Abstract
In order to contribute to a circular economy, as designers, we can aim to assure an extended product lifetime, which can be done following a strategy of creating product attachment. From a consumer perspective, people tend to identify themselves with the products they (want to) own and use, reflecting their identities, who they are and how they see themselves. Thus, product attachment can be positively affected by the congruity with one’s personality. A successful product needs to fulfil the user’s needs, create meaningful experiences and evoke emotions to survive in the competitive market, which also counts for the materials that the product is made of. These materials can be considered from both a technical engineering (production, durability, waste, etc.) and a user-centred experiential perspective (material perception). Therefore, this qualitative research aims to explore the consumers’ perception of plastic materials in everyday products and its link with their own personality. The paper describes the results of a mobile survey in which respondents (n = 195, average age of 29 years) were asked to upload a picture of their most and least favourite, plastic product that they use in everyday life, to describe the material(s) it is made of and explain why it (does not) fit with their personality. By means of content analysis, a categorization was made of the uploaded products and the various characteristics that described the materials and attributed to the personality fit, and a cluster analysis was done to create four personality clusters of consumers and their associated material descriptions. We suggest that insights in the relationship between the consumer’s personality and his/her material preference will support designers in choosing appropriate materials to create desirable products with a prolonged life-time.