The Affect of Lifestyle Factors on Eco-Visualization Design
This work addresses the need for effective eco-visualization designs to inform homeowners about power consumption, but it is incremental as it builds on existing ambient display technologies.
The study investigated how lifestyle factors influence the design of eco-visualizations for home electricity consumption, using four ambient display prototypes tested in a user study to explore perceptions of utility and placement.
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.