Group Research/Brainstorming

In groups, we were given different tasks to do with energy consumption and monitoring.


Our group's task was to research energy monitoring devices and consider whether they were useful in helping to prompt users to conserve energy.


Here are a few examples we found in our research:

 This is an energy monitoring device that gives you instant feedback about your current energy use. The LEDs are used for visual feedback, "cool blue for small amounts of electricity being used; warning red for high energy consumption." These lights attractive and make you want to interact with the object, while the overall design of the object is aesthetically pleasing. The device also records a history of energy use, available for download and view on special software - although this is possible, it is not a particularly user friendly way to give feedback about historical energy consumption as you have to go the extra mile to get that information, it's not simply in your face and grabbing your attention, as it should be in this kind of device.


http://www.watthackers.com/wp/10-energy-saving-devices-to-put-your-house-on-a-diet/

This device is an energy monitoring device that records a history of your energy use and compares it to your current energy use. It's called the Energy AWARE Clock - designed much like a normal clock, but it incorporates energy use levels over time on the screen. This way, you can monitor how much overall energy is used at any one time during a 24 hour period. In addition, it shows historical periods behind the current 24 hour period, which gradually fade, encouraging the user to improve on their energy saving over time, therefore we felt it a particularly good example of a helpful energy monitoring device.


http://www.tii.se/node/5984

We thought this energy monitoring device was interesting, yet potentially not specific enough to give good feedback to the user about their energy use. The idea is that 'good' energy use (low levels) will grow a healthy plant, whereas 'bad' energy use (high levels) will cause it to wither. The problem is that there's not really any immediate feedback - it's more of a generalised response. It might work better in combination with another, more specific, device.


http://www.tii.se/projects/energyplant

The idea behind this particular energy monitoring device is pretty basic - it records how much energy a particular device consumes. The issue with it is that, as our group decided, it's ugly. There is nothing about this device that would make the user actually want to interact with it. It has a basic LED screen, black and white and is made out of off-white plastic, so is likely to make the user want to hide it. Sure, the intentions might start out well - the user keeps some tedious diary or similar to record power usage.... But to be an effective energy monitoring device, we thought that the device needed to be pretty - pretty = visually attractive = user gets feedback from the product without even realising they are tediously monitoring energy use - otherwise, how long is this resolution going to last? No one wants to do things that aren't fun. Energy monitoring devices should be fun and truly conducive to interaction in order to be really effective in helping users save power.

http://www.watthackers.com/wp/10-energy-saving-devices-to-put-your-house-on-a-diet/

Finally, we came up with aspects of energy monitoring devices that we felt were possibilities for a good design of a user interface:

• Sends emails/texts as feedback
• Pretty/visually appealing
• Wireless connectivity - ease of use
• iPhone/smartphone interface
• Touch screens - they look pretty/people want to use them, fun
• Easy to view - colour, nice numbers
• Actual cost [of electricity] - clear feedback
• Sound as warning [of high use] - beep/ringtone
• Keyring, jewellery, watch - readily accessible objects for interface
• Pretty lights
• Uninvasive, small
• Stores energy history
• App to coach you on saving energy
• Reminders of things left on as you leave the house
• Remotely turns off devices
• Affordable
• Positive feedback on how much power you might have saved while out
• Power-saving suggestions

Energy Saving Gadget - Statement of Intent

Our second project is looking at energy consumption - what we can do to reduce the amount of energy we as a society, as households, and as individuals, with conservation of environmental resources as the motivator for this. Many of the sources of energy the world uses are non-renewable - what are we going to do when they run out? We need to drastically reduce our consumption of energy firstly, but we also need to  look at alternative sources of energy to replace the ones that are currently running out.

As environmental awareness is currently a high-profile world issue, there are many ways available to monitor and reduce energy use. The problem is that many of these aren't user friendly and therefore are not conducive to their intended purpose - you're not likely to use something that doesn't fit seamlessly into your current habits, as habits are hard to change. So, if we can improve the user interfaces on such devices, we're more likely to be able to improve the monitoring of energy use and consequently work towards saving our environment.

Exhibition Write-up

My objective was to create a story by touch – the user feels the textures and associates a place or situation to what they interpret the texture to represent. This stimulates their imagination to create a scenario that they turn into an adventure as they pass the hoop through their hands and work through the textures, bridging the change in textures with their creativity. I chose the shape of the hoop because it is easy to follow, and neutral tones for the textures because the visuals were meant to be subtle. This puts the focus on the textures, not the shape or colour. By removing all words and pictures, I was investigating the power of the touch sense and how well it can function when isolated like this. I found, through experimentation, that certain textures provoke memories or common associations, which form the basis of the narrative. The textures are also arranged to create a narrative curve, that is, a gentle introduction, building to a climax, and then finally a resolution, using flat, fine textures contrasting with raised, exaggerated textures. This typical structure of a storyline encourages the user to create an interesting and exciting adventure.

Instruction

Tie the provided blindfold, and then pick up the hoop, starting at the bound section, following the direction of the arrow. Slowly pass the ring through your hands, taking in the textures by feeling with your fingertips. What can you feel? What do you associate with what you can feel – what situation do you imagine yourself in? Put yourself in a place and narrate your own adventure inspired by the textures as you follow the path on the inside of the hoop. The journey finishes when you wind up back at the bound section. Please record where your imagination escaped to in the provided notebook, but only once you have created your own story – don’t peek!

Final Interactive Object

Interactive object in action...

Development 5 - The Hoop 2

Development playing with rearranging textures and adding small bars of contrasting texture for interest. I'm thinking about swapping some of the material for more realistic textures so as to enable easier recognition and association for the narratives created by the users.

Development 4 - The Hoop

This fulfills the criteria that the loop has to be uninterrupted to convey the story properly. However, in this version, I put characters on the top side and underlying narrative on the underside and this was too complex for the user as there were too many channels of information being conveyed. Will maybe try putting the top side just one texture and the information on the underside. I'm no longer using the mobius strip idea because I want the story to be just one big loop easily handled by the user, not twisted to follow the curve.

Development 3 - Tangled

This idea was conceived as a solution to creating more interest in my object. However, as much as it might look really cool, and be really intriguing to feel, it does have the downside that the narrative is interrupted when the fingers lose contact with the strip in the overlapping places... So my object needs to be one uninterrupted loop.

The material in this model has one side completely smooth to link the story, and one side with contrasting textures to tell the story. The idea is that the user will feel along the strip and take a narrative from the contrasting side. I may switch the sides so that the narrative is felt along the inside of the loop rather than the outside so the index finger (more sensitive to textures than the thumb) is used to feel along the loop.

Development 2 - Internal structure

As I was making the internal structure for the previous development, I discovered that there was actually a really cool rhythm coming through in the stitching of the wire to the plastic... I did experiment with creating different stitching patterns but it was really difficult to create contrast and ended up conveying more just a concept of sound than of narrative so decided to stick with the original material textures.

Development 1 - Mobius strip

This was just a mini version of what I had in mind as it was very time consuming to put together. I quite like this but as discussed in tutor group, the curve could be smoother and perhaps the shape made more interesting? Will try this out in further developments. Each texture is meant to inspire some sort of picture in the user's head, the variation of which creates the story. The idea is that the user will record their experience in an accompanying book.

Visual Diary Page 9

Notes

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Visual Diary Page 8

Mobius Strip concept

The mobius strip is a concept of an object which has only one side, hence the storyline would be neverending and would carry from the outside to the inside of the loop of my interactive object. I plan to incorporate this concept into my developments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Möbius_strip

Visual Diary Page 7