Editors’ Note: We are delighted to present Eli Blevis’ Sustainably Ours forum as the cover story for this issue
Indiana University | piercejj@indiana.edu
Indiana University | droedl@indiana.edu
and intellectual change and are easily adapted into daily routines. Finding ways to meet both of these criteria is among the most fundamental challenges for sustainable interaction design.
[ 1] This perspective is inspired by work of the STATIC! group at Interactive Institute, Ivrea. Backlund, S., M. Gyllenswärd, A. Gustafsson, S. I. Hjelm, R. Mazé, and J. Redström. “STATIC! The Aesthetics of Energy in Everyday Things.” Paper presented at the DRS Wonderground Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, November 2006.
When it comes to sustaining ourselves and the planet, nonrenewable energy and the looming consequences of global climate change are among the most critical issues of our time. In our view, interaction designers have the power and a responsibility to address them. While the creation of a renewable-energy economy and infrastructure is ultimately necessary, it is just as important that we rapidly reduce current consumption and shift cultural notions about the ways in which energy use affects our future. In the developed world, a view has long pervaded that treats energy as relatively cheap, abundant, and without significant consequence. Even as the public consciousness around climate change increases, this unsustainable conception persists. A new mental model is needed, and interaction designers can and should play a role in creating it. Computers and other digital products and systems consume enormous amounts of electricity. Moreover, it is daily interactions with the ecology of energy-consuming products that help construct our underlying conception of and relationship to energy in general [ 1].
Design efforts to conserve
energy often focus on behind-
the-scenes solutions such as efficient engineering (e.g., Energy Star) or automated energy management. Nonetheless, no matter how efficient an interactive product may be, a large portion of energy consumed by a digital product is often governed by user behavior. Interaction designers can actively promote conservation in use by taking human behaviors into account. Some products provide explicit feedback about energy consumption, such as the often-cited Toyota Prius dashboard. More often, interactive products conceal energy use or encourage wasteful behaviors in unintended, unanticipated ways.
All energy-consuming products mediate relationships between humans and energy. Behaviors and expectations learned in present interactions affect attitudes and expectations in future ones. Designers need to ensure these relationships are designed with sustainable effects in mind.
Sometimes using less energy requires only small changes in behavior. At other times, it requires more radical shifts in lifestyles and values. When designing for sustainability in everyday life, we need to find ways to design products that both create needed behavioral
Critiquing Sustainable Interactions In what follows, we reflect on six interactive designs that actively promote more sustainable interactions with respect to energy usage in the home. While similarly intentioned designs exist in many other domains, we feel that the domestic setting is an especially interesting space for interaction design in general, and for sustainable design in particular. Daily habitual interactions with technology in the home have the potential to influence one’s behavior and attitudes in other contexts. Domestic space is also profoundly personal; objects must resonate with users on multiple levels to be acceptable. When they do, they often come to symbolize deeply held values of self. We have chosen six interesting exemplars, carefully selected from an original set of more than 30 products from 20 different companies
The Wattson home energy monitor
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