Exploring Emotional Attachments in Children's Toy Relationships
A Generative Co-Design Approach to Design for Sustainability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54337/plate2025-10330Keywords:
Design for sustainability, Toy consumption, Emotional durability, Product longevity, Generative design researchAbstract
The existing production and consumption system is causing significant plastic waste in the toy market. Unfortunately, most toys are discarded within six months of purchase, often due to the limited opportunities for extending the lifespan of toys through repairing, reusing, or recycling. To address this issue, this study explores the potential of emotional durability as a strategy to promote sustainable consumption in the toy industry. Utilizing the Emotional Durability Design Nine Framework as a theoretical foundation, this study emphasizes creating long-lasting emotional connections between children and their toys through various dimensions such as narratives, identity, relationships, and evolvability. A mixed-method approach is employed to engage children aged 10 to 12 in reflecting on their emotional attachments to toys, starting with semi-structured interviews with five children to identify their favorite toys, which they have kept for an extended period, and the factors influencing their attachment. Following that, cultural probes in the form of an activity set are designed to explore the stories associated with these toys and tested with four children. Finally, the refined version of the activity set is conducted in the classroom environment with 30 children. Findings indicate that personal memories, the desire for personalization, and the ability to repair or modify toys significantly influence children's attachment and the longevity of their toys. By integrating emotional durability into toy design, the study highlights its potential to encourage sustainable consumption practices and reduce waste in the toy industry, which may also encourage children to see toys as valuable, long-term companions rather than disposable items.
References
Bekker, M., Beusmans, J., Keyson, D., & Lloyd, P. (2003). KidReporter: a user requirements gathering technique for designing with children. Interacting with computers, 15(2), 187-202.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child Development. Boston: Pearson.
Bocken, N. M., De Pauw, I., Bakker, C., & Van Der Grinten, B. (2016). Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy. Journal of industrial and production engineering, 33(5), 308-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2016.1172124
Clark, E. (2007). The real toy story: Inside the ruthless battle for America's youngest consumers. Simon and Schuster.
Dindler, C., Eriksson, E., Iversen, O. S., Lykke-Olesen, A., & Ludvigsen, M. (2005). Mission from Mars: a method for exploring user requirements for children in a narrative space. In Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Interaction design and children (pp. 40-47). DOI: 10.1145/1109540.1109546
Druin, A. (1999, May). Cooperative inquiry: developing new technologies for children with children. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 592-599). https://doi.org/10.1145/302979.303166
Haines-Gadd, M. (2019). Emotional durability design nine: Developing a tool for product longevity (Doctoral dissertation, University of Brighton).
Haines-Gadd, M., Chapman, J., Lloyd, P., Mason, J., & Aliakseyeu, D. (2018). Emotional durability design nine—A tool for product longevity. Sustainability, 10(6), 1948. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061948
Hanington, B., & Martin, B. (2012). Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Rockport Publishers.
Kamptner, N. L. (1991). Personal possessions and their meanings: A life-span perspective. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6(6), 209. Unique identifier: 1992-01081-001
Mugge, R., Schoormans, J. P. L., & Schifferstein, H. N. J. (2005). Design strategies to postpone consumers' product replacement: The value of a strong person product relationship. The Design Journal, 8(2), 38-48. https://doi.org/10.2752/146069205789331637
Özkürkçü, E. (2024). Exploring the Dimensions of Emotional Durability and Longevity in Toy Design for Sustainability (Master's thesis, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)).
Sanders, E. B. N., & Stappers, P. J. (2012). Convivial toolbox: Generative research for the front end of design. Bis.
Qian, K., & Fennessy, L. (2020). Undo-Replay: re-scripting unsustainable toy consumption through value transference.
UNEP. (2014). UNEP 2014 Annual Report. Retrieved from https://www.unep.org/resources/annual-report/unep-2014-annual-report
