When asked about decision-making, the designers often focused their accounts on describing how they influenced other decision-makers to prioritise sustainability. See the academic journal article on these findings in the British Journal of Social Psychology.
Here, a designer portrays forcefully pushing to try to convince decision-makers in the company to use more sustainable materials in a new collection of suitcases.
Participant: so (.2) you know (.3) over the time we just (.) decided (.6) to keep going going going of course the prices (.7) were a little higher (.4) as suspected (.2) always (.2) so we had to (.2) really like push hard like ‘n:o this is the future like (.4) you have to start doing (.) something about sustainability you have to commit to the environment you have to (.) change your practices’ (.5) and then eventually you know after a lot of (.) like (.) struggle like we made the collection
From an interview with a product designer working in the Netherlands.
In contrast to the depiction of designers forcefully pushing for sustainability, some participants instead described a gentler way of influencing decision-makers. In this final extract, an electronics designer talks about the role of the designer as including informing and educating others about sustainability, to try and influence company decisions.
Participant: because for a designer if they work as an in-house designer (1.0) most of time they design a product for a company
Interviewer: yeah
Participant: (.5) yes but sometimes company or their managers they don’t accept this kind of (1.0) mmm sustainable ideas
Interviewer: mhm
Participant: because they maybe worry about the budget or financial situations
Interviewer: yep
Participant: yeah so (1.5) I feel it’s like a negotiation between designers and their like boss or their company erm again it’s not like compulsory (.7) things like you ask everybody to accept (.4) [but
Interviewer: yep
Participant: you have to give people knowledge or educate (.8) the people around you (.2) to let them know ‘oh it will become (.7) more and more important in the future and more import and more and more consumers maybe care about this (.) in the future’ (.4) yeah
From an interview with a product designer from China.
Key takeaway points
- Different ways of influencing decisions are portrayed, involving either forcefully pushing for sustainability factors to be prioritised, or gently informing and educating others about sustainability.
- Through these different portrayals of influence, the designers construct varying entitlement to influence others.