C.1. Government management

The government should guarantee to all the right to genuine information on a product’s environmental qualities and qualities of use. This applies to both consumers and large private or public buyers. It is not just a matter of establishing often disrespected standards or legislations often dictated by lobbies. Furthermore, the State must “buy better” by making huge savings, while improving the use and environmental qualities of what it buys, for the well-being of all.

Public purchases of around 100 billion euros per year are powerful tools of economic policy, provided one knows how to buy products or equipment that meet the real requirements, not technical or commercial ones. Public expenditure must take into account the use and environmental criteria, which will ultimately reduce the tax burden. For example, it is quite possible to better choose (and better design) school equipment while making substantial savings, and similarly for hospital equipment. This is also possible for all products and public facilities, from the choice of the public trash cans to urban lighting. The public commission, if it had more interest in the field of use and the environment, could be a powerful lever for the innovation of use.

In purchasing, innovation is needed to boost economic activity and thus generate growth. Those who hold the purse strings need to be better guided in their purchases. For example, the innovation of the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, high-speed train) in France was above all technical, especially in terms of speed. It misses numerous stops at stations in order to compete with the plane. It has also been commercial, with mandatory reservation aiming for a high load factor. However, to appeal to a larger number of customers, for the sake of its image and prestige, surely the key is to guarantee a better look and above all comfort for the users.

With the knowledge that a Eurostar train costs more than 35 million euros¹, we can imagine some savings in the choice of equipment, while improving the well-being of passengers. However, these choices are rather the responsibility of the engineers. The proposals of industrial designers are often taken seriously despite their lack of competence.

There is a lack of awareness and drive. For the government, the domain of the use and the environment could be a formidable tool for economic policy; by limiting itself to “new technologies”, the State is focusing on the wrong types of innovations. The issue is not necessarily a brake on innovation, but the contrary.

The new constraints only imply that there will no longer be “wild” innovations. More “useful” innovations will be produced. The economy deprives itself of potential economic or qualitative gains.

There are economic savings for the whole community, as well as the creation of added value, and most importantly, the users are satisfied by a better everyday convenience.

Over the last 30 years, the number of road deaths has dropped significantly as road safety has been proclaimed a great national cause².

The necessary financial and human resources have been used. Even if this scheme is not ideal, we can welcome the result and hope for the same commitment for accidents of everyday life. The goal is the same: to reduce mortality (almost 50 deaths per day). This is indeed a public health issue and arguably a great national cause³ .

The extreme diversity of accidental mechanisms, grouped under the general term of “accidents of everyday life”, makes the development of a comprehensive prevention policy difficult.

It is therefore important to pay close attention to the choice (and design) of the products. An impetus must be given to improving the housing of the elderly, in order to reduce the risk of falling. Domestic accidents may be one of the biggest issues.

Many false maneuvers, inconveniences and sometimes even accidents could be avoided. When there are accidents, it is nearly always the fault of the products and their interaction with the environment. It is not, in principle, the fault of users. They must be allowed to do stupid things and to be clumsy. Users are as they are; the products must be made for them. There are no “normal” users. A laboratory on real-life accidents, a true census on all accidentology, must be created.

Finally, it is the qualities of use that will provide the basis for the final success of a product and perhaps a certain “quality of life”. As in politics, is daily life limited to election campaigns and voting? In the same way, the good choice between this or that product, although crucial at the end of the advertising campaign, is only a short episode in the relationship between the elected product and its users.

The rescue of companies by the public finances must begin with an evaluation of the products and not be limited to financial aids for the digital and new technologies. What is the point of a “productive recovery”? What is the point of investing in manufacture if we do not have well-designed products? Competitiveness, employment and growth can at best be a means to an end. The economic world needs a new horizon in the face of the confusion of a sector that is looking for itself and intolerable unemployment. Advocate for a new plan of reflection on the economy, where it would not be visible resources, even spectacular (highways, TGV, new technologies …) but rather of well-being, quality of life.

The Western model of development has arrived at a critical stage. Its negative effects on most of humanity and on the environment are obvious. We aspire to a more balanced and just social and economic life.

The public authorities invest mainly in large industries at the forefront of technical innovation. Instead, they should support the development of small industrial enterprises and product design. Where is the Ministry of Quality of Life or the Ministry of Well-being?

C.2. Management of scientific research on usage

Research is a source of progress, material as well as social and cultural. It makes it possible to modify thought processes, to analyze emotions, to act better and to make better choices. For example, the development of neuroscience or cognitive science will help us to better understand the ease of use and the reaction of the driver in an autonomous car without thinking only of “clandestine persuasion” in the act of purchase.

The field of use and the environment is still lacking in methodology and knowledge. Yet, from the economic and socio-cultural point of view, why shouldn’t we know what qualities of use the consumer should expect?

As a first step, thesaurus⁴, dictionary and bibliography projects should be launched to form the basis of a real information system on products, users and the environment. A thesaurus is a controlled and structured vocabulary, of evolutionary character, that applies to a particular area of knowledge and activity (here the domain of products, use and the environment), and that essentially consists of terms between which semantic and conceptual relations are established.

In terms of vocabulary, consumers, as well as professionals, designers, marketers, salespeople and even specialized technicians, do not agree on anything. They try to find language accommodations to sell and buy. They are more or less surrounded by mysteries: science must offer them the means to break through more every day. The Internet and e-commerce also need better communication. We must seek to establish and develop a scientific discipline of use, going beyond specialisms.

Research should be structured by political decisions that should focus on more than just (confused) innovation, the industry of the future, artificial intelligence, connected objects, the autonomous car, etc.

Research on consumer behavior, socio-culture and social psychology will clarify the notion of satisfaction of “needs”, a term so overused.

C.3. Education management

The education of the consumer/user needs to be improved so that they can better choose their products. The resources devoted to training true product selectors and user/designers are lacking. It must focus on the ecology of use (the interactions between products, users and environments), the functional complexity of use, aesthetics, the process of choice, the economic and commercial implications, etc. The complexity of products, mastered by many formations, depends not only on their technical complexity (functional complexity or manufacturing), but also on their functional complexity of use. This is essential for the consumer.

Product design and selection must involve teamwork with multiple individual skills. It requires knowledge, know-how and motivation to implement data, materials and resources (time and finances).

The selection of products must be taught like any other capital function within the distribution company. It also involves managing the constructive and sometimes conflicting interactions between the usual methods of selection and the economic implications at stake in the distribution company.