An Approach to Design for Enhancing Product Attachment Using Collectability

Abstract

Products typically suffer from life cycles where they slowly die off immediately after release. Collectable products have the potential to lengthen these life cycles, occasionally achieving higher perceived values long after their release. Products with strong attachments to their users can be considered more desirable or collectable. By studying collectable products and users’ attachment to them, it is believed that a design approach can be created that allows designers to implement collectable design into existing or new products to achieve deeper attachment by the owner, resulting in longer life cycles and higher perceived values. The strategies laid out can be used as a creative framework for generating relevant ideas for promoting attachment by the user in product and packaging design.