Eco Feedback

Resumo Com a promulgação da Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos, instituída pela Lei 12.305/2010, o desafio da estruturação dos planos de gerenciamento integrado dos resíduos sólidos urbanos (RSU) se impõe a diversos segmentos da sociedade, como também no campo educacional, a fim de promover a alteração de comportamento, internalizando nas pessoas uma forma diferente de ver e de se relacionar com os resíduos que produz. Assim, com o objetivo de utilizar o potencial comunicativo do design através de estratégias de eco-feedback este artigo reporta pesquisa quantitativa realizada na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, campus Natal, sobre RSU, mais especificamente, o uso de copos descartáveis, o segundo maior resíduo coletado no campus da Universidade. Com o intuito de informar as pessoas sobre o impacto ambiental de copos descartáveis e promover uma alteração no comportamento no uso deste produto, foram elaborados e testados protótipos de interfaces físicas de eco-feedback além de uma interface digital. Com este trabalho foi possível apontar a eficiência do design gráfico em educar e promover comportamentos sustentáveis para não geração de resíduos, entendendo que não basta conceber produtos ecologicamente corretos, é preciso projetar comportamentos sustentáveis na sociedade.

Nowadays energy supply is ubiquitous and pervasive. It is everywhere and nowhere. One cannot see or grab hold of energy. This invisibility and intangibility may lead people to misconceive what is energy, thus underestimating its production costs and subsequent financial and environmental impacts. Further, the units of measure of electricity (e.g. kilowatt) are notions difficult to contextualize and understand. In this paper we propose the design of an installation aimed at raising energy production literacy through playful interaction. We propose Watt-a-Feeling, a tangible public installation that resorts to the metaphor of an X-ray vision of a household wall in an attempt to increase energy literacy by exposing to householders where (which source) their energy is being provided from. Interaction with the installation begins with a visitor producing (locally) enough energy to reveal the X-ray vision combined with short comparative facts that should help the public contextualize the production of energy within the larger context of regional energy consumption.

To promote sustainability consumers must be informed about their consumption behaviours. Ambient displays can be used as an ecofeedback technology to convey household consumption information. Elements of Consumption (EoC) demonstrates this by visualizing electricity, water, and natural gas consumption. EoC delivers three key components:

This paper presents HomeTree a prototype of an art-inspired mobile ecofeedback system. The system is implemented on a tablet PC and relies on a nonintrusive energy-monitoring infrastructure to access consumption and power event information. Our prototype addresses an important problem in ecofeedback, which is the fact that users loose interest about their energy consumption after a period of several weeks. To accomplish this HomeTree implements a dual visualization strategy. Initially HomeTree presents users with a screensaver that shows energy consumption mapped in a dynamic illustration of the local forest. Through this strategy we leverage the emotional connection between the short-term energy consumption and the long-term effects on nature through the local depicted landscape. In a second mode of operation users can interact with HomeTree directly by checking the historical records of their consumption data, and check which days or weeks they have reduced or increased consumption. Furthermore a comparison with a more objective baseline, such as the city of Funchal energy consumption is provided, in order to give users a sense of the level of their consumption in a wider context.

This paper presents HomeTree a prototype of an art-inspired mobile ecofeedback system. The system is implemented on a tablet PC and relies on a nonintrusive energy-monitoring infrastructure to access consumption and power event information. Our prototype addresses an important problem in ecofeedback, which is the fact that users loose interest about their energy consumption after a period of several weeks. To accomplish this HomeTree implements a dual visualization strategy. Initially HomeTree presents users with a screensaver that shows energy consumption mapped in a dynamic illustration of the local forest. Through this strategy we leverage the emotional connection between the short-term energy consumption and the long-term effects on nature through the local depicted landscape. In a second mode of operation users can interact with HomeTree directly by checking the historical records of their consumption data, and check which days or weeks they have reduced or increased consumption. Furthermore a comparison with a more objective baseline, such as the city of Funchal energy consumption is provided, in order to give users a sense of the level of their consumption in a wider context.