How to Increase Usage of Child Restraint Systems in China : A design research

Abstract: Every year 9000 children are estimated to die in traffic accidents in China. Fast motorization of the country in combination with low usage of child restraint system’s (CRS’s), are the two contributing factors to this alarming number. The vision of this thesis is to increase the usage of CRS’s in China, by understanding why the users are using the CRS and why the non-users are not using. The behavioural methodology Switch was used to investigate what positive behaviours could be copied and implemented in a larger scale to increase the usage. Interviews were performed with 30 users and 30 non-users in tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 cities on the east coast of China. The main findings from the interviews showed that the reasons for not using was that the parents found the CRS complicated to install and to use, that it took too much space, that they did not know the benefits with a CRS and found it unnecessary and that they could not convince their children to sit in the CRS. Surprisingly most non-users already owned a CRS, but stopped using it. The users were using because they had experienced the CRS from abroad or got knowledge from other sources such as media or friends. Some parents were using because of a practicality issues such as the trouble to hold a heavy 3-year old child during a long trip. The behaviours chosen to represent the users for further work were learning from others, selection support, how to install, how to persist, and how to pay the knowledge of the CRS forward. The behaviour of the users was copied and implemented in a strategy consisting of the five parts above. The strategy is an interactive webpage with a close linkage to social networks to encourage sharing, and with a supporting poster- and bumper sticker campaign for spreading. The final product of the thesis work is a campaign including a fully working prototype of the webpage, which will be handed over to Volvo Cars for verification internally to make sure that the concept supports the different parts in a suitable and correct way before a public implementation. Material for poster and bumper stickers is also a part of the final delivery.