Design for Product Care

Product care is defined as all activities initiated by the consumer that lead to the extension of a product’s lifetime. It includes repair and maintenance, as well as preventive measures or general careful handling of a product. Product care is one way to extend a product’s lifetime, as it keeps the product in a usable and maintained state for a longer period of time, thereby postponing its replacement. An issue with product care is that it heavily relies on consumers’ behaviour once the product is in use. Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is: How can design foster product care among consumers? We present the current state of product care among consumers, a scale to measure product care, and design strategies to foster product care. In addition, we explore product care in access-based product-service systems. Using the insights identified in this PhD project, designers can create and redesign products in such a way that care activities will be more likely to be performed.