ABSTRACT
What can we learn from product design and consumer behaviour that might enable products to defy obsolescence? This chapter considers a range of product attributes, consumer behaviours and societal factors that are associated with prolonged product life-spans. It presents a range of examples mostly drawn from the consumer electronics sector, which is of particular interest due to rapid obsolescence. The life-spans of many such products (notably personal computers and mobile phones) are getting shorter and a significant proportion of these products are still in functional order when discarded. The examples presented are often informal responses to impending obsolescence; they are not planned or anticipated by the designer or manufacturer. The chapter concludes by considering the need for new and collaborative approaches between designers and users in meeting the challenge of engaging with obsolescence effectively in a fast-moving technological sector such as consumer electronics.
