Designs for Conscious Consumption | Pratt Institute School of Design

Hyper-consumerism is a long-standing concern for both sustainability and mental health. It is driven by impulsive and dissonance buying patterns. However, due to a growing awareness of climate change and environmental degradation, there are some signs that people are beginning to curb their consumption. While a conversation within design exists on this topic, I argue there is not a coherent strategy towards conscious consumption. Dissonance buying behavior is when people act inconsistently between their thoughts, beliefs, and behavior. This conflict may lead to feelings of unpleasantness with a diffuse anxiety. Mindfulness offers a remedy for the fulfillment some seek from consumption. Mindfulness is a state of non judgemental attentiveness towards oneself in the present moment. This thesis aims to explore a design methodology that uses mindfulness to resolve cognitive dissonance buying behavior. It includes a review of mindfulness studies, examines the recent shift towards sustainable consumption using empirical evidence, and poses opportunities that may resolve cognitive dissonance buying behavior. Through this, we can better understand the role that design research and practice might play in supporting this trend.

Mindful Point of Sale

Cultural probe research about impulsive purchase decision

Cultural probe research to understand how psychological factors play a role in their purchase decision. I created a shopping kit as a tool that consumers can use to perceive and reflect deep inside their minds. I asked participants to select stickers designating a range of emotions for how they felt before and after impulse purchases in their shopping journey map

Mindfulness Origami

Origami activity to create a moment of intervention or pause at the point of purchase while shopping. The exercise asks participants to use the contemplative exercise whenever considering a large purchase, either online or in person. Participants can guess missing words and respond to the answers while making the origamis.