CUBO An energy measurement system
An MA1 Interaction Design Project Study by: Benjamin DueĂąas, Sisirnath Sangireddy & Rouien Zarin Submitted June 2008
A Switch project initiative in collaboration with the
Table of Contents Introduction
1
1.
Interviews and Data Extraction
2 2 3
2.
Interventions
4 4 4
3.
Participatory Design Event 1
6 6 7 8 8
4.
Participatory Design Event 2
7 7 8 8
5.
User Testing Session
9 9 9
6.
Reflections
6.1 Considerations of Use 6.2 Design Implications
10 10 10
7.
References
11
8.
Appendices
12
Appendix 1
12
1.1 Methods and Interviewing Techniques 1.2 Organising the research material
2.1 Our intial Interventions 2.2 Intervention Concepts Identified
3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
Intentions Method Process Results
4.1 Setup 4.2 Process 4.3 Results
5.1 Intentions 5.2 What was the outcome?
Cubo: an energy measurement system
Introduction Background of the Switch! Project Switch! examines the presence and use of energy on a neighborhood, community, and citywide basis. Thus, it shifts away from the design of product interfaces and interactions in the home to forms that have a wider presence in the local and public space. We continue to explore how design might enable people to relate more deeply and in an ongoing manner to energy use, but at an expanded scale- considering household-household, building-building, neighborhood-neighborhood interactions. To approach this, design must be extended beyond discrete people-product interactions to make visible and tangible the connection to wider-scale and longer-term interactions making up a locality, community, and society. For further background: www.tii.se/switch, www.tii.se/static, www.tii.se/aware
Background of the Switch! Project As part of a first year Masters of Interaction Design project course, we have been collaborating with the Interactive Institute in Kista, Stockholm. This ten week course is positioned to conduct ethnographic studies of users within the community of Umea, Sweden. After breaking off into groups we compiled a list of questions and conducted several interview sessions. The resulting fieldwork is outlined further in this report.
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1. Interviews and Data Extraction 1.1
Methods and Interviewing Techniques While trying to organize interviews with various types of people, we compiled a list of questions that we wanted to ask or rather use as a guide to follow during the interviewing session. First we started with some Warm Up questions such as:
• Can saving energy save you money?
• How many people are living in your home?
• Have you ever shared an electricity bill?
• Have you used electricity in a public place (cafe, train etc..), for what purpose?
Once they were comfortable with us and the dialogue started flowing a bit we asked more Detailed questions such as:
• Do you practise any energy saving techniques? (ex, turn off lights when leaving the house, using timers, or tak ing a bike vs. car to work)
• Do you own a bike? Does it have a light generator on it?
• What type of light do you use in your home? Halogen/Fluorescent?
• Do you ever use candles?
• How do you monitor your electricity?
• What is the source of your electricity, how does it enter your home?
• What are the biggest appliances you have that you use the most energy?
And finally some Big Picture Questions:
• How do you think Sweden ranks in terms of energy awareness?
• Can we use solar energy in Northern Sweden?
• Have you heard of recycled energy?
We didn’t want to be constrained to these questions but thought it would be best to have some sort of script to draw from to try and build on a theme and find similarities or overlaps in the interview responses. In addition to the questions we also created a blog to direct our interviewees to in case they wanted to follow the progress of the project and have a common area where we could compile and post our research. [see reference URL]
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1. Interviews and Data Extraction 1.1
Organising the research material Research Notes can be found in [Appendix I] After our interviews and fieldwork with people, we compiled the data that we had gathered and digested it into chunks of quotes. Our goal was to create an activity around this material so that we could relate all the rich information obtained to others working on the Switch project. Research Activity Trial We took these quotes and stories and put together a pdf presentation, iillustrating 4-5 key quotes from each of our 7 interviewees. Figure 1a - Group Brainstorming Session, analysing the presentation feedback
We also presented the spectators with cue cards which we called ‘embodiement cards’ and tried to get them to imagine that they were the profile of one of the interviewees and that they were required to debate or discuss around issues surround energy. Was it sucessful? I think it was the right approach to digest the research material down to quotes and stories but presenting them in the form of text on a screen was not the way to go. People had issues reading them and it asked alot of concentration from our audience. Figure 1b - testing the embodiment cards before the Kista event
In addition some of the participants felt uncomfortable with the embodiment card activity because they didnt feel they knew enough about the interviewees based on a few quotes to predict or mimic their personality. What we learned We decided to try and better work with the quotes and get away from using a screen all together. Research Activity at Interactive Institute in Kista This time we decided that it wasn’t enough that people were reading the quotes that we provided but perhaps it could be interesting if they could draw general themes from the research so that they could better package the data and perhaps work with these themes later on for the intervention.
Figure 1c - Kista Collaborative Analysis Event
Inspired by visual grouping or mapping idea
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2. Interventions 2.1
Our intial Interventions After our first Participatory Design session (which is explained further in the report) we sat down and brainstormed. Based on the ideas that emerged from the session we choose some keywords to brainstorm around as follows: • Linking energy • Sharing energy • Personalise • Negotiate • Visualise • And materials
Figure 2a - Gathering themes to inspire interventions
2.2
Intervention Concepts Identified We came up with numerous ideas around these key words. After that we combined our ideas and filtered it down to 5 strong concepts as outlined below. We tried to identify the concepts and categorize them within public space and private spatial domains. 1) The See through Carpet • positioned on the living room floor • would show the movements of a person walking on the carpet • visible from the person living a floor below the carpet • visible from the ceiling • see’s only the footprints or a pattern forming on the ceiling • expanding on the idea that you can hear a person upstairs if they are wearing high heels 2) Movie theatre, bicycle generator, gym generator idea • attach generators to a bicycle
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2. Interventions • must pedal to create electricity • can be applied to a drive in movie theatre idea where everyone needs to pedal to keep the movie going • can also be applied to a gym environment • repurposing energy that is otherwise wasted • can use the energy to power lamps that grow trees • help the user feel good about what they are doing • This energy can be used to power the community lights in a building or be fed back into the grid 3) Priority Classification for users • create an energy scorecard • rewards program similar to airmiles for rewarding people for efficient energy use Figure 2b - Group Brainstorming Session, coming up with interventions
• can result in rebates or freeparking around town • work with motives and incentives for people • define and evaluate an ideal user • can be used as a key for electricity access and customised energy profile can be associated with each card. 4) Energy Blocks • a new measurement scheme • makes mesuring energy understandable and abstracts it to units • Shows people how many blocks a neighborhood has • how much the people in it have used last month • calculate block usage • give a fixed amount of blocks to each person in the building to manage individually.
Figure 2c - Detailing an approach
• work with recharging blocks or exchanging • think about block gifting and personalization one block equals 17 hours of Nintendo wii play time etc... 5) Street light signals • use street lights to notify events in the community • make use of a ubiquitous element, give it a secondary or tertiary responsibility
Figure 2d - An object from the Participatory Design Session 1
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3. Participatory Design Event 1 3.1
Intentions In total we held three design activities The first of which was a practise activity held with people gathered within the school and one of the tutors (Camille) Was it sucessful? Not very, this was probably due to the fact that we had a loose schedule and left our users feeling confused. Also did not pay as much attention to the time as we intended. Explanations were not clear and either were the tasks. Figure 3a - Conducting the Participatory Design Event 1
However, the roles seemed to work out fine. What was the outcome? What did we learn? We decided to rethink the strategy of task definition, introducing a scenario (semi cooked concept) and keep better time management. Second Activity: Idea Generation and Concept Analysis The Second activity consisted of two parts, The first half was a idea generation session based on a scenario to help the participants try and envision possible interventions using the materials the we provided. This took roughly 30mins Figure 3b - PD event #2, working with actual users
The second half was idea analysis session, where we intro-
duced an intervention that we had chosen. The ideas we generated in the brainstorming session after the first PD event were discussed with Camille to check the feasibility and one concept (cubo) was chosen as a focus for this activity and discussion was opened surrounding this intervention. What we learned Maybe to conduct the activity in the evening might have got us more users (not sure). Was it sucessfull? Yes, we felt that this was generally sucessful, we had a really good start with the warmup and when we picked up momentum, Lots of ideas were generated and strict time was kept, giving the participants the impression of an efficient, well executed activity. What was the outcome? Although we had some nice ideas generated, we had certain realities to consider. We wanted to choose an idea that we could easily simulate and build and experience around and something that was anchored in our original interviews. So we decided to move forward with our originally chosen intervention (from our list of five possibles).
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4. Participatory Design Event 2 4.1
Setup After our brainstorming session we put together a list of materials and a script with which we wanted to follow while conducting the PD event. We invited 5 users to this event but unfortunately, only Daniel could make it. To help account for this we asked 4 students from the introduction class to sit-in on the activity with no prior background to the project. Everyone was situated around a table with the materials provided (listed below) and access to coffee and cookies. We put a basket of materials in the center of the table.
Figure 4a - Conducting the Participatory Design Event
Materials List: • Coloured Markers • Soft sculpting foam • Scissors • pipecleaners • papers • string • post it’s Warmup We decided to start with a warm up activity which took roughly 5mins and served to break the ice amongst the group. Our warm up activity is known as the “Shopping List”
Figure 4a - Participants working with the material
Using a pen and paper, write down items that you need to buy for your refridgerator, start with ordinary items (milk, eggs, etc..) and start to exaggerate with ridiculous items, the weirder, the better. Later we moved on to introducing the main activity, where we stated a scenario and instructed everybody to use the materials and props provided (blocks of foam with different sizes, colored strings, markers, scisors) to come up with an idea of how to increase awareness of energy through the scenario. 20 mins allotted Next we went around the table and presented and discussed everyone’s approach. This took roughly 10 mins. Lastly, we presented the group with an intervention approach and brainstormed around this concept, to try and generate ideas of how to implement and work with the intervention if it was going to be executed. The event was held in the Art Studio Space on the third floor of the Design Building, we felt this was a nice location because it allowed us lots of space and privacy. The roles were split up into: Sisir - documenter with photos and notes Benjamin - scenario introduction and instigating discussion Ru - moderator and timekeeper
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4. Participatory Design Event 2 4.2
Process For the most part this was a successful event, everybody seemed to respond without confusion and didn’t require too much clarification. People were involved easily in the activities and we could obtain a lot of ideas related with the given scenario. For most of the people were easy to work with the foam and the colored pipe cleaners, and they came up fast with some ideas just cuting, drawing and inserting the colored strings on the foam.
Figure 4a - The energy ant, a series of ants which detect enrgy loss
4.3
Everyone explained his/her idea, and we started a little discussion about everyone’s ideas. In the last activity we started a discussion with the people involved about how they could use and adopt one of our ideas about energy awarenes, most of them reacted possitively to the adoption of the idea, but also questioning the coincidence with previous developed ideas of energy consumption in other countries.
Results Some very interesting insight came out of the PD event. The notion that Energy is an invisible element for example, which makes it easier to ignore. Also one of our participants stated that they thought that people should have a personal benefit if they were going to have to identify with the problem. Another spoke about how interesting it might be if there was the possibility of borrowing energy from a neighbor similar to borrowing sugar. Or perhaps creating a system where a person is required to use an excercise bike to activate the washer/dryer before usage.
Figure 4b - a model generated from the PD session
What we learned Some of the ideas generated from this session includes: • Ant probes, robotic energy ants that detect and seek energy, if you see a cluster of them it indicates inefficient energy use or energy leakage • Arm band that measures cardiac rythm and glows positive for good energy, and negative for bad • a sculpture at the local supermarket, showing energy useage in the store • Heat signature capturing satellite which projects this information in a public space.
Figure 4c - Brainstorming around a concept
• Genie lamp, rub it and make a wish to save energy or get three pieces of advice for saving energy.
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5. User Testing Session 5.1
Intentions Third Activity: User Testing Session of Experience Prototype The third activity that we conducted was a User Testing Session, where we setup an artificial living room environment and invited our users to participate in our experience prototype. Before conducting the event we gave them a brief intro about what the intervention was, gave them our prototypes and filmed their actions while using them in the provided environment. Afterwhich we all sat down and discussed around the
Figure 5a - User Testing Session, setup of artificial living room
concept and reflect upon their experiences and define their actions. Was it sucessfull? Setting up the artificial living room was a good approach and helped us to provide the experience that we had intended around our intervention.
5.2
Figure 5b - Activating the sewing machine with the energy cube
What was the outcome?
Some variations of use had risen out of this session which caused us to rethink some of the functions and symantics of our approach. In addition to this, during the discussion segment of our experience activity, we had some very rewarding generative ideas about expanding functionality and uses surrounding our approach.
This specifically included: • General impressions of design, • use of LED light, • different colours of LEDs, • form and functions of graphics • quantities or scale of units • social implications of this approach.
Figure 5c - Placing cubes onto coffee table in their holder
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6. Reflections 6.1
Considerations of Use inital thought process: The main objective of the cube is to be portable, must mimic the supply of energy and must be able to recharge. The cube replaces the electricity bill, it is a physical measurment of the electrical energy. It allows people to use, charge, share and be aware of their electrical usage.
Figure 6a - Prototyping
6.2
Design Implications While Reflecting on this feedback acquired through our activitiy sessions and due to impending time restraints, we further framed our approach and decided to not define these aspects: • Long term usage of the cube system • Remote location usage of the cubes, ex in summer cabins. • Representing source of Power • Where to buy, how to buy the cubes • How to re-charge the cubes • Implementations of this system in Public space’s • The cube’s form and personalization of the form Figure 6b- Visualizing the Energy of the cube on the coffee table
Method and Use of Prototyping Materials: For the prototyping of the cubes we chose to work with wood and plexi glass/LEDs to mesh technology with common household material. Throughout the experience prototyping to the final prototype we maintained a simple visual representation of our cubes, without the use of a screen.
Figure 6c- Prototyping the coffee table display
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7. References 1. Brandt, E. 2006. Designing exploratory design games: a framework for participation in Participatory Design?. In Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Participatory Design: Expanding Boundaries in Design - Volume 1 (Trento, Italy, August 01 - 05, 2006). PDC ‘06. ACM, New York, NY, 57-66. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1147261.1147271 2. Busch, P. A., Richards, D., and Dampney, C. N. 2001. Visual mapping of articulable tacit knowledge. In Proceedings of the 2001 Asia-Pacific Symposium on information Visualisation - Volume 9 (Sydney, Australia). ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, vol. 16. Australian Computer Society, Darlinghurst, Australia, 37-47. 3. Clark, Brendon, A ritual process framework for particpatory activities: the case of a boardroom drama. In Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, Volume II (Trento, Italy, August 01 - 05, 2006. 3. Routarinne, Sara and Redström, Johan (2007) Domestication as Design Intervention. In: Design Inquiries - Second Nordic Design Research Conference, Nordes 2007, May 27th - May 30th 2007, Stockholm, Sweden. 4. Sun, X., Chiu, P., Huang, J., Back, M., and Polak, W. 2006. Implicit brushing and target snapping: data exploration and sense-making on large displays. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual interfaces (Venezia, Italy, May 23 - 26, 2006). AVI ‘06. ACM, New York, NY, 258-261. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1133265.1133316 Reference URL 1.
http://switchproject.blogspot.com/ *started at the beginning of the project by our team
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8. Appendices Appendix I Ethnography Interview // Name: Martin+ Girlfriend
2008-04-11
// Occupation: Molecular Biologist PHD
I turn off the lights out of habit, when I was young my Father always yelled at me Sometimes when we leave on vacation we turn off the power bar attached to the TV because a friend of mine told me about Standby power consumption He always turned off his TV using the main button so it wasn’t sitting in standby mode. He told me that eventually the button brokefrom over use. I guess the TV wasn’t made to be used like that? Awareness starts when the cost of energy rises, there is no true competition amonst energy providers in the market today, they have the monopoly. The oven uses the most electricity, I think, maybe my computer... I don’t really know We dont know our neighbors really. There is a girl living downstairs, she has a Kareoke night once a month and its a bit annoying. When we first moved into the neighbordhood we did the whole, “borrow a cup of sugar thing” from the neighbors but it didn’t really work, we don’t interact with them much We have a commen laundry area, once we spoke with a neighbor because of a mixup in laundry times. I’ve heard of a building in Munich that is heated off of the heat from the computer processors. Martin Rids school I think its called. People have a short term memories when it comes to tradgedy, thats why nuclear power has become popular again. It is also quite efficient. It actually takes more energy to produce solar cells than it puts out, not a viable source of energy. In Germany there was a government sponsored program to back solar energy. Awareness is linked to dependance, In Morrocco they are not as reliant on electricity so if there is a blackout it is not chaos. Perhaps it is in a companies best interest to created devices and keep appliances plugged in. Maybe they have contracts with Energy Providers. I think generally people dont want to be bothered in their free time, so I would be hard to promote energy saving through canvassing. Not sure how to reach people. Comments: They don’t get an electricity bill, and they seem to believe that it is included in the amount they pay Bostaden. There doesn’t really seem to be an incentive to save, in their home aside from guilt. The had spoken about trying a few times to interact with neighbors or Swedes in general but because of a few bad experiences, they sort of gave up. Didn’t know what consumed the most electricity in the home, perhaps there is an area to look further into.
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8. Appendices Ethnography Interview // Name: Erik
2008-04-11
// Occupation: works for a mining company up in Gällivare
Saving energy can definitely save you money, if I keep the TV off and not in standby mode for instance For people to be aware, they need to see how much energy they are using, to make the connection They have been pushing the campaign of stand by devices here in Sweden for a few years My girlfriend make me put the TV on standby b/c I am a little lazy Its mostly how you setup your apartment, whether or not you pass by the TV I use a main switch, which turns off everything plugged into it, including the VCR, when I go on vacation but for some reason the time is still correct when I turn it back on , I am not sure why? If you make it easier with making a main switch, but the bad thing is the remote controls only turn it off to standby mode. Hotel need a door key to turn on the lights, why don’t they think of that for homes? Does my dimmer use less power when I dim the light? Or is it just a transister that resists the light current but is still using the same energy? I own my apartment, the whole complex is sharing one electricity bill. I live in a modern home, that uses recycled energy. Another big thing in Sweden right now is using Thermal heating to heat your homes. Heat taken from underground Yes, I have a car, and use it often to go hunting and fishing. But I also have a bycicle... it has a light generator but it is broken and when I put in on the tire it makes it very difficult to ride the bike, too much friction. Around Umea they use Hydro energy which is easier to regulate the loss of energy consumption in the winter and minimal consumption in the summer. Switching to thermal heat can be a way of saving huge costs. Solar Power in Sweden is available but I think you need a more stable climate for it to be a reliable source People are strange at IKSU they sit on their bycicles and watch TV, while pedalling the bike. Do you know how long it took them to wire the gym to be able to handle all those mini TVs? They should just link the bycicle to the TV, you have to pedal to watch Recycled energy is not practiced in the mines that I work at up in Gällivare, I see a few places where they can benefit from it. Sweden as a whole is fairly good at environmental awareness and we have the money to implement and try different solutions. My particular awareness started when I started paying for my own electricity. But the problem is that you really don’t know, what appliance uses the most. And the fact that we share with our neighbors means that you have no instant feedback. I am not responsible for my own bill and if I use the computer more or less, I am never going to see the impact. Comments: Definitely seemed to me like an extreme or at least an advanced user. Very aware of different technologies, practiced some energy saving techniques (like converting to LED light) Interested in waste and very positive outlook on progress in Sweden Seemed to think that his computer used alot of energy but wasn’t sure. He shares an electricity bill with the whole complex of apartments (10 or so) If he turns off lights or standby devices, he will not see it on his bill. Could be an area to look further into, displaying and making acessible data of household appliances.
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8. Appendices Ethnography Interview // Name: Daniel and Christine
2008-04-13
// Occupation: Studying Political Science
Daniel is half Swedish and half Spanish. He is divorced, has two kids and lives in a Flat in Carlshem. He is currently studying Political Science. Christine is a friend of Daniels, and lives in a flat with her husband. D - I changed the windows on my house to make it more energy efficient and raise the value of the property. I sold that house. Now I own an apartment in Carlshem. D - Umea commune sponsors the conversion from electric radiators to hydro heat. D - I am trying to get an assessment made right now by an energy planner. C - There is a device called ”Varma Vexlare” which recycles and warms air from outside to the inside., it costs between $25,000 – 50, 000 C - I am aware of Thermal heating, I learned it from my neighbors... its an ongoing discussion in Sweden. D - These days the stores are selling energy efficient washing machines that use less water and have different wash cycles that save. D - I use power switches to prevent stand-by mode. C - When I was a child we had four kids, so that meant short showers or else the water heater would run out. D - When I was young our energy bill came every 2 months C - Cost vs environment, we need to think long term, but it helps to look into the subsidy’s provided by the state. C - When we were shopping for a home in the south, we found out from the owner that one side of the house is South Facing and gets lots of sun. C - If you are struggling to put food on the table its not likely that you will conserve energy. D - When my Father was a child you had to eat everything on the plate, I don’t practice that myself. And I don’t force my kids to eat up. I want them to enjoy the food. C - Interior magazine dictate that you should have between 7-8 sources of light in a room, ”Atmospheric Lighting” D - I always turn off the computer to save the hardware C - I am in a temporary housing arrangement, since we know we are going to move, we don’t worry about the energy situtation. D - I heard that all the heat in Umea comes from burning the garbage. D – In the end, to get people to save energy it has to be financially beneficial C – Its a Generational thing, my parents didn’t care as much as I do D – Why can’t I find out how much power is being withdrawn in the manuals? D – These day we are re-thinking nuclear energy b/c with current technology it has become quite safe.
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