Ruth Mugge is professor of Design for Sustainable Consumer Behavior at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Her main research interests are (sustainable) consumer behaviour, product perception, design for behaviour change, and design for the circular economy.

After completing her PhD on the topic of product attachment in 2007, Ruth Mugge continued her research on understanding consumers’ acceptance and behaviour towards (sustainable) products with the intention to provide designers with guidelines on how to design products that trigger the desired inferences and behavioural responses. She has received both European and national (NWO) funding for her research.

Specific research questions that she is currently working on are:

• How can designers stimulate consumers to prolong the lifetime of products?
• How can designers stimulate consumers to take better care of products?
• How can designers stimulate consumers’ acceptance of circular products?
• How can designers stimulate consumers’ acceptance of radical innovations.

Ruth Mugge has published on these topics in journals, such as International Journal of Design, Design Studies, Journal of Cleaner Production, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. Furthermore, she serves as an editorial board member for Journal of Product Innovation Management, Applied Ergonomics, and Journal of Design Research.

• Radio BNR
• VPRO Tegenlicht article

• 2001 - 2007
  PhD in Industrial Design Engineering (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands), on “Product attachment”
• 1995 - 2001
  M.Sc. (cum laude) in Industrial Design Engineering (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands)
• 1996
  Propaedeutics (cum laude) in Industrial Design Engineering (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands)

• 2020 - present
  Associate Editor for the Scientific journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling
• 2019 - present
  Professor of Design for Sustainable Consumer Behavior (Delft University of Technology) 
• 2013 - 2019
  Associate Professor (Delft University of Technology)  
• 2005 - 2013
  Assistant Professor (Delft University of Technology)
• 2003 - 2005
  Teaching assistant (Delft University of Technology) for Design courses and Statistics