Veronika Jeppsson
and Lidija Murselovic
From visualization of
energy consumption to behavior change?
We live in a
society where the environment is getting more attention every day, while the
technology is evolving and requires more of the natural resources. A lot of the
technology that is available on the market today is run by electricity, and the
electricity consumption in households has increased in recent decades. With the
growing interest in the environment among people, there are today a number of
products on the market with the purpose to give households information about
their electricity consumption.
With the
help of 11 households in Sweden we have in this thesis examined how to
visualize the consumption of electricity to improve the conditions for a
behavior change, both among children and adults. The study consisted of a seven
day long electricity diary, with subsequent interviews. It resulted in a design
proposal for a product that visualizes the electricity consumption in a
household.
The
knowledge about electricity varies in different households, but one thing that
they have in common is that they all want a summary of their consumption in an
easy way. We estimate that our design proposal is a visualization that could
change a behavior, but perhaps most importantly, bring a greater interest of a
household’s environmental impact among its family members. However, one must
have in mind that there are limits for how much one individual can do for the
environment, somewhere the society has to take its responsibility.