CLIENT: Indiana University (IU) Sustainability Task Force and IU Utilities Group. METHODS: contextual interviews, brainstorming and ideation, sketching and illustration, wireframe, screen prototype TOOLS: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, paper-prototyping and evaluation
+ OVERVIEW The Energy Pledge is an eco-visualization system intended for use in the context of the Energy Challenge '09, a student competition to conserve resources in the Indiana University dormitories. This Energy Pledge aims to promote more sustainable consumption of water and electricity by leveraging student communities to engage members with local resource conservation and its global environmental impacts. + USER RESEARCH Contextual interviews were conducted with five students living in the dormitories in order to gain insight into student attitudes and behaviors with respect to resource consumption. Participants guided researchers on tours of their dorm rooms as they answered questions related to their usage of resource consuming products and their feelings towards resource conservation. Insights were developed related to three areas: engagement, social incentive, and knowledge. + ENERGY PLEDGE SYSTEM The Energy Pledge consists of primary components: Consumption Kiosks, the Student Pledge Form, and the Student Pledge Wall. Consumption Kiosks are essentially interactive computer kiosks situated prominently in public spaces such as dormitory lobbies. The kiosks primarily serve to allow students to view and interact with the Pledge Form and Pledge Wall websites. The Student Pledge Form website allows students to pledge specific conservation actions (e.g. “turn of the lights when not in use this month”) and calculate the estimated savings associated with pledge actions. Students may post their pledges publicly to the Student Pledge Wall as well as receive reminders and updates regarding individual and collective conservation pledges. The Student Pledge Wall website publicly displays student pledges via Consumption Kiosks. The pledge wall contains a blank space for every student residing in the dormitory. Students may add their names to their spaces on the pledge wall by using the pledge form to pledge specific conservation actions. Selecting a name on the pledge wall displays that student's pledge and any comments she or he has made using the pledge form. Also displayed is a comparison of estimated expected reduction resulting from student pledges with the actual reduction as compared to a benchmark goal.
+ PUBLICATIONS: Pierce, J. (2009). Designing for Reflection in the Context of Sustainable Interaction Design. In workshop proceedings of Defining the Role of HCI in the Challenges of Sustainability. CHI'09.
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