Less, but better: a design for life

Emotional durability can be enhanced by encouraging people to be involved in assembling the product – the ‘IKEA effect’. Configuring the product yourself – even in a small way (such as clipping the back panel cover onto the Fairphone 2, or assembling a flat-pack furniture item), means you are much more likely to cherish it and care for it. Unsurprisingly, repairing or refurbishing has the same effect.

It seems obvious that good design should be affordable, accessible and acceptable. For the Design Council’s Cat Drew, ‘good design’ means material provenance, repairability, recyclability and fairness in supply chains, and can include favouring second-hand over new.

Less, but better

Some say that these surveys may reflect increased interest in sustainability, but most people will still want to buy the latest stuff. Yet times are changing. Inflation is front-of-mind for many, and the uncertainty of what’s around the corner is undermining people’s willingness to spend and borrow.

Mintel predicts that over the longer term, spending decisions are likely to be driven by key factors, including wellbeing, surroundings, technology, rights, identity, value and experience. A shift away from fast paced lifestyles and excessive consumption is showing up in slower, minimalist habits, with an emphasis on durability, protection and functionality. Plus, the rapid pace of urbanization and rising property costs mean space is at a premium: less space means buying less stuff.

Buy Me Once puts circular economy principles at the heart of product selection, selecting products and brands that meet high standards of durability and repairability, backed up by robust warranties. On top of their high-quality design and materials, these products often have great aesthetics and functionality, so we get a rewarding experience from using them. Looking for the weaknesses and failure points, from both the design and materials perspective, is a great way to get to the core of what customers will value.

Buy Me Once makes sure it lives up to its promise, too. If brands don’t continue to meet the standards and live up to their promises, they’ll be removed the platform.

Creating more value, with less

Button’s mission is for Buy Me Once to be a consumer champion, both to help people find the best stuff and to challenge manufacturers to do better. Buy Me Once aims to educate everyone about the importance of buying for the long term and keeping those products in use, including making it easier to fix things if they go wrong.

The Design Council still believes good design is central to economic success, and eco-principles can be compatible with mass production.

Designing for durability and ease of repair can pay off in many ways, building reputations and customer ‘stickiness’ (which reduces marketing and acquisition costs), creating opportunities for profitable new services that provide maintenance, spare parts and supporting resale.

Durable products can have multiple cycles of use, creating value for both the business and its customer. We can rethink the value potential of each unit of production: rather than ‘sell and forget’, banking the revenue from the initial sale and hoping that the profits will more than pay for customer service, marketing, new product development and other overheads, businesses can treat each unit produced as an asset, with potential to generate profit over and over again.

Let’s imagine a typical IKEA sofa, selling for €600. Making it easy to disassemble means it could come back to an IKEA store and be resold, for around €300. Another cycle of use might require a new cover, at €160, then a refurbishment gives the sofa another life, earning a further €100 for IKEA. Finally, by taking back the end-of-life sofa, IKEA could earn €10 for recycling. The sofa has now had four cycles of use, earning almost double the revenue, with substantial extra profits, and several happy customers with a good quality, affordable sofa. Everyone is doing better, with less.

Keeping your existing customers happy saves on marketing costs, too. Research says that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. It makes sense: you don’t have to spend time and resources going out and finding a new client — you just have to delight the ones you already have.

Things can only get better!

We’ve heard from designers, disruptors and legislators – it’s clear that the business landscape is changing. Priorities are changing, and people are rejecting consumerism. They want less stuff, and want things to be affordable, accessible, and socially, ethically and environmentally acceptable

People are noticing that things don’t last as long as they should, and they are pushing back. Designers are also pushing back. They don’t want to be part of the problem, tasked with quality stripping and designing for disposability. They also want to be part of the solution.

Switched-on companies see durability and repairability as key to building trust in their brands, and to stay ahead of the emerging legislation around eco-design and Right to Repair. Longer-lasting products can have multiple cycles of use, creating more value for the company, its customers, workers and suppliers. Disappointed customers don’t return – and they tell their friends. Getting new customers is much more costly than keeping the ones you already have.

A new era is emerging, with designs that are resource-intelligent, not resource-intensive. Disruptors are tuning into what people want. They are re-learning the principles of democratic design and doing much more with much less: creating more value for people, planet and profitable business.