Laetitia Bornes, Marcia Tavares Smith, Oliver Bates, Gordon Blair, Catherine Letondal, and Rob Vingerhoeds
In this paper, we present our work in developing a tool to help designers and decision-makers in considering rebound effects within their design or decision process. The concept of the rebound effect is defined in multiple ways. In this paper, it is used to refer to any unintended consequence resulting from an intervention that goes against the initial intention or has social or environmental impacts that are perceived as negative. It is challenging for designers to consider rebound effects during the design process, let alone to engage stakeholders in evaluating the potential risks associated with these effects. The Rebound Archetypes tool, presented in the form of cards, has been designed to support designers in facilitating workshops on rebound effects with “well-intentioned” stakeholders, such as mission-oriented companies, NGOs and public sector representatives. The objective is to enable participants to engage in a process of collective decision-making regarding the potential rebound effects that could result from an intervention. This could be the introduction of a new product, service, technology, strategic decision or policy. The tool also allows participants to understand the associated risks and to collectively decide on actions to take, such as (a) cancelling the intervention or redefining it, (b) attempting to mitigate potential rebound effects, or (c) accepting the risk and monitoring it. The cards are designed to facilitate these activities without inducing paralysis, and can be used in various ways to adapt to the design process and the participants’ level of expertise. Primarily, they were created to embody reflection steps around rebound effects, but they aim to become less necessary as the ‘players’ gain autonomy. This paper discusses the process of creating the Rebound Archetypes cards and the insights we have gathered on the challenge of considering rebound effects in design.
KEYWORDS: rebound effect, design cards, sustainability, workshop, decision-making