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Digital Sustainability
Design Research Fellowship
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Mitigating the negative impacts of human-induced climate change requires immediate action for
sustainable and adaptive solutions. In the rapidly evolving realm of digital environments, digital
products have the power to influence social change and increase responsibility toward
sustainable practices. As the use of digital products has become more accessible in today’s
society, identifying design techniques that can help shape user behavior can lead to the creation
of compelling digital applications to influence sustainable consumer practices.
Duration
June 2023 - Present
Roles
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Selected as 1 of 4 distinguished design research fellows in a joint program with BMW Group and Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation.
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Investigated the impact of digital products in promoting responsible sustainable practices among consumers.
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Undertook an extensive literature review across relevant fields to synthesize existing research on the efficacy of digital products achieving sustainable behavior change.
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Conducted exploratory data analysis to visualize and interpret research collections to understand patterns and make informed decisions.
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Proposed an innovative framework in a white paper, which filled knowledge gaps for BMW stakeholders and served as the foundation for a Fall 2023 UC Berkeley design course.
Skills
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​Human computer interaction
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Design research
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Product-centered research
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Consumer behavior
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Literature review
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Sustainability
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Broad ideation and vision
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Collaboration and communication
Problem Statement
In a joint program with BMW Group and Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, we were tasked with the prompt of
How can digital products (services / experiences) help to achieve a higher level of social behavioral change, increasing responsibility towards sustainable practices?
Research Process
Preliminary Research
We began the research process by reading a few preliminary scholarly papers that covered various strategies that can help with influencing consumer behavior, not only limited within the field of sustainability.
We extracted key, distinct strategies from these papers, which was essential for our own understanding of the topic, and would also help with identifying key words for the research.
We split up the various strategies amongst ourselves so that each of us could do research their respective strategy's impact on consumer behavior in the realm of sustainability.
Literature Review
After reviewing over 290 scholarly papers including academic and industry framework and case study papers, we organized each paper within a database for enhanced visualization, understanding, and comprehension.
Some considerable features within the database include keywords, topics, high-level findings, and future work.
Since our main focus was on behavior change techniques, we proceeded by creating categories in our database for each key technique (identified from the papers), along with its respective definition, associated keywords, and relevant papers.
This type of visualization allowed us to identify and organize the numerous behavior change techniques, and understand which ones were more predominant than others.
Affinity Mapping
After reviewing over 290 scholarly papers including academic and industry framework and case study papers, we organized each paper within a database for enhanced visualization, understanding, and comprehension.
8 identified topics that can encourage sustainable consumer behavior.
Exploratory Data Analysis
I transferred the database information to a Jupyter Notebook to further visualize, understand, and interpret the data. I generated visualizations in the form of bar charts, heat maps, and box plots, and conducted exploratory data analysis to gain more insight on patterns and trends in the data.
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Key Observations and Findings:
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Papers reviewed were quite recently published (1995-2023)
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Papers published at a variety of different venues.
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Discovered range of published year between venue type and paper type
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Discovered counts of framework papers vs. case study papers.
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Visualized relationship between the various topics.
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Strongest correlation between “Social Relatedness” and “Values” topics.
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Determined the number of papers reviewed for each topic.
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... and much more!
The organization of our research findings and the exploratory data analysis lead to the establishment of our proposed framework:
Within the database, for each topic, we included its definition, its related concepts, and relevant papers.
Summary
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White Paper
Purpose
Composition of a framework for the synthesis and presentation of the interconnected elements identified during the literature review process.
Overview
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8 identified topics, each of which consisting of different concepts, that can help influence sustainable behavior. The arrows between the various topics and concepts indicate the interconnectedness between them.
Framework Structure
High Level Topic (8)
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General overarching theme
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Encompasses concepts and techniques
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Concepts (40+)
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An abstract or general idea
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Class of related techniques and examples
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Techniques
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Method used to accomplish specific task related to the concepts and high-level topic
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Case studies and product examples apply techniques to concepts or high-level topics.
Link
Impact
Helped fill knowledge gaps for BMW stakeholders, including designers, engineers, and researchers.
Research findings serves as the foundation for a new Fall 2023 UC Berkeley design course for 30+ students set to influence the next generation of innovators and designers.
August 7, 2023: Design Researchers presented to BMW stakeholders at the BMW Group office in Mountain View, CA.
Fall 2023 UC Berkeley course "Designing Digital Sustainability"
December 11, 2023: "Designing Digital Sustainability" students present protototype designs to BMW stakeholders.
Next Steps
Prototype + Vision
The research findings outlined in the white paper serve as the foundation for UC Berkeley's Fall 2023 course, Special Topics in Design Innovation: Designing Digital Sustainability of 30+ students set to influence the next generation of designers and innovators to develop prototypes and visions for a more sustainable future. ​
Publish
Submit the innovative framework to a prestigious conference or journal.
Additional Information
Presentation Slidedeck
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U67vxCG3Qa2epUU1bZA5UFGCMAS_oxHF/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Cp7aGzhaJGPGqZS93Nis9Ck9UqceU2v/view?usp=sharing