Chapter 3
A Toolkit for Designing Products
and Services Fit for Circular
Consumption
Oskar Rexfelt and Anneli Selvefors
Abstract This paper introduces the Use2Use design toolkit—a set of tools that can
be used to design for circular consumption. In contrast to other available circular
design tools, the toolkit emphasises the importance of applying a user perspective
when exploring opportunities for product circularity. It aids designers and other
agents to explore user needs, identify consumption-related design challenges, and
design products and services that can create enabling preconditions that make it
possible, more convenient, and preferable for people to circulate products from use
to use. The process to develop the tool is initially presented followed by a description
of the toolkit and its five tools. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding how
the proposed toolkit compares to other circular design tools and what implications
it has for design practice and future research.
Keywords Circular design tool · Toolkit · User centered design · Circular
consumption · Circular economy
3.1 Introduction
Recent literature on design and the circular economy has highlighted the crucial
role design plays for a transition to a circular economy. It is often suggested that
the transition requires products that are designed to last long, are fit for circular
(re-)production flows, and are offered through circular services [see e.g. Bakker
et al. (2014), Bocken et al. (2016)]. During the last couple of years, several circular
design tools have been released aimed to support the exploration of such design
opportunities. For instance, tools such as The Circular Design Guide (IDEO, Ellen
MacArthur Foundation 2017), The Circular Economy Toolkit (Evans and Bocken
2013), Business as Unusual (Makatsoris et al. 2017), a tool for assessing remanufacturing from the customers’ perspective and the Circular Pathfinder (Almefelt and
O. Rexfelt (B) · A. Selvefors
Division Design & Human Factors, Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers
University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: rex@chalmers.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability II, Sustainable Production, Life
Cycle Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6775-9_3
33
A Toolkit for Designing Products
and Services Fit for Circular
Consumption
Oskar Rexfelt and Anneli Selvefors
Abstract This paper introduces the Use2Use design toolkit—a set of tools that can
be used to design for circular consumption. In contrast to other available circular
design tools, the toolkit emphasises the importance of applying a user perspective
when exploring opportunities for product circularity. It aids designers and other
agents to explore user needs, identify consumption-related design challenges, and
design products and services that can create enabling preconditions that make it
possible, more convenient, and preferable for people to circulate products from use
to use. The process to develop the tool is initially presented followed by a description
of the toolkit and its five tools. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding how
the proposed toolkit compares to other circular design tools and what implications
it has for design practice and future research.
Keywords Circular design tool · Toolkit · User centered design · Circular
consumption · Circular economy
3.1 Introduction
Recent literature on design and the circular economy has highlighted the crucial
role design plays for a transition to a circular economy. It is often suggested that
the transition requires products that are designed to last long, are fit for circular
(re-)production flows, and are offered through circular services [see e.g. Bakker
et al. (2014), Bocken et al. (2016)]. During the last couple of years, several circular
design tools have been released aimed to support the exploration of such design
opportunities. For instance, tools such as The Circular Design Guide (IDEO, Ellen
MacArthur Foundation 2017), The Circular Economy Toolkit (Evans and Bocken
2013), Business as Unusual (Makatsoris et al. 2017), a tool for assessing remanufacturing from the customers’ perspective and the Circular Pathfinder (Almefelt and
O. Rexfelt (B) · A. Selvefors
Division Design & Human Factors, Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers
University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: rex@chalmers.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability II, Sustainable Production, Life
Cycle Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6775-9_3
33