HomeTree--An Art Inspired Mobile Eco-feedback Visualization

In this paper we describe an investigation into a social, community-based electricity and waste visualisation. We present a system that, through visualisations suitable for all ages, can display the electricity consumption and waste production of a community. This system, originally deployed online, was analysed during a month-long user study, which found that, although eliciting an initial popular response, was not sufficiently embedded in daily life to have a long term effect. Thus a separate device was prototyped to give the system a permanent, more pervasive presence in a household. Additionally, we argue that such a system could be easily adapted for personalised mobile use, and would benefit from the more frequent interactions with, for example, a user's mobile phone. We also present challenges in producing this interface on a mobile device, and open discussion on how this is best achieved.

Computer, 2011

We have constructed Envismo (energy-visualization-mobility), a prototype of a real-time energy-monitoring platform that pairs common mobile Internet devices (Nokia N810 internet tablets) with cheap, readily available environmental sensors and a web-based datastore tied to an existing energy-monitoring network. This allows for the collection of real-time fine-grained environmental and energy usage data that can supplement and contextualize existing measures like electricity consumption and water use. Users can interact with visualizations of this data on the mobile device in order to evaluate energy consumption patterns, diagnose electrical problems and inefficiencies, and explore their own energy use. A current prototype uses utilities data from the UC Berkeley Green Building Research Center (http://greenbuildings.berkeley.edu), and allows us to display current and historical data from energy, steam, and water meters across the Berkeley campus and supplement it with temperature and luminosity information.

2012

As people become more concerned with the need to conserve their power consumption we need to find ways to inform them of how electricity is being consumed within the home. There are a number of devices that have been designed using different forms, sizes, and technologies. We are interested in large ambient displays that can be read at a glance and from a distance as informative art. However, from these objectives come a number of questions that need to be explored and answered. To what degree might lifestyle factors influence the design of eco-visualizations? To answer this we need to ask how people with varying lifestyle factors perceive the utility of such devices and their placement within a home. We explore these questions by creating four ambient display prototypes. We take our prototypes and subject them to a user study to gain insight as to the questions posed above. This paper discusses our prototypes in detail and the results and findings of our user study.

Towards Energy Smart Homes, 2021

The increase in energy demand has motivated a large body of research, using a diverse collection of approaches to reduce domestic energy use. One promising approach to this societal problem is the development of systems that cooperate with the residents combined with digital behavior changes interventions. In this chapter, we present the Mondrian User Interface pattern intended to help system developers to structure and populate the interactive components of their system in order to inspire eco-responsibility. The Mondrian UI serves as an ambient decorative display that supports different levels of users' attention investment while sustaining daily use. Like Mondrian's Collections, the Mondrian UI pattern divides the screen into rectangles of different sizes painted in primary colors. The rectangles contain information that can be zoomed-in and zoomed-out to support multi-level representations of the same semantic information while maintaining informational context accessible. In order to minimize attentional effort, the toplevel content of a rectangle is intended to communicate information at-a-glance while the other levels provide analytic details on demand with minimalist oneclick interaction. Each rectangle of the Mondrian UI is populated with ecoinspiring content such as spatio-temporal information about energy use, recommendations and explanations, and social incentives, or with utilitarian content, such as the weather forecast, that family members have the habit of consulting frequently. Utilitarian content along with the display located in a socializing place, are intended to enforce the daily use of eco-inspiring information. We have applied the Mondrian UI pattern to the design and implementation of the user interface of an e-coach electricity management system.

PsychNology …, 2009

Interacting with Computers, 2017

In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of Watt-I-See (WISE), a tangible interactive installation aimed at probing awareness in two target audiences (children and adults) about renewable energy resources that could inform eco-feedforward strategies. Our system combines a tangible interface representing five different energy sources, with a set of Lego™ blocks used to manipulate different weather conditions that affect the available energy mix. Through the evaluation of WISE, our main goal was to expose users to the effort necessary to produce the energy used in our day-today lives. We evaluated the installation separately for children and adults. The focus on children was due to their importance in the overall household consumption and their role in future scenarios where consumers will have to adapt to the availability of renewable energy sources. The focus on adults was to observe the impact of such information in their decision making regarding their routines. Our findings highlight the success of the interface in engaging children and adults, creating awareness between weather conditions and energy production and the fossil-fuel energy baseline in the grid. Overall, the study highlights the importance of providing a close point-of-interaction feedback as it enables a better understanding of energy-related decisions, reactions, and availability of resources. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • A tangible interactive installation was designed to probe awareness about energy resources. • The installation was evaluated with two separate types of users: adults and children. • Users perceived its information as useful and could integrate it into their daily lives. • New directions for eco-feedback systems that use strategies to control or modify the consumption based on the availability of resources.

Abstract. Environmental issues are a reoccurring discussion topic among politicians, researchers and citizens all around the world. Climate changes and pollution are both important issues that need to be dealt with to slow down their impact. Within the IS area, the acknowledgement of these issues has been slow, and it is now time to start contributing. In this paper an illustration of an approach to user interaction for energy saving is given. We present a research project in which a visual energy information system has been co- ...

2013 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, 2013

Many homeowners and occupants are interested in energy conservation for economical and/or ecological reasons. A number of commercial energy conservation solutions exist on the market today. However, these products contain closed systems and do not provide easy access to much of the raw data needed for more sophisticated analysis. An open source solution would be a great benefit for homeowners and occupants, allowing access to (and custom analysis of) raw power readings. We present a complete open source solution that monitors power, stores raw power readings, and makes provision for an in-home display, that informs stakeholders about energy consumption through a real-time ambient feedback effectively becoming an eco-feedback device.