Dropless
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U&S
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In short
Throughout the USE Learning Line of Engineering Design, extending over a period of 7 months in the 2nd year of my bachelor's in Industrial Design, I got the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams to ultimately design and create an aid to stimulate sustainability, with a significant societal impact. As a result, Dropless has been developed in order to stimulate behaviour change towards a more sustainable relationship with water usage.
grade
collaboration
course
9
Amna Strojil
Loek Martens
Roel Maas
Mark Kurvers
Engineering Design USE Learning Line
Dropless
Dropless is an interactive tool which stimulates behaviour change to raise awareness on water consumption while showering. This is done through eco-feedback, which gives real-time feedback on the user's behaviour with regard to their water usage. A target goal is set by the heads of a household, which all family members will strive for. The showering water consumption of each household member is tracked in an app, visible to all users. This aims to stimulate social comparison and, in turn, competition to increase the effectiveness of using less water.
Water waste psychology
The main drive for the chosen approach of how Dropless tackles water waste is through the investigation of existing products for this purpose. Most existing technologies nowadays are technologically efficient. However, ultimately this is not the right approach to tackle sustainability problems. For example, producing shower heads that reduce the water flow rate seems like a perfect solution. However, this often results in an increase in use of such products while the user feels like this is tolerable due to their more 'sustainable' behaviour being performed.​
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Therefore, we have chosen to use behaviour change technologies. They aim to influence the user behaviour thus adapting new habitual behaviour to ensure sustainability in the long term too.
Family households
Dropless is targeted at family households, where parents pay for the water bill of their children. Although both parents and children may make use of the product, there is a clear distinction between target user and buyer. As children do not pay for their own utilities, it is quite tempting to be careless about water waste as they do not face the direct consequences. However, a behaviour change approach requires effort, which is often perceived negative and may therefore prevent unsustainable people to purchase products that aim at sustainable behaviour. Consequently, as the parent does feel the consequences of their child's careless water usage, they will be motivated to make the purchase for their child.
Learning points
Throughout the project, an interest in the user-focused and creative aspects of marketing has been triggered, particularly branding, by gaining insights into the importance of branding and the role it plays in distinguishing products from competitors. By applying this knowledge to Dropless, I recognized the significance of effective branding in communicating product benefits to customers. I have also explored various pricing strategies, realizing that pricing may impact the perceived value and image of a product. This understanding expands my vision as a designer and informs future projects to consider more customer-focused strategies beyond the core product. In addition, significantly broadened my realization capabilities by contributing to the prototype development. Investigating distinct strategies for prototyping, considering a wide range of facets such as financial and efficiency considerations, will be of great value in future projects to have a better perspective on the possibilities of producing concepts in the real world. Furthermore, employing the creation of minimal viable products (MVP's) in advance to ultimate prototyping has proven very beneficial for efficient user testing and communicating ideas to stakeholders.
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Additionally, I had set a goal to develop design skills for creating Miro templates and successfully executed this throughout the course, receiving positive feedback from teammates. By doing so, I recognized the value of visualization and tangibility in enhancing workflow and communication within design processes. The course not only contributed to the development of my hard skills but also my soft skills, such as note-taking and teamwork. I acknowledge the importance of being a collaborative team player and reflect on my previous over-ambitious approach, now having found a balance that benefits both myself and my teammates. Overall, the course provides unique learning experiences that contribute to my growth as a designer.