Conflicting Models of the Product Life Cycle: Worldviews and the Design of Technology

In teaching engineering design we often use an ecosystem perspective on the product life cycle of extraction through disposal.Yet other views of the product life cycle exist, such as the business model, the diffusion model, and various user models.The business model is very widely held and more influential in practice than the ecosystem model.While they are all very different models, all but one assumes the general model that products come and go.This article brings together the various models of the product life cycle in one reading, which might encourage resolution of the deep conflicts among these perspectives as well as be helpful to students studying design.We end by suggesting a meta-model of the product life cycle that would allow designers to see all the perspectives simultaneously and even to add new ones.This review should improve a student's ability to communicate effectively with others about the development and operation of technology, and also to understand how, and why, conflicts must inevitably arise in the design of technology, even without the political differences that occur using any given model of the PLC.The intent is to create a reading that offers students breadth in understanding how technology functions in society and how, why, and for whom we design, and with what consequences.