EFFECTS OF VISUAL QUALITIES ON USERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS GREEN PRODUCTS

The concept of ‘environmental friendliness’ has drawn much attention since the late 1980s. Numerous design and management strategies have been developed to cope with marketing demands, some of which have been applied in the early stages of new product development, whereas others have been used during the later stages or after product use. However, environmentally-friendly or ‘green products’ have not gained the good reputation and market success that they deserve. One of the reasons behind this failure is perhaps the lack of holistic design approach. Most of the efforts made regarded environmental friendliness as a single dimension (i.e. just as a solution to environmental concerns) without considering other factors, such as user satisfaction, visual appeal, and functionality. Consequently, green products failed to compete in the market and environmental friendliness has not been perceived as adding value. One way to promote green products better, as argued in this paper, is to pay more attention to their visual appeal.

This paper focuses on perceived visual qualities of products made from recycled materials and ready-made products. It aims to identify the visual characteristics that influence users’ inclination to like or dislike green products. An empirical study was conducted to expose users’ feelings towards green products and to reveal visual qualities that elicit negative and positive feelings. In total, 40 people (20 male; 20 female) aged between 25 and 50 years participated in the study. The study was conducted in two parts. Firstly, pictures of 32 green products (16 recycled; 16 ready-made), selected from different sources including international design competitions, books, and popular Internet sites of green design, were presented to the participants on separate A5 sheets. Participants were then asked to rate each product against product satisfaction and the willingness to posses it. A five-point Likert scale, from ‘1’ for a highly negative pole, to ‘5’ for a highly positive pole was used. In the second part of the study, participants were interviewed to find out more about the underlying reasons for their ratings and the visual qualities of the products that evoked negative and positive feelings.

The study shows that visual appeal plays an important role in users’ attitudes towards green products. It is observed that recycled and ready-made products are assessed in different ways. Attitudes towards ready-made products are found to be generally more positive than towards recycled products. Context of use is also revealed to be another important factor.