[tweetmeme]Designers shape the relationships between people and objects or environments. Therefore, we should be leaders on issues of sustainability. Sustainability is broad and there are many ways to influence through design.* For now I have a thought on influencing people’s consumption behaviors.

It seems like every day we hear about a new technical advancement that promises less waste and more efficiency. But any technology advancement has to contend with our ever-growing appetite for resources, which is the true root of the problem. I would argue the larger challenge – or imperative – is in changing behavior. There’s a menagerie of devices and services appearing that are designed to help you monitor your energy usage. They’re getting a lot of attention but I think there’s a more effective way to create broad behavioral change.

The Monitors, and How They Fall Short

These designs show your usage in real-time and historically, and some provide a cue when electricity prices are high (in areas where pricing varies) or when you’re using more than usual. Great stuff – and smart to tie in financial benefits of conservation. Links are at the end. Some incorporate design “nudges,” popularized in a recent book, that help people make better choices.

But my enthusiasm faded as I kept looking. These are mostly special-purpose designs made just for awareness. The early adopters who use them are a small group of people who already have intrinsic motivation to conserve. There’s a big gap between them and the rest of the world. A more ambitious goal should be to influence more people, because even small changes – if mass-adopted – will have a bigger impact than the best efforts of the small group of devotees. To get there, sustainability must be a design factor in everyday products, not a special goal for extra devices.

Another thing that struck me is how isolated some of the nudges can be from the related behaviors. Imagine seeing an angry red glow and trying to find the culprit in your home; it’s too abstracted from the behaviors that set this usage in motion. For broad change, discovering the connection between information and behavior shouldn’t require extra work or it’s less likely to succeed.

An Alternative: Contextual Intervention

There is a great opportunity to make contextual interventions during people’s behaviors. The intervention might be a change in affordances or simply information. It’s like a nudge but the key is to design influences that are tightly coupled with specific user behavior, making a feedback loop that takes advantage of the way we naturally learn. Thus, it isn’t helping analyze your utility bill, it’s suggesting that you turn off the faucet while you’re not using it. Here are some examples of the kind of thing I’m talking about.

The “Faucet Buddy” shows you just how much you’re wasting while you shave or brush your teeth. I’d bet this is all the cue many people need to stop the tap while they’re not using it. That saves both water and energy from the water heater. My landlord recently installed compact fluorescent bulbs and I could easily see him lowering his water costs (he pays for water) by giving these to tenants. I only wish it used a less formal unit than liters – something that connects the quantity to its source or destination perhaps?

The Honda Insight comes with a speedometer that changes color. Efficient braking and acceleration lead to a rewarding green glow. The Prius has something similar. Nissan has a force-feedback pedal coupled with visual cues that provide more resistance with less efficient acceleration. It’s one thing to show your MPG but better contextual intervention provides immediate feedback explicitly tied to current braking, acceleration, or idling to influence it in the short term and teach over time.

The Disappearing Pattern Tiles have a pattern material that vanishes in the heat of the shower. The longer the shower, the less pattern. With this particular pattern, I think that’s actually a reward, but the idea is sound. It’s a simple but obvious cue that just might keep your fingers from wrinkling and your bill from soaring. Plus, no extra power cost – it uses waste heat. It doesn’t convey impact but could be a good reminder.

The Gravia lamp runs for 4 hours powered by a falling weight. You must manually start the weight at the top to get it going again, like the process of winding a watch or clock. It’s very difficult to conceptualize energy like we can with material resources; equating it to physical effort is a great idea. The connection is reinforced every time you charge it.

Amazon.com offers the default option to “Group my items into as few shipments as possible.” Similarly, when you schedule your deliveries from one UK grocer, you’re shown all the times their trucks will be nearby already. They both miss an opportunity to complete the feedback loop with information on the impact of the choice, but they’re influential designs at the time of choice.

Design Principles for Successful Contextual Intervention

So what’s contextual intervention? ‘Contextual’ means a cue that occurs at the time of a behavior – it also implies that the cue is built in to a useful function, not a design meant solely to provide the cue. ‘Intervention’ means the cue exposes a desired choice with an effective influence, and also teaches over time. It does not mean choice is removed, but rather that the consequences are conveyed. Here are a few principles to make the most of these designs.

• Ideally, the solutions require little or no extra consumption. I love the idea of using waste energy itself to provide information about the usage, like the tiles.
• Use impact as the cue. It might work to just default to the preferred choice, but drawing a connection to quantities and consequences helps raise awareness that goes beyond your design.
• Minimize extra steps for the user. The Gravia is a great concept in connecting behavior to energy but if it fails in broad acceptance, this is why. People won’t easily sacrifice convenience.
• Minimize new purchases and material impact. As McLuhan said, “the medium is the message.” If your design has a big material footprint while encouraging sustainable behavior, people will notice the hypocrisy.
• Be familiar. Characterize impact in an accessible way. Kilowatt-hours aren’t valuable feedback until you understand their relation to your behavior intuitively. Start with something easy to relate.
• Be encouraging. Positive reinforcement tied to a good choice has been shown to effect behavior change; chastising is counter-productive (and probably won’t sell).
• Be honest. Don’t exaggerate. Green-washing is a serious impediment to informed decisions for change.

Do you have other examples of contextual intervention? Add a comment below.

Related reading and additional design criteria:

• Changing Energy Use Through Design
• Static! The Aesthetics of Energy in Everyday Things
• Sustainable Interaction Design: Invention & Disposal, Renewal & Reuse
• Nudge

Monitor links:

• Kill-A-Watt
• Wattson
• TED – The Energy Detective
• Onzo smart energy kit
• GEO home energy hub
• OWL wireless monitor
• Google PowerMeter
• Microsoft hohm
• Yello meter