Frugal Design: An Empirical Conceptualization and Measurement

Designers/Engineers must practice Frugal design to address rising cost-conscious consumption. However, It has been observed that the conception of frugal design and its measurement scale have not yet been created. A three-stage mixed-method research approach was used to identify and validate the frugal design measuring attributes. Stage 1 determined initial frugal design attributes using existing literature research, word frequency count analysis, and expert review content analysis. Survey research (n = 250) was undertaken in Stage 2, and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out to refine the preliminary attributes. The final stage involved a survey with a sample of (n=500) Brazilians. To validate the final attribute for gauging frugal design, the Delphi consensus method was used). The frugal design scale provides a framework for organizations to assess frugality based on minimizing inequalities amongst diverse income groups and maximizing well-being by delivering efficient solutions for all groups of people.