Abstract:

New products must be developed in alignment with sustainability. Even when it is common to include some environmental issues as part of design requirements, usually clients and end users ignore sustainability impacts when ask for a product, unless they face a problem directly linked to it (e.g. water scarcity), there is a regulation or law that enforce it (e.g. pollution limits), or it is directly connected to cost savings (e.g. reducing energy consumption).

This paper describes a Product Design course (PDC) that was modified so students understand the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the development of new products. Besides, the new PDC teaches the process to design more sustainable products.

The PDC of the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a final-year, project-based course for mechanical, mechatronics, and industrial engineering students. The authors have taught this course since 2018 with a user-centered design approach, aimed at creating new user experiences that solve problems or exploit business opportunities. Sustainability issues were covered in a rather theoretical way, along with some eco-design techniques, in the initial version of the course. The authors modified their PDC to include sustainability in each stage of the product design process, based on a course for faculty members that comprehensively covered sustainability and the SDGs.

This paper describes the PDC mentioned. It summarizes the user-centered design process taught in the course. The paper also presents the process activities focused on sustainability and SDGs issues. A student course project is described, highlighting how sustainability was part of its development process. The authors present lessons learned and discuss new challenges at the end of the paper.

Keywords:

Teaching, product design, sustainability, user-centered.