Mindful Design and Its Role In Sustainable Rituals

This paper explores whether designed objects can influence conscious, mindful behaviors and lead to the reduction of wasteful habits surrounding water use in the kitchen. The aim is to find answers to the following questions: can a designed object make people live more consciously, and can this consciousness reduce the amount of water wasted or overused in North American kitchens? A series of experience prototypes explore how to bring awareness to the task at hand, minimize the type of multitasking that engenders waste, and transform behavior around water usage. The prototypes provide insights into the successes and failures of each experience and indicate a future direction for opportunities. It is an investigation of how good design can change mundane tasks into meaningful, conscious experiences that have sustainable outcomes. This paper addresses B.J. Fogg’s behavior change model and the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior. These behavior theories are joined with ideas about sustainable initiatives and mindful thinking to develop design criteria. Mindful thinking is deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy; as such, this thesis investigates Zen Buddhist philosophies as a background for context, scenario development and support towards sustainable, mindful living. This thesis concludes with a prototype that evokes a meditative pleasure as part of the mealtime clean-up ritual, ultimately proposing that quality of experience can be more desirable than saving time.