Design requirements for ambient display that supports sustainable lifestyle

Abstract

People are ready to change themselves to adopt more ecofriendly habits such as conserving electricity when they are aware of the possible problems of their lifestyle. In this sense, ambient display, which users experience occasionally without its interfering with their primary tasks, is well suited to provide the feedback of their personal activities in a more subtle manner than direct information presentation. We present the results of user studies with two ambient displays in different visualization styles. Participants showed diverse usage behaviors of ambient displays according to their motivational level of sustainable lifestyle. In addition, iconic metaphor of eco-visualization can trigger more emotional attachment while indexical representation helps retrospective functions. Finally, we suggest design requirements for ambient displays that support different stages of persuasion from raising awareness to motivating to change behaviors and to maintaining desired habits.

Public visualization displays of citizen data: Design, impact and implications

“…Research in this field (e.g. [Broms et al, 2010, Kim et al, 2010, Rodgers and Bartram, 2011) has focused mainly on optimizing the effectiveness of energy feedback in terms of measurable reduction of household consumption by supporting different stages of motivation [He et al, 2010]. In contrast, we use the concept of eco-visualization to promote public awareness and discussion outside of the domestic context and shared by many.…”

“…We therefore suggest supporting alternative ways of engaging with the user-generated data, in addition to the original physical setting. Complementary interfaces can be developed that are aimed at different public and private user-contexts (i.e., web, mobile displays, home-based physical energyfeedback systems) and support complementary objectives [Kim et al, 2010] of social data exploration and analysis.…”

Design for sustainable behaviour: a case study of using human-power as an everyday energy source

“…Recently, empirical evidence is being reported through studies that investigate the effectiveness of; alternative forms of eco-feedback such as ambient feedback display (e.g. Broms et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2010); frequency of information displayed (Fitzpatrick and Smith, 2009;Hargreaves, 2010); and using online eco-feedback systems (Selvefors et al, 2013).…”

IdleWars: An Evaluation of a Pervasive Game to Promote Sustainable Behaviour in the Workplace

“…The idea of using computer idle time as a proxy for energy wasteful behaviour was originally proposed by Kim et al [13], who used this measure to investigate two persuasive ambient displays: Timelog and Coralog. Both visualisations aim to eliminate computer idle time; Timelog uses a bar graph to represent the active and idle time of the computer, while Coralog uses a visual metaphor, where the proenvironmental behaviour is mapped to the health of coral reefs.…”