A classification of user research methods for design for sustainable behaviour

It is crucial to have insight in users and their context when designing products to create behaviour change. The discipline of User Centred Design has developed, appropriated and modified numerous methods to provide this type of insight, but limited attention has been directed towards what insight various methods may provide. This paper presents a review of user research methods from the User Centred Design literature, and assesses their potential for acquiring specific insight. The review focuses on the investigation of those factors that affect behaviour according to social psychology literature, which may assist designers to create solutions that stimulate sustainable or avoid unsustainable behaviour. The result of the analysis is an overview of which methods are most suitable to use when investigating particular aspects of behaviour. This result is compared with experiences in two case studies from literature, indicating the potential value of the results and in particular the value of distinguishing between methods suitable to investigate internal or external factors, and conscious or unconscious factors.