Prof. dr. ir. Mugge, R.

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.

Academic Background

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.

TRANSFORM-CE

Design researchers from TU Delft work together with the municipalities of Almere and Manchester to investigate how to increase the recycling rate of single use plastic (through injection-extrusion moulding and 3D printing), as well as to enhance uptake of recycled plastics by business and consumers.

PROMPT

Waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has become one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU. Lengthening products lifetime can help reduce this waste. The PROMPT project, a H2020 project funded by the European Commission, aims to tackle this issue by preventing premature obsolescence.

View the episode 'There Are Good Looking Crappy Things' in the IDE 'Out of the Blue' podcast series

In the Media

Education

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)

Experience

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