Design for behaviour change to foster product longevity: a case study on sustainable mobility

This article focuses on the role of product-service system design as a driver to guide and motivate behaviours for active and sustainable mobility. The article refers to the systemic link between microergonomics and sustainable development and addresses how the concept of behavioural change fits into the relationship between human and environmental aspects. The research domain encompasses sustainable urban mobility. The aim is to identify inquiry directions for product-service system design solutions to be consistent with environmental sustainability goals. Behaviours related to sustainable mobility and factors influencing modal choice have been analysed. Finally, through developing a design concept, the article discusses and defines new design opportunities at the micro level of the urban scale stimulating the adoption of desirable mobility behaviours over existing ones. The developed case study fuels the debate on the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions to better use and consumption of resources, implementing the vision of the tools and processes to be adopted in defining reusable product-service systems with low environmental impact.