School staff
Personal profile
Tang is a researcher and designer who has been active in developing research in the field of Design for Sustainable Behaviour since 2006, using product and system design to influence people behaviour for environmental and social benefit.
Tang has a BEng and an MSc in Industrial Design. She did her PhD in how design could influence more sustainable behaviour and create more desired use experiences to reduce household environmental impact at Loughborough University. Her doctoral thesis has made original contributions by bring social psychological theories in design and proposed a Design Behaviour Intervention Model (DBIM) for Design for Sustainable Behaviour.
As a research associate at Loughborough University, Tang has worked on research and consultancy projects particularly relating to sustainable design and education as well as user centred design, including the investigation of how domestic appliance use affects power demand and CO2 emissions (funded by Department of Energy and Climate Change) and development of a new Masters programme in Sustainable Design Innovation.
She is currently working on the EPSRC/E.On funded Carbon, Control and Comfort (CCC) project which is investigating user behaviours and comfort and developing user centred control systems to reduce energy consumption in the home. Outside her research, Tang has worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator since 2000.
Research
Research Group: Sustainable Design.
Tang’s research interests include design for sustainable behaviour, human behaviour, cognitive psychology, user experience design, design semantics, methods and tools for cross-cultural design and user research including contextual, co-creation and participatory design methodologies.
Tang is currently a research associate on the EPSRC/E.On funded Carbon, Control and Comfort (CCC) Project which aims to engage users in the design of control systems and which through using the technology and fabric of their homes more effectively, reduces their energy use by 20%.
The multi-disciplinary research team is a balance of technologists and social researchers from seven UK Universities, including King’s College London, Cardiff University, University of Greenwich, Loughborough University, University College London, Leeds Metropolitan University and De Montfort University and works closely with householders, utilities and housing providers.
Featured publications
- Conference - Tang T and Bhamra T.A. (2011) Applying a Design Behaviour Intervention Model to Design for Sustainable Behaviour, The Tao of Sustainability: An International Conference on Sustainable Design in a Globalization Context, Beijing, China, 27th -29th October 2011.
- Conference - Tang, T. and Bhamra, T.A. (2009) “Improving Energy Efficiency of Product Use: An Exploration of Environmental Impacts of Household Cold Appliance Usage Patterns”, in: The 5th International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting EEDAL’09 in Berlin, Germany, 16th – 18th June, 2009.
- Conference - Tang, T. and Bhamra, T.A. (2009) “Understanding Consumer Behaviour to Reduce Environmental Impacts through Sustainable Product Design”, Design Research Society Conference 2008 Sheffield Hallam, 16th - 19th July, 2008.
- Conference - Tang, T. and Bhamra, T.A. (2008) “Changing Energy Consumption Behaviour through Sustainable Product Design”, in: International Design Conference - Design 2008, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 19th-22nd May, 2008.
- Journal - Bhamra, T., Lilley, D. and Tang, T. (2011) “Design for Sustainable Behaviour: Using Products to Change Consumer Behaviour”, The Design Journal 14.4, 2011.
- Journal - Loveday, D.L., Bhamra, T.A., Tang, T., Haines, V.J.A., Holmes, M.J., Green, R.J. (2008) “The Energy and Monetary Implications of the ‘24/7’ ‘Always on’ Society”, Energy Policy, 2008, vol. 36, (12): 4639-4645.