Designing energy-saving products - Evaluation of eco-feedback designs -

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Currently, we face enormous environmental challenges due to our excessive use of resources. As environmental balance and ecological integrity are crucial for the survival of civilization, saving energy to reduce CO2 emissions has become a very central issue. As the way products are designed can influence users toward particular target behaviors, product designers have a part to play in meeting these environmental challenges. In this paper, design strategies are examined that may address the problem of energy overconsumption by influencing users toward these target behaviors. By comparing various energy-saving products, we investigate how energy use can be visually represented in order to generate interest in pro-environmental behavior. We selected twenty-six energy-saving products and asked participants to evaluate the design attributes in terms of four design dimensions: the amount of information they provide, numeric vs. iconic representation, emotional engagement, and aesthetic experience. Focus group interviews and an empirical analysis provided several research findings. First, a certain tension exists between informativeness and persuasion in product design. Many energy-saving products that provide large amounts of information are not emotionally engaging and provide a mediocre aesthetic experience. Second, numeric representation is less attractive and effective than iconic representation. Displays of numeric information, such as kilowatt hour usage, do not stimulate interest in saving energy. Third, when product users have engaging and aesthetic experiences with eco-feedback, they are more likely to get involved in environmental issues and show interest in changing their behaviors. Our findings may be used to derive implications for physical and virtual eco-feedback designs. We hope that our work inspires future eco-design products to focus more on providing rewarding experiences than on providing complete and exhaustive data to users.

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