Personalised eco-feedback as a design technique for motivating energy saving behaviour at home

Abstract

In recent years, interaction designers have actively started addressing sustainability as a research topic. More specifically, persuasive applications, which aim at promoting pro-environmental behaviour, such as energy saving have been of growing interest in multiple research disciplines. Driven by the proliferation of smart meters and energy monitors as well as the rise of social media, researchers and designers of persuasive applications have developed a wide range of design solutions that address this issue. The majority of them, however, provide the same information to users irrespective of differences in their environmental concerns and different motivations to conserve energy. Our research addresses this gap. We design mock-up screens that provide feedback catering towards different pro-environmental values and concerns and ask users to evaluate them in a survey setting. The research aims at understanding what feedback different people find relevant and therefore attempts to bridge the gap between environmental psychology and HCI. At the same time it provides insights for the design of personalised eco-feedback related to energy consumption.