widely accepted as cultural norms.
Despite the high relevance of this issue, there are currently no design guides available and limited knowledge on the subject. This lack of attention is a significant concern, as it will have a drastic impact on our future. Our approach is innovative in that it encompasses comprehensive research on resource scarcity and its related aspects, which were collected and published. With the help of experts from various fields, a design guide was developed from this research and validated through its use in the development of three product examples, in close collaboration with experts from the electronic consumer goods industry.
By following the developed design guide, companies are empowered to create circular products that significantly reduce the demand for critical raw materials. This is achieved through the minimization of the quantity and criticality of required resources and the maximization of product lifespan, value preservation, and the ability to reuse or recycle the products.
Despite being primarily focused on product design in the face of resource scarcity, this work highlights areas and leads to insightful findings in different areas (e.g. in consumer behavior, behavioral models [Fogg Model], circularity, etc.), which can be applied to various production, consumption, and awareness-raising fields, with the potential to be a driver for change towards a more responsible and sustainable future.
The open-source idea also stems from the fact that we want to collect information on the topic of resource-efficient design in different areas. Being able to discuss in detail with other experts about the common practices as well as the possibilities of the industry and at the same time share our knowledge from the research with them and develop it further.
As already mentioned, the product targets the global phenomenon of resource scarcity by revisiting and changing established design practices, allowing for the implementation of circular economies.
Additionally, global injustice is targeted by reducing waste and resource sourcing from momentarily severely affected countries. Reduced consumption and material use, together with fostering local circular models have the potential of drastically reducing transport and thus emissions. This reduction not only reduces emissions linked to the life cycle of consumer electronics but also makes rare resources available for essential functions, e.g. in the energy transition, infrastructure, etc.
On a political level, resource dependencies are often used as a tool to follow and enforce political agendas. Monopolies and strong resource dependencies threaten political independence. With concern to critical raw materials, this phenomenon is particularly severe. For example, 95% of rare earth elements, which are part of the critical raw materials, are currently controlled by China. These elements are essential besides other fields for electricity production, the defense industry, and infrastructure. Improving recycling rates allows increases the potential for the reuse of such elements, e.g. by implementing circular systems, thus relieving political pressure and improving one’s independence.
