The spark workbook

SPARK WORKBOOK

SPARK Workbook

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SPARK is an energy efficiency workbook providing a combination of co-creation activities to foster collaboration and participatory education for high school students, aiding them in introducing design solutions for energy problems within their communities.

SPARK Workbook

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Why SPARK? All of us here at EfficiencyFirst are pleased to welcome you to the SPARK Community! It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and that’s exactly what we want to do! Our intent with this workbook is to get that spark going in you, so you can take the skills and information gained along with you throughout the rest of your journey in life.

The SPARK Process

Explore what it means to be energy efficiencent Know the people that you would like to engage Create co-created concepts through collaborating ideas Evolve concepts into design solutions for fostering new behaviors Deliver design solutions into your community Share what you’ve done with us www.efficiencyfirst/spark/community

Even though it may sometimes seem like the wicked problems of the world are too big for you or me to tackle. By working together through collaboration we can share the load and make even the largest problems seem small.

Explore

Share

This workbook will take you through the creative solution process through the mind of a designer. It will provide you with a few tools along the way to aid you in identifying specific problem areas in energy consumption, opportunities in which to address these problems, and how to turn your big ideas into real life solutions that can be implemented into your community.

SPARK

Know

Deliv er

Evolve

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Lets Get Ready Throughout this workbook you will get a crash course in the beginners path to becoming energy efficient, how to study people and their habits, and how to use this knowledge to foster new behaviors shifting towards a more efficient community. You will also find a few design tools and methodologies that can assist you as you collaborate together in creating a design solution or solutions that will help you, your family, and the members of your community on the way to becoming efficiency experts!

As you research the value of becoming efficient with your energy use, think of different how you can take this information and create innovative ways in which you can enrich the lives of other so they too can reap the same reward.

What You’ll Need: The SPARK Workbook Pens and Markers Access to the Internet Camera or Camera Phone Wall Space with Tape or Thumb Tacts White Board and Dry Erase Markers Creativity and Lots of POST-IT Notes!!!!

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Explore e ENERGY EFFICIENCY

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Efficiency 101 Energy efficiency is the most economical and immediate way to provide and insure future energy resources, but is often overlooked and misunderstood. This is because many confuse efficiency with the discomfort of doing less or doing without, but the reality is being efficient means to do more with less. There is a general lack of public awareness that creates these misconceptions about cost, payback, and the availability of energy efficient technologies.

It’s this lack of awareness that is limiting the potential for a revolutionary shift for our energy supply needs.

e There are proven technologies on the market today that give consumers ample opportunities to increase their energy efficiency. These energy efficient products that were once thought to be out-of-reach or too expensive for many consumers, are now widely accessible and affordable. Today energy efficiency technologies and practices are bringing greater benefits at a lower cost than ever before. When life cycle costs are considered, these energy efficient products are much more valuable than their inefficient counterparts.

How did this happen?

Decades of inexpensive energy resources have led to this abundance of inefficiencies and waste in the our energy use. Here in the US with about 4% of the world’s population, we consume nearly 25% of the world’s energy resources and many of these resources that supply our energy needs are diapering at an alarming rate.

As we face increasingly volatile energy costs and the worldwide energy demand continues to escalate, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is becoming more and more of a necessity. But how?

Efficiency First!

It starts with all of us being energy efficient at home. Energy is lost at virtually every stage of its life-cycle, from extraction and development to delivery and use, but even the smallest reductions in our homes can be amplified into large upstream reductions in energy consumption if adopted by many.

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Efficiency 101 Being energy efficient starts at home. Even the smallest reductions in our home energy use can be amplified if adopted by many.

Now lets take a look at a few quick and easy things that can be done to improve the efficiency of your home and school. We’ll start you off, then you dive in further with you own research to get a good understanding of what you can do within your community.

Lighting In the US 10% of the electricity used in our homes comes from lighting. Even though this is the case, many Americans choose to not convert the lights in their homes over to energy-efficient bulbs.

This is due to either a general lack of understanding to this concept or the higher upfront cost of the bulbs. Yes, the initial cost of an energy-efficient bulb is higher than the traditional, but these energy-E bulbs cost much less to operate. Energy-E bulbs last significantly longer than traditional incandescents, so you won’t need to replace them as often, and that saves you a whole lot of money in the long run.

There are a multitude of energy-efficient light bulbs out on the market today, but CFLs (compact fluorescents) and LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are by far the most efficient.

Did you know: If you replaced just four 100-watt incandescent bulbs that burn four or more hours a day in your home with four 23-watt fluorescent bulbs, you’d get as much light and save at least 1,356 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That is $108.00 of savings over three years!!

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e Lets look at a quick comparison between incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs over the span of 50,000 hours of use.

LED

CFL

Incandescent

Projected Lifespan

50,000hrs

10,000hrs

1,200hrs

Watts per Bulb (60 watts equiv.)

10

14

60

Cost (Bulb)

$35.95

$3.95

$1.25

KWh of Electricity (50,000 Hours)

500

700

3000

Cost (Electricity)

$50.00

$70.00

$300.00

Bulbs Needed

1

5

42

Total Cost (50k hours)

$85.75

$89.75

$352.50

Count the light bulbs in your home and calculate what your overall savings would be for 50,000 hours of use if you made the switch to CFLs and LEDs. # of lights

CFL Savings

LED Savings

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Efficiency 101

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Energy Hogs Energy Hogs are the things in your home that waste excessive amounts of energy and cost you 10’s to 100’s of dollars a year on your electric bill.

One of these energy hogs, old incandescent light bulbs, we discussed earlier. To eliminate these hogs you want to replace them with CFLs or even better, LEDs. Another important group of energy hogs are all of the old appliances in your home. Replacing your old appliances with Energy Star rated new energy efficient ones will save you a significant amount a month on your electricity bill. According to the Alliance to Save Energy, if over the next 15 years Americans bought only Energy Star products we would shrink our energy bills by more than $100 billion and eliminate greenhouse gas pollution equal to the emissions of 17 million cars for each of those 15 years.

Those are only 2 of many energy hogs lurking in our homes eating up all of our hard earned dollars day after day. Do a little research and see what other energy hogs you can find.

Research Energy Hogs further. Then go home and see how many “hogs” you can find. List them below along with a solution(s) to do it differently. (example) (hog)

(Solution)

Shower Dishwasher Laundry Machine

Taking short showers in stead of baths Run only when full Use cold water options

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Efficiency 101

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Vampire Electronics & Standby Power Vampire Electricity or standby power refers to the electricity many gadgets and appliances waste just by being plugged in (even if they’re switched off). According to the Energy Information Administration, in the US alone, vampire power consumers more than $3 billion a year in home and office energy costs. A study that was conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab showed that 75% of the power used to run home electronics is actually consumed when those appliances are turned off.

What can we do?

By unplugging these items or plugged them into “smart” power strips that turn off when not in use, we could illuminate these “vampires” and reduce our annual energy costs by more than $3 billion, and would cut US carbon emissions by 18 million tons.

I want to suck your energy!

Smart power strips allow for devices to be plugged into a specially marked section of the power strip so they will still have power when turned off. The other devices that can be turned off safely would be plugged into the rest of the strip. For your electronics that shouldn’t be turned off, be sure to use “Energy Star” certified devices.

Research Vampire Electronics further. Then go home and see how many “vampires” you can find. List them below along with a solution(s) to do it differently. (vampire)

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Additional Research

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Use the next few hour to days to research as much additional information about energy efficiency to gain the knowledge needed to successfully develop new and innovative ideas and solutions.

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Additional Research

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Benefits

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(example)

Energy efficiency saves consumers money.

- Reducing the amount of energy we consume in our homes has an immediate impact on utility bills.

- Even the small easy changes we could make, like sealing air

leaks, switching to more efficient light bulbs.

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Benefits

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Trendz Report Understanding “hot� trends will help you understand patterns of change and interest that can drive innovation and SPARK big new ideas.

Collecting and sharing information on new and emerging trends and even old trends that are coming back in a big way can be extremely valuable when coming up with innovative ways to foster new behaviors in people.

Steps: 1) Individually search for trends anywhere you can. (news reports, on tv and the internet, magazines, tech reports, lectures like TED Talks, etc.)

e

Trend

Description

Why is it important?

2) Whenever you find a trend that seems noteworthy, write it down and explore further.

3) Fill out your Trendz Report with the trend name, a brief description (1-3 sentences), and why you feel it could be valuable.

4) Bring your Trendz Reports in and discuss with the group. Share thoughts on how this information can have an impact on this project ahead.

Helpful Hints: Looking at trends that have nothing in common with your topic can sometimes create interesting outcomes for your project.

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Trendz Report

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Converging Topics Map

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Visualizing opportunities where topics of interest and trends are overlapping and intersecting.

A converging topics map will allow you to visualize the overlapping activities, trends, and innovations of daily life that are stimulating new behaviors. Discuss how activities are changing and use this

Innovations Trends

Topic I

Steps:

Topic III

1) Identify 2-4 topics found through your research that seem to be overlapping most.

2) Look for trends that are present with in your topic areas that relate to technology, people, schools, homes, and culture. Write a brief statement (1 sentence) on the connection between the topic and trend. (do this for each trend found)

Topic II

3) Discuss and identify key innovations that are happening.

4) Create a Venn Diagram (see example) with each circle representing a topic of interest. Fill in the circles with the trends and innovations that were discussed. (put common tends and innovations into the correct overlapping sections) 5) Add descriptions where ever needed.

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Helpful Hints: Thinking about the emerging activities and behaviors will help guide you to find the common trends and innovations.

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Converging Topics Map

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k NOW PEOPLE

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Observations

k

Observational research can be a crucial tool in understanding peoples interactions and their use of the everyday objects they love to hate.

Knowing people is really about developing empathy for the people we are designing for. This helps us challenge assumptions and inspire new ideas to be developed into real world solutions.

Behaviors

Needs Feelings Habits

When choosing an observational method, allow for the situation and surroundings in which an interaction will takes place and the questions at hand guide you in your decision process.

Take this time to list out everything you would like to know after conducting your observational studies, and then use this list to decide on which of the following methods to use. (try using more than one)

By building empathy for the people we intend to serve, we can begin to understand their attitudes and behaviors, and the factors that motivate them such as their needs, feeling, and habits.

(Designer call this fieldwork)

Immersing yourself into the daily lives of other people through observational research and listening to their stories can reveal very valuable insights to the issues you are hoping to address. When in “the field�, be sure to focus on everything people say and do. You want to leave understanding their activities, needs, motivations, and overall experiences. Be on the lookout for signs to help you understand any problems they may face, the challenges they must overcome or avoid, and the needs they do or do not express. Taking this approach to understand the people will help you come to new solutions and strategies for creating significant value in your project.

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Fly On The Wall

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Gathering information by simply looking and listening to what is happening around you without interfering with those you are observing.

Take this time to list out everything you would like to know after conducting your observational studies, and then use this list to decide on your location, time, and who to observe.

During this method of observation you want to be flexible. This is because the participants that you are observing are unaware of your presence, so the progresses can be unexpected.

Steps: 1) Decide where you will conduct this activity, what you want to observe, and how long you plan on doing it.

2) Find a good vantage point where you wont be able to interfere with who or what it is that you are observing.

3) During this activity you want to write down any and everything you observe. Who/What do you see? What interactions and behaviors are taking place? Be sure to take many photographs that will complement your notes.

4) Afterwards, discuss your findings with the others in your group and be sure to keep all your data for later.

Helpful Hints: When observing in a public place, pretend like you are reading a book or doing your homework. This way you can stay in one place for a long period of time without drawing attention to yourself.

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Shadowing

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Following a participant throughout their routines or activities to gain a better understanding of their patterns, behaviors, and interactions.

Take this time to list out everything you would like to know after conducting your observational studies, and then use this list to decide on your location, time, who to observe, and what you will need.

Shadowing involves fallowing a participant through their daily routine to get a true sense of their interactions, decision patterns, and routines first hand.

Steps: 1) Decide where to conduct this activity, what you want to observe, and for how long.

2) Be sure to explain what it is that you will be doing and get the participants consent prior to the visit.

3) During this activity you want to audio record the experience and write down the interesting things you observe. Who/What do you see? What interactions and behaviors are taking place? Be sure to take many photographs that will complement your notes.

4) Afterwards, discuss your findings with the others in your group and be sure to keep all your data for later.

Helpful Hints: Be sure to ask questions whenever observing their activities and interactions, and document everything as it happens.

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Observations

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Observations

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Observations

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Observations

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Observational Insights

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Discovering the non-obvious meanings of what you’ve observed while out in the field.

An “insight” is an understanding of what you’ve observed during your sessions out in the field.

Steps:

Observations

1) Gather your observations (field notes, photos, facts, etc.) and write a short description of what’s happening. Be sure that you do not interpret or judge during this process.

2) As a group, discuss “why” these observations are happening, and make sure that someone is documenting (writing down) it.

4) Discuss what you have learned from these insights as a group, and document the process.

Helpful Hints: Some of the most useful insights are the ones that are non-obvious and surprising.

!

! !

3) Describe each insight by writing a brief descriptive statement for each. (1-2 sentences)

!

Insight

!

!

Insight SPARK Workbook

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Survey Interviews

k

Provide quick overviews of topics, identify trend patterns, and can help decide where to direct your focus.

Name Age

Surveys are short, quick, thought out questionnaires used to understand someone’s activities, behaviors, and attitudes about your topic of interest.

Steps:

Q1

Q2 A

1) Develop 6-10 questions based on your topic research and observational insights that will reveal patterns of behavior, values, and needs.

Q3

2) Identify a group or groups of people that you will want to survey, and the number of participants.

Q4

3) Distribute the survey. This can be done in a variety of ways.

Q5

monkey, at the same time to increase your reach.

Q6

(handouts, one on one conversation where you write everything down yourself, etc.) Sometimes it is good to use an online source, like survey

Gender

B

C

D

4) Analyze the results to find common and uncommon behavior patterns, and be sure to pull out any interesting quotes. (document any and all important findings)

Helpful Hints: It is good to have 2 people when conducting survey interviews. You will want to be on the lookout for any interesting comments that may come up in discussion before, during, and after the survey takes place. One of you conduct survey and the other document what is happening.

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Insight Sorting Reveal interesting patterns by gathering and sorting your insights.

Analyzing insight cluster patterns will give you a better understanding of the topic at hand, as well as help you begin thinking of concepts for solutions.

k A

B

D

C

E

?

Steps: 1) Gather your insights from all the work you’ve done up to this point and transfer them onto post-it notes, if they aren’t already.

2) Begin to cluster the insights on a wall or large surface. Be sure to talk about why you feel they should be clustered together. How are they similar? What do they share? (this process will take a few attempts) 3) Then give each cluster a short title that defines its overall characteristics. (Keep the clusters and finding up through out the rest of this project and be sure to refer back to it periodically.)

Helpful Hints: It can be helpful to organize the insights by color. All the insights from one activity or location one color, another location a separate color, and so on. This way you will remember who said what and where it came from.

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CREATE c BIG IDEAS

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Idea Storming Brainstorming session where everyone rapidly generates multiple ideas that can later be constructed into concepts.

c RESEARCH

These ideas should be generated using your groups clusters of insights, trendz reports, and efficiency research. The purpose of this activity is to bring everyone together so they can encourage creativity and build off of one another’s ideas.

Steps: 1) As a group, generate as many ideas as possible, keeping energy efficiency, behavior change, trends, and your insight clusters in mind. Stay focused throughout this session and remember that no idea is a bad idea!

2) Place ideas on a wall or large surface. Leave enough room for them to be moved around later.

3) Step back and reflect. As a group discuss the obvious and non obvious similarities between ideas. (Someone should be documenting this

discussion.)

Helpful Hints: Collaboration is a must throughout this process! Feeding your ideas back and forth to one another will break through to new ideas and reinforce existing ones.

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Concept Building

c

Organizing all your ideas into categorized groups to create concepts.

By now many of you have already begun to come up with concepts in your mind as you’ve progressed. Be sure to add these ideas along with those generated during your idea storm session.

Steps: 1) Have all the ideas that have been generated up to this point written down on post-its.

2) As a group combine your ideas. Discuss any connections you begin to see as you combine ideas into clusters, and then use these clusters to create even bigger clusters.

3) Continue to combine the clusters how you see fit, adding and subtracting ideas to develop you concepts into 3-5 BIG Ideas.

4) Give each BIG Idea a name and brief description about it.

Helpful Hints: Cluster your ideas beginning with a large number of smaller groups that combine the ideas that are similar but slightly different that can then be combined again and again forming levels of hierarchy.

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Selection Matrix

c

A simple but effective tool that ranks potential design solutions against an agreed upon success criteria.

Once you’ve generated multiple design concepts, a selection matrix is a great method to help you select one or two solid concepts to progress further. This will help identify and prioritize the most desirable, feasible, and viable concepts.

Steps: 1) List your final concepts on the top line and your design criteria on the left.

2) Discuss the concepts as a group and give each one a number between 1 and 3 according to where they fall in each category.

3) Once each concept has been discussed tally the results at the bottom to see which one is capable of progressing forward.

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Conept 1

Conept 2

Desirability

2

3

Feasibility

1

2

Viability

2

3

Engaging

2

1

etc.

3

2

Total

10

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Selection Matrix

c

Total

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EVOLVE e CONCEPTS

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Storyboarding

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Telling a story allows for a concept to take form and be grasped easily by those who haven’t been through the creation process.

Storyboards are a set of sketches and information arranged in a sequence of scenes that can walk someone through the process of how a concept should work and demonstrate the desired outcome.

Storyboard your concept here in the workbook and then share and discuss with the rest of your team. This will help decide who should take the role of illustrator and story teller while you work together developing your final storyline.

Steps: 1) Discuss with your group to be sure you have an understanding of how the concept ought to work and what the desired outcome is.

2) Describe the experience. What is the change in state of mind as the users encounter this concept?

3) Write a description of what’s happening in each scene. What is the purpose of each interaction that is taking place? What is the value being created?

4) Illustrate the scenario scene by scene in a storyboard. Use sketches to visualize the concept, keeping the narrative to a minimum of only a few words.

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Storyboarding

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Prototyping

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Taking concept solutions out for a test drive.

Prototyping concepts is a great way to test out your solutions on real people. This can be done by prototyping appearance, simulating functions, or a combination of both. Through prototyping whether or not the intended outcome and experience is correct will be revealed.

!

?

Steps: 1) Discuss what part of your concept, if not all, should be prototyped and what the intended experience is.

2) find a space where your participants can be engaged freely, as well as who these intended participants will be.

3) Explain to the user what it is that they will be doing and be sure to guide them throughout the entire process.

4) Observe all interactions! Record by videoing and taking notes.

You will also want to ask them about the overall experience for further insight.

Helpful Hints: Don’t be afraid of negative reactions. These will help develop your concepts into more desirable and viable solutions.

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ReFraming

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Using the feedback gained through the prototyping process to tweak and adjust your concept to improve its overall impact.

The feedback you get through user testing is a valuable asset to the entire development process of your design solution. This is when you can take the criticism from the people you are actually designing for and mold your concepts into desirable, feasible, and viable design solutions.

Steps: 1) Come together as a group and discuss your notes of the prototyping stage along with the feedback given to you by the users of the concept.

2) Describe how the overall experience can be reframed to align itself with the new information that has been presented.

3) Adjust your concept as necessary to work with this reframe.

4) Prototype again if necessary. (redo steps from the prototyping stage.)

Helpful Hints: It is helpful and very common to repeat the prototyping and reframe stages multiple times while going through the SPARK Process.

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DELIVER d SOLUTIONS

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Who/What/When Matrix

D

Focus the discussion and connect people with clear actions the group has defined and they have committed to.

While making arrangements to deliver your final solutions out into the world, you will likely find that there is a lot of work left to do.

The “who/what/when” matrix is a good tool used to address who will contribute and who will assist.

Next Step Who

What

When

Steps: 1) Create a matrix that outlines “who/what/when”. (on the left) 2) Begin the discussion by placing everyone’s name on the matrix.

This insures that everyone will have at least one task to complete, if not more.

3) Document who is doing it, what the “it” is, and when it will be complete onto the matrix.

4) Stay true to your commitments, and GET IT DONE!!

Helpful Hints: The faster pace you can do this activity the better (10-30mins).

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Action!

D

Now that you’ve gone through and completed the SPARK process your are ready to get out into the community and showcase the new design solution or solutions that you and your group have worked so hard to develop.

Be sure that you all document what you’ve achieved together. How you started, your progression, the activities that you’ve completed as a team, the high points as well as the low points, and the final design solution. This is obviously important for you to remember the process in which you used to get to this point , but it will also be beneficial for those that are just trying SPARK for the first time.

Our goal is to showcase the work that each and every class produces and allow for these solutions to be amplified across the county through the SPARK Community.

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Share s ONLINE

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Share the Experience

s

So you’ve worked as a team through the SPARK co-creation process and implemented your design into your community. Now what? Share it for the rest of the SPARK community to see!!

By sharing your design solutions with others who are beginning to use this workbook, you are giving them prof of concept that they too can make a difference in their community. It is also a great way for your class to take ownership on all the hard work that went into this project! Be proud of what you were able to accomplish and tell your friends and family to where they can find it. Remember, it only takes a spark to get a fire going.

Go to www.efficiencyfirst.com/spark/community to show case your finding, design process, and final deliverables.

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