The importance of ecological design criteria

Let's look at the entire product life cycle, from its creation to disposal. Various participants take part in it: a design designer, a representative of the business world, i.e. the investor, the manufacturer implementing the product design, the distribution system (marketing, wholesale and retail sales, transport and storage), and those for whom the product is intended, i.e. the buyer and user . The desired ideal is harmonious cooperation between the investor, designer, manufacturer and distributor in pursuit of the common goal of meeting the needs and expectations of buyers and users. This is not easy to achieve, because each participant has different specific goals and a different hierarchy of design criteria. To show these discrepancies, I used the design criteria matrix presented below.

Individual cells of the matrix field represent analytical criteria for product evaluation and criterion properties determined on the basis of knowledge from various fields of science, and a separate cell, highlighted with a frame, represents purposefulness, i.e. the sense of the product's existence, as the superior, synthetic criterion of design value. To estimate the value of design, a synthetic criterion is sufficient, but when we try to justify the assessment decision, analytical criteria will be useful.

When creating a product design, the designer takes into account all criteria, both the overarching criterion of purposefulness and detailed analytical criteria. It is worth considering which of them are most important to the other participants
product life cycle.

Buyer's point of view
The list of quality criteria that significantly influence the decision to purchase a product is modest. The buyer, even if he thinks long and hard before purchasing, does not base his decision on a systematic assessment according to analytical criteria. The decisive role is played by the need (whether it is a rational need or a whim), ease of use, which is part of the ergonomic criteria, and economic factors, i.e. price and predictable operating costs, taking into account the context of the purchase situation and suitability for the buyer's pocket. In this case, what comes to the fore is the attractiveness of the product's appearance, i.e. the ability to attract attention, interest in the product and encourage the buyer. Other criteria, including: ecological criteria, it can be said that they escape the buyer's attention. The energy consumption of a product in the process of use translates into the operating cost in the eyes of the buyer, which reduces it to economic criteria. The awareness of the need to segregate waste results not so much from a deep conviction, but from the issue of disposal costs, and therefore again from an economic criterion. The buyer knows nothing about energy consumption in the production process and does not have to worry about it.

Taking into account all the various reasons encouraging the buyer to make a purchase, the need (in its broad sense) can be considered as the decisive criterion of design quality.

User's point of view
For the user, the criterion of attractiveness becomes less important - attractiveness has a temporary effect, and after a shorter or longer time the user gets used to it and the product is no longer attractive. What is more important is the good performance of the function (i.e. simply "functionality") and the ergonomic, aesthetic and semantic properties revealed in use, making the product comfortable, easy to use, safe, pleasing and liked by the user. For understandable reasons, economic factors are also important.

The synthetic criterion of design quality in the eyes of the user is the ratio of the value (not only measurable) that the product has for him to the costs of acquisition, installation and operation.

Investor's point of view
For an investor who takes the risk of financing a development project, the most important economic criteria are: the attractiveness of the market opportunity, the expected payback period of the initial outlays, the predictable profit and the expected life of the product on the market, as well as the appropriateness of the available technology. The remaining criteria are practically not taken into account. The investor does not have to be the manufacturer of the product: it may be, for example, a bank financing the project. The synthetic criterion is the time and scale of return of the invested capital.

Producer's point of view
The manufacturer is primarily interested in technical criteria determining the ability to implement the project and economic criteria (profitability, profit). Ergonomic criteria are also important, which in this case are mainly limited to occupational health and safety issues and the impact on work efficiency. The manufacturer's goals also include meeting ecological requirements. However, one may get the impression that this goal is somewhat forced, because the manufacturer is forced to take actions to protect the natural environment by legal regulations resulting from the growing public awareness of the need to protect natural resources, and to take actions limiting the consumption of energy and raw materials - primarily by considerations economic.

The synthetic quality criterion for a manufacturer is building and maintaining a strong brand, which is important for the company's market position.

Distribution system point of view
The distribution system includes wholesale and retail sales, warehousing and transport, along with promotional activities. The main criteria from the point of view of distribution are economic, primarily the wholesale and retail margin. Economic goals also include the attractiveness criterion (effectiveness of product promotion) and the technical criterion (technical properties of the product affecting the protection of the product during transport and storage, and enabling rational packaging management).

A synthetic quality criterion for a distributor is building and maintaining a strong commercial brand, which is important for the long-term market position of the product.

In the light of the above considerations, out of the 42 cells of the matrix, as many as 28 remain in the field of interest only of the design designer - the other participants of the development process attach less importance to them and take them into account, as if under duress, due to the need to meet official requirements, and not out of belief in their importance. Ecological criteria are among those omitted from the lists of particular goals of all - except for design - participants in the development of a new product. Only for design designers are they equivalent across the entire set of criteria. The reasons can be found in the fact that the costs of failure to meet ecological requirements usually do not fall on the perpetrator, but are borne by the entire society. Therefore, attention to environmental protection and rational management of non-renewable energy and raw materials requires appreciating the role of design in the new product development process.