Due to industrial demand and the influence of government policies, the number of design colleges and students specializing in design in Taiwan has been increasing year by year. As a result, the topics on design education have gained great attention. To adapt to the rapidly-changing society, training that is designed to strengthen the professionalism and integration ability of those design majors should also be adjusted. Unlike traditional teaching methods, Stanford Design Thinking is a people-oriented problem-solving method. Proceeding from human needs, it offers creative solutions to various topics. Placing emphasis on integrated team communication and the cooperation and exchange among interdisciplinary talents, it is a new teaching model in response to the changes to the design environment. In this study, Stanford Design Thinking was introduced to the integrated design curriculum education as a creativity teaching strategy, and the action research method was adopted to explore the learning effectiveness of the design thinking method. According to the findings, the design thinking method can improve teaching; it can promote student participation through interview training in class during the Empathize stage; it offers substantial assistance to students in actual interviews; it reveals information about the demands of target groups, deepens students’ discussions on design-related topics, and creates a favorable atmosphere for teaching; it fosters a positive interaction between students and teachers and makes students more attentive in class. Inspired by this teaching method, students can independently seek product-testing objects to review their design concepts and develop a stronger motivation for self-learning.

In recent years, the development and design of the cultural and creative products of the Palace Museum in Beijing have become a hot topic in the product design field. Many critics have pointed out that cultural and creative products have failed to faithfully convey the implied meanings of the cultural stories of the Palace Museum. To effectively narrow the cognitive gap between designers and consumers, designers must urgently clarify the relationship between different design attributes and consumer preferences. The questionnaires were used to obtain data from 297 subjects. Through SPSS statistical software, the results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, explore factor analysis (EFA), independent sample t-test, and ANOVA to explore consumers’ attitudes and preferences on the Palace Museum’s cultural and creative products. The results showed that consumers attach great importance to factors such as “cultural connotation” and “unique creativity” when choosing the Palace Museum’s cultural and creative products. The consumer in different genders had significant differences in the design factors of the Palace Museum’s cultural and creative products. There were significant differences in the factors of “Forbidden City culture”, “cultural sustainability” and “traditional culture” to different educational backgrounds. There were significant differences in the factor of “Forbidden City culture” to different ages. There were significant differences in the factors of “cultural traits” and “cultural identity” between the with and without a design background groups. The results of this study will identify the key factors for the design of the Palace’s Museum cultural and creative products and provide references for designers.

In contemporary society, the growing attention paid to environmental protection and sustainable development has led to an increasing demand for green products. To meet this demand, companies have widely adopt green marketing strategies aimed at attracting consumers through environmental attributes. However, the phenomenon of “greenwashing”, where companies exaggerate or mislead the public about their environmental actions, undermines consumer trust and damages brand reputation. This study explores the impact of brands’ green marketing strategies on consumers’ perception of greenwashing and green brand image through in-depth interviews and surveys. Initially, four key dimensions of brand green marketing were identified through interviews with 40 experts and industry stakeholders: products and services, communication, relationships and interaction, and commitment and values. Subsequently, data from 325 valid survey responses were collected online, and the hypotheses were tested using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that communication, relationships and interaction, and commitment and values effectively reduce greenwashing perception and, through this mediation, influence green brand image. This finding underscores the importance of brands avoiding false advertising in green marketing and ensuring the authenticity of their environmental information to maintain and enhance their green image.

The world has entered an era of singleness, with even Taiwan moving toward the global trend of singleness. Single people are facing criticism over their social values, as well as the psychological pressure caused by work. As a result, how to relieve this pressure and adjust the negative emotions of single people has become a very important issue. Therefore, related healing products that can relax the bodies and minds of single people and provide psychological comfort and a release function are being developed accordingly. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to determine the preference of single office workers with different lifestyles regarding healing products. The lifestyle characteristics and preferences of single office workers were investigated via a questionnaire survey. Through SPSS statistical software, the preference factors of single office workers of different groups regarding different healing products were analyzed, and the lifestyle characteristics and preferences of each group were subsequently obtained. The results show that the lifestyle of single office workers could be divided into three groups. On the whole, single office workers considered healing products to be interesting and impressive with attractive and charming appearances, as well as offer the function of transforming negative emotions. This study hopes that the design principles obtained can provide an important reference for product designers to design relevant healing products for single office workers.

Anti-food-waste apps increasingly use gamified “eco-points” to nudge sustainable choices, yet when rewards align—or inadvertently fail—remains unclear, particularly under high price salience. This study examines how gamification, cost salience, and platform-trust cues shape consumer intentions toward sustainable food platforms. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. First, three semi-structured expert interviews (interaction design, food co-op operations, and secondary education) were open-axial-selectively coded to surface design levers and pain points. Next, a cross-sectional survey of Taiwanese consumers ( N = 256; 5-point Likert) assessed cognition, platform demand, reward perceptions, trust/traceability cues, assortment, and price acceptance. Reliability and construct adequacy were strong (Cronbach’s α = 0.949; KMO = 0.938; Bartlett’s χ ² = 5353.75, df = 435, p < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis extracted four components (63.09% variance). Consumers endorse platform potential ( M = 3.94), rate educational content ( M = 4.10), and third-party product certificates/traceability highest ( M = 4.27). Willingness to pay a price premium is modest ( M = 3.32), indicating cost salience as a key barrier. Eco-points are viewed favorably ( M = 3.92), but, in importance–performance map analysis (IPMA), rank below reliability information; transparency gaps (e.g., missing test reports or real-time verification) erode trust. The four-factor structure captures (1) sustainability cognition, (2) platform enablement, (3) reliability/traceability, and (4) cost/education salience. Occupation moderates platform demand, F (10,245) = 2.281, p = 0.014, with finance/insurance respondents showing higher demand than public-sector and retired groups. Rewards align when foundational trust-and-perceived value are strong, and costs are not front-of-mind; when price salience is high, transparent reliability cues and educational framing dominate behavior, and eco-points function best as supportive—not primary—motivators. Design implications for anti-food-waste apps include: (a) prioritize real-time verification, third-party certification, and end-to-end traceability; (b) pair eco-points with cost-offsets (e.g., bundle discounts) to blunt price salience; (c) expand assortment to reduce search costs; and (d) ensure fast confirmations and in-app customer support. Limitations include a Taiwan-focused, cross-sectional sample; future work should test experimentally and across cultures the causal interactions between rewards and cost salience.

Introduction: Driven by global carbon reduction agendas and circular economy initiatives, green packaging has evolved beyond regulatory compliance toward value creation and identity expression. In social media environments, young consumers assess and disseminate products through intertwined considerations of sustainability, aesthetics, and social interaction. Within this context, biomimetic cultural and creative products offer a unique lens to explore how youth green aesthetics influence the adoption of green packaging. Drawing on innovation diffusion theory, persuasive design theory, and biophilia theory, this study develops an integrated analytical framework to examine the underlying psychological and behavioral mechanisms. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was employed, combining qualitative expert interviews with quantitative survey analysis. Data were collected from 662 young respondents across mainland China and Taiwan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed relationships, including mediation effects of perceived innovation attributes (relative advantage, compatibility, observability), persuasive design factors (motivation, ability, triggers), and biophilic responses (natural imagery evocation and biomimetic experience). Results: The findings indicate that youth green aesthetics have a significant positive effect on the willingness to adopt green packaging. This relationship is mediated by perceived innovation attributes, persuasive design mechanisms, and biophilic responses. Among these mediators, biomimetic experience and perceived ability demonstrate the strongest effects, while observability does not exhibit a significant mediating role. The results highlight the joint influence of aesthetic perception, behavioral facilitation, and nature-related emotional engagement in shaping adoption intentions. Discussion: Rather than establishing causal claims, this study provides empirical evidence of the mechanisms through which youth green aesthetics influence green packaging adoption within social media contexts. The integration of diffusion, persuasion, and biophilia perspectives offers a novel theoretical contribution to sustainable design research. Practically, the findings inform green packaging design strategies and sustainability communication in the cultural and creative industry. Future research is encouraged to adopt longitudinal and cross-cultural approaches to further validate and extend these findings.