Designing Sustainable Alpine Skis : Combining user needs with ecological, social, and economical sustainablility

• Main Authors: Barreflod, Tom-Oskar, Nilsson, Matilda
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle 2020
• Subjects: Product Development; Product Design; Industrial Design Engineering; Sustainability; Sustainable Product Development; User-centered Design; Alpine Skis; Norm-Creative design; Produktutveckling; Produktdesign; Teknisk Design; Hållbarhet; Hållbar Produktutveckling; Användarcentrerad design; Alpina skidor; Normkreativ design; Other Engineering and Technologies; Annan teknik; Design; Lookout; Luleå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-79718

As alpine skiing is becoming more and more popular the need for sustainable products are increasing in order to enable great skiing and snowy winters in the future. The ski industry is unfortunately far behind many other industries when it comes to sustainability and the shift towards sustainable skis is going slow. Norse Skis is a unique ski manufacturer as they have a sustainable profile and are always in the lookout for new possibilities to take that forward. The goal in this master thesis project is to develop a pair of sustainable skis that will widen Norse Skis’ product catalog. The project was conducted in collaboration with Norse Skis as a master thesis project within the degree of Industrial Design Engineering at Luleå University of Technology. During the development of the skis, the user-centered design process Design Thinking Process was used. The process was divided into three phases; Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation. During the design process, most of the energy was put on creating a ski that meets the user needs and is as sustainable as possible. Through constant dialog with the users, feedback and evaluation were gained to customize the product to the needs and opinions of the users. To develop skis that are as sustainable as possible, the project has had its base in the three aspects of sustainability; ecological, economic, and social, which are defined in the Brundtland report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). At the beginning of the project, a deep understanding of alpine skis and alpine skiing was gathered. This was followed by a thorough examination of the users through surveys and user observations. It was identified that the users spent most of their time skiing on the piste, but had a vision of being an off-piste skier. This led to the conclusion of designing a ski that is high performing on-piste but also gives the user the possibility to great off-piste skiing. In a benchmarking, Norse Skis’ current skis were compared to their competitors’ to identify ...