Empowering repair

Abstract

Consumer product repair rights are in the wind. EU recently passed a bill to make it easier to make repairs for consumers. In this thesis I have examined the process of consumer repair and detail the history of repair, the current situation, legislation that has been introduced and putting it up against the factors that keep consumers from seeking repair. I have applied systems oriented design, regulation theory and universal design theory to analyze the issues. I performed a case study on the attempted repair of a laptop which revealed that the replacement of a single wear part had a high cost and time consumption compared to its function. Questionnaires answered by retailers and repair services revealed that they do not have much pull on how things are made.

This knowledge was used to map out relations between manufacturers, retailers, consumers and repair shops and how the barriers of repair affected them. This lead me to develop three concepts in different levels of leverage tiers, where I chose to further develop the concept of making repairs more comfortable for consumers through a colour scheme for levels of repair difficulty.This could lead to shorter repair times, cheaper repairs and less electronic waste.