=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Improving long-term Persuasion for Energy Consumption Behavior: User-Centered
Development of an Ambient Persuasive Display for Private Households
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-973/dc6-Kluckner.pdf
|volume=Vol-973
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/persuasive/Kluckner13
}}
==Improving long-term Persuasion for Energy Consumption Behavior: User-Centered
Development of an Ambient Persuasive Display for Private Households==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-973/dc6-Kluckner.pdf
Improving long-term Persuasion for Energy
Consumption Behavior: User-centered Development of
an Ambient Persuasive Display for private Households
Patricia M. Kluckner
HCI & Usability Unit, ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg, Austria
patricia.kluckner@sbg.ac.at
Abstract. This doctoral research examines how residents, while monitoring
forecast and feedback, use ambient persuasive technology to address behavior
change regarding energy consumption. The most needed information is not
presented in the context when interacting with the home appliances. Therefore, the
monitoring lacks a direct and tangible link to the consumers’ behavior. Current
mechanisms frequently also have shortcomings with regard to long-term
effectiveness, as initial results tend to wear off once the novelty effect is over. To
accomplish this, requirement studies for the design of the persuasive ambient
display and a long-term in-situ study and completed reflection workshops after the
period of six months have been set up. Various online surveys and have analyzed
the data about the visual cues, i.e., the forecast and feedback modalities have been
conducted. The results of the research will inform the design researcher, the
community of persuasive technology, and the psychology.
Keywords: Ambient Persuasive Display, Long-term Household Study, Energy
Behavior Change.
1 Research Motivation
Research has shown that detailed feedback on domestic energy consumption can
substantially contribute to achieve durable effects on energy savings in private
households, e.g. [2], [4], [17], [18]. However, existing solutions such as regular
energy bills or conventional home energy displays provide untimely feedback or in a
way that is difficult to understand. It requires the user to make mental efforts to
translate the available information into appropriate actions. Furthermore, the
information is not presented in the context where it is needed most (i.e., when
interacting with the home appliances). Therefore, the feedback lacks a direct and
tangible link to the consumers’ behavior. Current mechanisms frequently also have
shortcomings concerning long-term effectiveness, as initial results tend to wear off
once the novelty effect is over. The PhD thesis, therefore, aims at improving the
communication of energy forecast and feedback by seamlessly integrating it in the
environment of the user and providing it where and when it is most useful and
efficient. Such an integration of a monitoring tool could increase the comfort of the
users, as no abstract translation and explicit attention towards achieving the goals is
needed. Moreover, positive effects on the sustainability of behavior change are
expected. The concept of behavior change through support of technology and
appropriate interfaces can also be referred to as persuasive technology.
2 Research Background
Persuasive systems can change behavior in various ways, as to influence individually
[1]. From the Personality System Interaction Theory (PSI) [13] we know that the
relationship between depth of self-activation and intensity of negative affect is
expressed and coped with on the basis of a spread of activation model. The greater the
affective energy that is aroused, the deeper or more extended are the associative
networks that can be activated. The core of PSI is volitional action, and linked with
motivation it is essential for the Human Computer Interaction (HCI). A lot of research
was done on the topic of energy reduction. There are important parts for a successful
behavior change. One has been highlighted, the design, as interaction tool (e.g. [5],
[6], [10], [14]). It is an essential part of persuasive applications to change attitude or
behavior. The concept of a behavior change support system (BCSS) was developed
[15] and is seen as the core of research in persuasion, influence, nudge, and coercion.
Summarizing the above-mentioned studies, a lot of work has already been done in
order to influence consumption behavior with respect to energy. However, only little
work exists in long-term studies, e.g., [9], [19] of actual behavior changes in real
households have been conducted which try to understand the influences of such
ambient displays over a longer period of time. The value and need of short-term
studies in order to improve the design of a system and identify major issues, such as
usability, was clearly acknowledged. However, we claim that in order to gain an
understanding of how our persuasive systems need to be designed to have a
sustainable persuasive interface, long-term studies in the field with actual and
representative users are required. Thus, we conducted a half-year study in 24
households, which was accompanied by several different questionnaires at various
points of measure to identify, which aspects change after which period of time.
3 Research Question
The central question of the doctoral thesis is: How does a persuasive ambient display
need to be designed to sustainably support activation or inhibition of behavior to
change energy consumption in households? To answer the central question a research
agenda has been set up that investigates the following supporting questions:
Technology Appropriation. What is the current role of technology in supporting
user to address behavior change? How are local residents appropriating technology?
Community Engagement. What are similarities and differences in various levels of
dynamic forecast views (grid status vs. green power) and the feedback?
Design Principles. What are best strategies for designing technology that empowers
user and encourages them to address energy issues on the long run?
A working definition which is used in this research about persuasive systems is
“any system successfully and intentionally designed to influence attitudes or
behaviors of its users” [8]. It was chosen to study residents because energy
consumption, particularly at home as living area, is most prevalent there where energy
reduction and energy prevention is important to quality of life.
4 Research Goals and Methods
In this section, the studies that addressed the above research questions were described.
Study I: Understanding Providers. The goal of the first requirement study was to
understand what are the current topics and the future beliefs for a display of energy
consumption from the perspective of energy providers (experts). We conducted a
study that combines knowledge of experts about energy consumers. We wanted to get
insights how technology should be appropriated to support behavior change, an
example of pro-active action. We interviewed experts using a developed semi-
structured interview guidelines to retrieve information (i.e., date, subject, 19 items)
that was substantiated by audio recording and making notes. The data from Study I
using a thematic clustering approach was transcribed and analyzed [11].
Study II: Exploring Future Consumer Engagement. In the second study, we
investigated the opinion and design solutions for future consumers. We intended to
use the expert data from Study I to gain knowledge about ideas future consumers have
about the usage and the design of a display. In a small sample, data was gathered from
an interactive co-design workshop based on the inspiration card technique [8] and
create a poster presentation of their discussed idea. The data for Study II was
analyzed; various parts of the results are already published [11], [12], [16].
Study III: Designing and Using Community Technology. The objective of this
study was to create design principles and best practices for community technology
that allows residents to engage in decision-making processes. In the project all these
studies are related and intended to create and deploy a system [11], [12], [16]. Results
from Studies I and II informed the design of the technology in Study III. The system
was used for six months in 24 private-situ households and allowed each resident to be
informed more widely. It triggers through cues linked with persuasive strategies and
colour inducing to action or inhibition of behavior. The FORE-Watch (see Fig. 1)
consists of two views: The forecast view shows a clock, a timeline “today” and a
timeline “tomorrow”; the feedback view consists of a visualization of the average
consumption, the consumption per phase, and the reward icons.
Fig. 1. The tablet App FORE-Watch: the Forecast (left) and the Feedback (right).
I measured if/how the system supports residents to act or inhibit their behavior.
The qualitative (questionnaires surveys) and quantitative (kWh consumption) data
was gathered and the proposed analyses are yet to be determined.
During the long-term study, we also researched the location of the persuasive
ambient display over the period of six months. We were interested to understand the
necessity to present an ambient device permanently and constantly, which is essential
for the success of sustainable change and to demonstrate the importance of long-term
studies to understand placement requirements of ambient persuasive displays [12].
Study IV: Evaluating the Technology. In the forth study, which was at the end of
our six-month in-situ study, the participants were invited to a reflection workshop to
gain insights about their opinion, the advantages and limitations of the display, and
the study itself. We used the DwI Method [14] to create items and cards. We used
transcribed audio recordings and notes for the data analysis for improvement
suggestions, implications, and guidelines for design of ambient persuasive systems for
sustainable behavior change. The data has to be further analyzed and interpreted.
5 Expected Contribution
The research done in this PhD thesis makes several contributions for the research field
and community of Persuasive Technology. First, this research builds on current
knowledge about ambient persuasive displays in in-situ households to change energy
consumption by investigating how technology is used to support sustainable behavior
change. Second, the findings provide HCI designers and researchers with principles
and guidelines for designing persuasive technology. These provide researchers with
the focus on persuasion and encourage them to address behavior issues for long-term
behavior change. Second, the research deepens our understanding of the role of
technology in supporting users to act or inhibit their behavior. Third, the connection
of the development of technology from the HCI perspective and the area of research
of behavior change from the psychology discipline is very seldom possible to
investigate simultaneously.
6 Research Situation
I am a 2nd year Ph.D. candidate in the HCI and Usability Unit of the Information
Communication Technology and Society (ICT&S) Center at the University of
Salzburg. I have a background in communication science, educational science, and
psychology; however, after two years in the field of persuasive technology, I consider
myself as a HCI researcher. My future plans are to analyze and evaluate Study III,
i.e., the data during the period of six month as well as Study IV, which means to
present implications and guidelines for future systems. Afterwards, I have to bring
together these studies in a balanced way towards the end of the year.
Taking part in the doctoral consortium would be very helpful for me to improve
the data analysis and interpretation of Study III and IV. Furthermore, discussing my
PhD research with the community, the refinement of the taxonomy, and re-examine
and re-evaluate the guidelines that were derived as results of my findings. It will be
beneficial to improving the overall storyline of my thesis.
Acknowledgement. I thank Prof. Tscheligi and Dr. Weiss for their guidance and
insight on this research. This research is part of the “Persuasive End-user Energy
Management (PEEM-) Project” and is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion
Agency (FFG). I also thank our project partners Salzburg AG and the Center for
Usability Research and Engineering (CURE).
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