The promotion of sustainable and healthy eating habits plays a pivotal role in enhancing the overall sustainability of food systems and addressing environmental pressures. Defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a lifestyle that is ‘low in environmental impact, convenient, affordable, safe and fair, and culturally acceptable.’ Recent technological advancements have expanded designers' exploration and innovative approaches to design for sustainable eating and reduce environmental impacts on food wastage. Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) has emerged as a valuable framework guiding the design, selection and evaluation of behaviour change interventions aimed at fostering responsible consumption and sustainable practices. This paper conducted four case studies to provide an overview of design practices in the field of design for sustainable eating via the lens of DfSB, focusing on technology-enabled behaviour change interventions to promote responsible food consumption. This paper contributes to the development of design interventions towards fostering sustainable eating behaviour whilst outlining the position of technology-enabled behaviour change. The findings provide design-focused insights for the creative industry in shaping sustainable food consumption towards a sustainable food system.
Narratives are a deep-rooted channel for expressing and communicating individual and collective human experiences, perceptions, and interpretations of reality. As agents of material culture and embodiment, designers inherently embed and embody narratives through their work, whether consciously and intentionally or not. As such, design inherently serves as an agent of narratives. However, there is an urgent need to challenge and advance the archetypal role of design from inadvertently embodying and perpetuating dominant narratives, to instead becoming a proactive, critical, and generative agent responsible for uncovering, interrogating, speculating, and scaling a diversity of narrative ‘sources’ and ‘statuses’ within the design process and beyond. In this article, narratives and their neighboring concepts are explored across various disciplines before the state and impact of narratives within user-centered design contexts are discussed. A ‘Narrative Matrix’ is outlined, and a Conceptual Framework is proposed which frames design as an agent of narratives through three strategic narrative stages: (1) acknowledgement and capture, (2) negotiation and speculation, and (3) embedding and scaling. The implications and possibilities for incorporating narratives in design and innovation processes are discussed, covering the potential to amplify marginalized voices, advance equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in design practice, and bring about systemic change and transformative impact.
The working environment of a closed cabin is particularly prone to inducing visual fatigue among visual display terminal (VDT) operators. Once visual fatigue symptoms set in, the limited space of the closed cabin and its monotonous visual environment make it challenging to alleviate visual fatigue by disregarding the fatigue. Fifteen healthy male participants aged 20–25 years were recruited for the study, and the results were statistically significant. The fatigue recovery degrees under three lighting color temperatures (3000 K, 4500 K, and 6000 K) and three recovery durations (5 min, 10 min, and 15 min) in a closed cabin were studied. The visual fatigue scale and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale were employed to collect subjective fatigue data from the participants, while objective visual fatigue data were obtained using an eye tracker. After 5 min of rest, the rate of change in pupil diameter at low temperatures was significantly greater than that at high temperatures (P = 0.033). The results indicated that recovery under the 3000 K light environment was beneficial for alleviating and eliminating visual fatigue, while a 6000 K light environment helped improve the alertness of VDT operators. Recovery time significantly impacted the recovery degree of visual fatigue, with the recovery degree increasing as recovery time increased. Color temperature and recovery time interacted significantly (P = 0.011), and the light environment parameters showed a significant impact only at short recovery times. This paper also introduced a visual fatigue recovery index to measure the degree of visual fatigue recovery, and the index was used to verify the experimental results. The research holds significant reference value for selecting ambient lighting color temperatures in resting rooms.
Nowadays, instant messaging (IM) software is one of the most popular communication tools. Understanding the complex relationships between individual characteristics and social factors is crucial for enhancing the stickiness of IM groups. This study explores the influence of congenital and acquired factors on the stickiness of IM group users. In fact, this research studied the influence of five-factor model, social network, and social influence on stickiness of IM group users. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research hypotheses. The research findings revealed that four key personality traits (such as Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) may influence the participation in the IM groups. In terms of social networks, emotional support networks have created an influence on the participation in instant messaging groups. As for the social influence, subjective norms and critical mass may affect the participation in IM groups. The obtained results may provide practical insights for the design and improvement of instant messaging software/applications. Moreover, the government can use the relevant findings to formulate policies and develop feasible administrative objectives.
To enhance people's perceptions of agricultural machinery and elevate agricultural equipment to a high-end status, this paper proposes a product design evaluation process based on quantitative theory and virtual simulation technology. First, an “imagery–part library–virtual simulation” product design model is established through the integration of Kansei engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) drawing technology to construct a virtual part library. Assembly experiments are then conducted using a virtual simulation platform. Subsequently, a combined evaluation model, based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and behavioral experiments, is developed to evaluate and screen plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from both the component and whole-system perspectives. Finally, the final scheme is simulated and optimized from the perspective of aerodynamics. This paper analyzes the modeling of plant protection UAVs from aesthetic and engineering viewpoints. It quantifies aesthetic requirements through various methods and integrates cutting-edge AI-assisted design and virtual simulation technology to optimize the initial product design process and consequently reduce the subjectivity of the product modeling process. The proposed methodology holds both theoretical and practical significance for the modeling design of agricultural machinery equipment.