Teaching Sustainability Perception Assessment in Users: comparing the perception of laypeople and undergraduate design students

The paper discusses the methodology, application and results of teaching undergraduate design students how to assess users' perceptions of sustainability in products using the Persus Model (SANTOS, 2012). The product is seen as a communicator of its sustainable resources and transparency in the dialogue between brand and user is seen as a strategy for more conscious consumption. After presenting the model and the products to be analyzed, the students acted as research subjects and collaborated in the data collection, which was conducted in two stages using questionnaires. The first, on which the article is based, compares the perception of 52 students and 110 lay participants of product images and descriptions. The results show that material characteristics, such as recyclability and biodegradability, influence the communication of sustainability and the general perception of the objects under study. The model contributes to the students' methodological repertoire and their future design practices.