Rooted Living is a New Black (HabiTree)

EI final report

Rooted Living is a New Black Chang, Hao-Yung 4745299 (2677 words)

Design Goal

I want future generation, to be more aware of environmental protection and spontaneously take action in daily life.

Exploring Process

Research & Exploration test - 1 test - 2 Reading: Habit Building test - 3 Matertial Reaserch Prototype Building test - 4 Reading: Children development Final scenario test - 5 evaluation improvement

EI HabiTree Research & Exploration Rooted community (Geworteld Wonen) in Rijswijk is a newly formed community of which people live and work in the communal garden together since Dec. 2016.

Residents there are highly aware of environmental protection and that’s also the reason why they chose to live in this community together.

Through this research, I hope to discover what’s the motivation behind their action.

stronger awareness of environmental protection and what did they do at that moment.

▲booklet of waste dealing(left) and interview questions about purchasing behavior(right)

Research Questions

I started my research with 5 residents talking about what actions they take in their daily life(mainly about waste dealing and purchasing behavior) and awareness related questions such as when do they start to have ▲collage as a a starting point for the conversation of awareness helps people talk easier

Research Situation

Participants: 5 residents Age: 34~60 Time: 1.5hr per person Place: at their home

Chang, Hao-Yung

Result

After collecting the above data from 5 residents in the community, I analyzed them and found the following conclusions.

They all have a very well organized recycle box set.

Since they are aware of the consequence of doing recycle and they don’t mind to spend a little more time on it to make environment better, they organize their recycle boxes really well.

They are also quite aware when purchasing.

When purchasing consumable items, most of them will choose biological or fair trade ones.

“I don’t think people have to suffer because I like to eat peanut butter.”

(Sjors, 45) “I always go for biological not because it’s healthier but I think it’s better for the environment.” (Corrine, 60)

“I don’t really mind to spend a little more time, and I think it’s needed.”

(Edze, 50) “I like the process that we make food wasted into something useful in the garden, it’s like magic.” (Anna, 34)

▲All the biological and fair-trade products Sjors have in his home.

▲All the biological and fair-trade products Sjors have in his home.

EI HabiTree Then, what leads to the above behavior?

2. Actions reinforce people’s awareness.

After fully analyzing the interviews, I found the relation between waste dealing & purchasing behavior with awareness, and concluded them in three main 3 points followed by quotes.

On the other hand, when taking actions, people feel more confirmation about the thinking in their mind.

1. Awareness influences/motivates behaviors.

outsiders. “ [Cynthia, 39]

The awareness they have is a strong motivation for doing these eco-friendly behaviors and making choices with awareness.

“I do recycle and compost because… I know the consequence

“It’s a nice feeling to live here, because we know we are no longer “I like to support new companies because Albert Heijn is big enough, why do I have to support them? So I choose PICNIC to do my groceries and I like that they use electric cars to deliver!” [Corinne, 60] “We do things in the garden together, grow our own fruits and vegetables, so we know that how it is grew. ” [Cynthia, 34]

and impact it would bring to our environment.” [Sjors, 45]

▲The interview with Cynthia talking ▲Sjors’s choices of all bio and fare-trade items

about communal garden

Chang, Hao-Yung

3. Communities, closer people have strong influence on people’s awareness.

“Yeah, sometime in the what’s app group, we share what are compostable, what are not. So we learn the knowledge and doing it together.”

[Corinne, 60]

And yet, it is the people who are close to you have stronger influence on your awareness.

“Life is more feel like this (see picture at the right), because we often help each other, and when I see Jeroen rides bike to everywhere, I start to think, yeah…life without car is also

▲Anna taking about the feeling of

possible.” [Anna, 34]

conncetion

▲The relation between awareness and action(behavior)

EI HabiTree After realizing the relation between awareness and action, I started my

Result

first protoyype and tried to enhance people via an online platform(simulated).

goal and found it didn’t work well because: 1. On a virtual platform, the distance among people is actually farther so

Test 1

among people.

people’s awareness by connecting

I designed an online platform that people can share some environmental protection related topic on it.

I examined this idea with my design

it’s not suitable as a connection

2. It’s hard to know if people do take action in their daily life through an open online platform.

Test 2

To improve the above two points, I decided to redesigned a commonly used item------shopping bag and wanted to see if it can change people’s behavior.

▲The simulation of the online platform

Test1 Situation

Participants: 6 TU Students Time: 1hr Place: TU Delft

▲People are working on their post to the platform

Plastic Bags Consume: each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide.

Sources: ref2. “Plastic Bag Consumption Facts", 2018

Chang, Hao-Yung

James Clear, it states that people need at least 21 days to build a new habit. Hence I choose “21” as a number that people need to repeat a certain action, in order to let them get used to the it and take action every day.

Test 2 Situation

Participants: 3 TU Students Time: 20min/person Place: TU Delft

Started from a basic design of shopping bag with a paronomasia slogan on it (Let’s buy things that our earth can contain.), I found that people get used to the slogan and ignore it after a short period of time.

Hence, I started to think what if I can make “bringing shopping bag” a habit that people never forget to do it. Based on the above assumption, I read the following article:

Reading: How long does it actually take to form a habit?

According to the article (see ref.1) "How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit?

Backed by Science.", 2018, by

1, 2, 3...... ......19, 20, 21 Quote from the article: “Maltz wrote about these experiences and said, “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.””

After reading the article, also because I found that people likes sense of achievement during the interview, I designed some ways that let people recording how many times they have used the bag and tested them in Test 3.

21

EI HabiTree Test 3 There are totally three different ways to record the usage times of the bag in this test.

Test3 Situation

Participants: 9 TU Students Time: 20mins/person Place: TU Delft

1 ▲Connecting dots after each time of use

Result 1. People prefer interactive way than only statements on the bag (test 2).

2. Positive thinking like drawing trees (No.3) is better than the negatives like counting how many plastic bags been saved(No.2).

Together with the consideration of my design goal, No.3 is the most suitable way to record since it contains a clear meaning to raise people’s awareness meanwhile encourage people to reuse it by visually counting the using time on it.

2 ▲counting how many bags have benn saved

3 ▲draw a tree after each time of use

Chang, Hao-Yung

Material Research After deciding the concept, I started to find suitable material for making the bag. Here I list three most possible materials and their pros and cons.

Karft-tex

This is a paper-like fabric which allows one to write on it and is water proof.

Pros: handwritable

Cons: not foldable x(hard to carry),

expensive x

Broken umbrella

According to the local condition, I would say It’s the most suitable material (needless to explain)! pros: light weight, water proof, upcycle material

cons: not handwritable x, cost a lot to work x

Organic Cotton

We know that the production process of cotton pollutes our environment a lot, thus organic choice is a better way if we need to use cotton. pros: handwritable, foldable, organic cons: not water proof

Though broken umbrella is really an interesting and eco-friendly material for making shopping bag, it doesn’t fit the concept so my final decision is organic cotton.

EI HabiTree Prototype Building - HabiTree

â–˛Foldable bag for easy carrying. As for the gift tag shows some example of trees and the back of the tag explains the reason why repeat it 21 times.

â–˛At the front is the place you can draw trees on.

Chang, Hao-Yung

â–˛Instruction at the back showing how to use it.

1. Draw a tree after each time use the bag.

2. Repeat doing it 21 times 3. At the end you will have a unique bag yet build a habit to carry it with you.

Different theme of HabiTree: HabiFish

EI HabiTree Test 4

In test 4, the bag acted as a gift to connect people who have and doesn’t have the habit to bring shopping bags. I asked people who has the habit to bring reusable bags when shopping whether they like this idea and if they like to give the bag to people who don’t have the habit.

Result

created a sense of hierarchy between people I noticed that though people like this idea, they found it hard to give the bag to a suitable person because it somehow created a sense of hierarchy between people. The interaction qualities I noticed through this test are: forced, unpleasant, unequal “my brother is already too eco for the Habitree. He said: 'I already never use a plastic bag. You can better give it to a plastic dino' So I am looking for another person to give the bag to.” [resident from rooted living communi-

▲The bag as a gift to connect people

ty, after 2 weeks recieving the bag]

Test4 Situation

▲Instead of as a present, it’s more like telling people what to do, and brings sense of unpleasant, forced, unequal

Participants: totally 3 (2 from TU, and 1 rooted living community resident) time: 2 weeks

Chang, Hao-Yung

unpleasant, forced unequal

enjoy, spontaneous,connected Conclusion of Test4:

I have to find the right way to connect people and find suitable target group So I wrote down the idea qualities of interaction which are enjoy, spontaneous and connected and tried to think who and which way to connect people would be more suitable.

-lopment. Hence, from “Supporting teaching and learning in schools�

(Burnham & Baker, 2010), I found that the answer is YES, and children between 4-7 might be more suitable to use the bag because of the following reason: children 4-7 years old 1. Can hold pens firmly, and drawing, copying 2. Developing understanding of rules 3. enjoy helping others and tale responsibility 4. learns lots about the world and how

Would children be more suitable group?

Then I thought, children might be a suitable group, because they just started to learn about the world and would also be interested in drawing.

On the other hand, he connection might be with parents besides, they need to do it together so that they are equal in the interaction. Based on this assumption, our tutor Stafen suggested me to read about children deve-

it works, and about people and relationships

Design Goal From the above exploration, I came up with my final design goal focusing on children as the followin statement:

“

I want future generation, to be more aware of environmental protection and spontaneously take action in their daily life.

“

Interaction Vision The interaction qualities in test 4: unpleasant, forced, unequal are also commonly to been seen in the environmental education which people think being told to do so is unpleasant, forced and created unequal hierarchy between people who proposed and being told. Hence, I want to change these interaction qualities into: enjoy, spontaneous, connected just like the atmosphere of a three-legged race.

unpleasant, forced, unequal enjoy, spontaneous,connected

EI HabiTree Test 5 After focusing on the certain group (children age 3-7), I went to public space such as supermarket and library to seek for participants. the test consist of 3 parts:

1. first time use and drawing 2. take the bags back home 3. feedback

I asked the following questions after giving them HabiTree 1 week: 1. How do you feel about using HabiTree/HabiFish with your daughter together?

2. Could you give 3 adverbs/adjective to describe the atmosphere when using HabiTree/HabiFish? And briefly explain why.

3. Does your child like HabiTree/HabiFish? Why? /why not?

Test5 Situation

Participants: 6 sets of ramdon parents with children age 2.5-7 Time: 2 weeks Place: DOK Delft, Albert Heijn

Chang, Hao-Yung

EI HabiTree Evaluation Design Goal I want future generation, to be more aware of environmental protection and spontaneously take action in their daily life.

▲ the 4.5y girl can’t wait her mom’s explain on how to use the bag and runs right away to use the bag.

And the other part of design goal:

Let’s take a look at one part of the design goal first:

Spontaneously take action

Through observation, I saw children actively using and drawing on HabiTree for example:

Be more aware of environmental protection:

Through the feedback of parents, I found that HabiTree indeed provoke the conversation of environmental protection between parents and children.

[MamaA with 7y daughter] “And I think it is good to discuss with her that you can bring your own bag instead of buying a plastic or paper bag in a store.”

[MamaB with 6y daughter] “It's also a nice activity to do together with my daughter and explain why

▲ a 6y girl actively help to take groceries with HabiTree

we should try to use our own bags instead of taking plastic ones from the shops.”

Chang, Hao-Yung

However, I found that the children who are smaller(under 4) are harder to understand and have awareness on this topic. So proof that HabiTree is mast suitable for children age 4-7

As for the interaction vision, I have the following qualities:

enjoy, spontaneous, connected Through doing this activity together, parents feel connected and they enjoy to draw on it which enhance the motivation to use the bag and provoke spontaneous action.

[MamaA with 7y daughter]

▲ Another 2.5y girl doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the bag.

“(I choose these words) learn, fun, together. Yes, she likes, because she likes drawing. And she likes that she is

Interaction Vision Three-legged race with the qualities of

enjoy, spontaneous, connected

involved in this, together with me. It’s a kind of a grownup thing.”

[MamaB with 6y daughter] “I feel “engaging” - We look forward to filling the forest with trees. My other daughters also made their own drawings on the backside of the bag.”

From the above evaluation, I think this design somehow do acheive the design goal and interaction vision, yet there are still someting remain that need to be improved as I describe in the following section.

EI HabiTree Improvement Ergonomically fits children

A more sustainable design

Through the observation, I noticed that the size of the bag is not really suitable for children hence I think the ergonomic size should be revised.

Here I want to discuss a more sustainable design from three perspective of view: 1.the material of the bag, 2. background printing and 3.the pen use to draw: 1. the material of the bag - organic cotton because of making prototype, I chose a cheaper material instead of organic cotton which should be used after confirm the idea.

- a stronger bag this is also a feedback from the participants in test 4 and the stronger the bag is also make the design more sustainable hence in line with the design goal.

â–˛ A 4.5y with bag seems to be a little too big to her.

Mama/Papa HabiTree

My HabiTree

â–˛ different size for parents and children in the future.

â–˛ a stronger bag is needed when carrying groceries

Chang, Hao-Yung

2. the long lasting background Instead of hand drawing, the back ground can be waterproof print so the bag become washable and much more reusable.

water proof printing

▲ one example of washable marker

Actually children age 5-7 are more suitable to use HabiTree After tested through children 2.5-7, I think age 5-7 is more suitable than previous assumption of 3-6 because according to the reading (children development), child starts to develop the ability from 3, and from the obser-

▲ the background and be water-proof painting

vation, I think the development of children above age 4 are more stable for no matter physically(holding pens and carrying bags) or mentally(have

3. whether to provide pen?

The answer is “NO”.

I was doubting whether to provide the pen when give the bags to parents and realized that almost every families has basic drawing tools for children and none of the families complain about not having pen through the test. However, I suggest to use washable marker if you have them in home.

the ability to discuss the meaning of HabiTree with parents).

The testing is still continueing Last but not least, since it take a long while for people to fill in the 21 spots, the test is still continuing, and I will have to wait to see how will it go from the future feedback.

EI HabiTree Appendix Raw data of feedback from test 5 Sandra Mama with 4.5y daughter here is some preliminary feedback. I think it is a great idea and will certainly remember to take the bag with me.

As for Keira, the first time after we got home from the library when we went out to get groceries I asked whether she wanted to take the bag. She said no and took another bag because it was so pretty and she wanted it to use only to carry her things. :O I will keep trying and report back.

Myra Mama with 7y daughter 1. It felt fun to use it. And I think it is good to discuss with her that you can bring your own bag instead of buying a plastic or paper bag in a store.

2. Learn, fun, together Yes she likes, because she likes drawing. And she likes that she is involved in this, together with me. It’s a kind of a grownup thing..

Saman Papa with 2.5y daughter The only feedback i have is, if you want to get childrens attention try to make it more interactive and simpel to get their attention to use it.

Emilie Mama with 6y daughter 1. I think that HabiTree is a fun concept to make a re-usable shopper bag more interactive and personalized. It's also a nice activity to do together with my daughter and explain why we should try to use our own bags instead of taking plastic ones from the shops.

2. 3 adjectives: Creative - It's fun to personalize the bag with our own drawings.

Engaging - We look forward to filling the forest with trees. My other daughters also made their own drawings on the backside of the bag.

Stylish - The designs and drawings are cute and we are happy to show them off.

3. My daughter likes the concept of the bag and enjoys drawing the trees very much!

Chang, Hao-Yung

Reference 1.How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? Backed

by Science.. (2018). James Clear. Retrieved 20 January 2018, from https://jamesclear.com/new-habit 2. Plastic Bag Consumption Facts. (2018). ConservingNow. Retrieved 21 January 2018, from https://conservingnow.com/plastic-bag-consumption-facts/ 3. Burnham, L., & Baker, B. (2010). Supporting teaching and learning in schools. Harlow: Heinemann.