EMPOWER

Lead Research Organisation: Brunel University London
Department Name: Sch of Engineering and Design

Abstract

EMPOWER's mission is to integrate creative, empathic user-centred design techniques with genuinely novel product design innovation. The current problems are:(i) users feel disengaged with the bland, utilitarian, and non-user friendly design of many existing energy control and feedback interfaces which could impact upon their general disengagement with energy efficiency; (ii) users are not aware of the connections between their decisions and energy use; (iii) designers do not know enough about user behaviour in the context of energy usage There is a gap in the market for novel and exciting beautifully designed, high-end energy control and feedback interfaces. EMPOWER's work packages will begin with ethnographic workplace studies of users' interactions with energy and decision making processes, and drill down into detailed user insights and users' mental models. These insights will underpin a series of highly iterative and novel participatory design workshops within workplaces, with users and stakeholders. The outcomes of the workshops will drive the product development process. The final outcome will be an innovative user-driven energy efficiency product, which can be commercially exploited beyond the end of the project. The project is supported by More Associates' CarbonCulture behaviour-change delivery and research platform and an ongoing collaboration with the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
 
Description EMPOWER focused on reducing the CO2 emissions of workplaces through connecting staff with energy data, and their own behaviour, in more engaging ways, via a digital platform. This digital platform has now been launched commercially as CarbonCulture.



A collaboration between More Associates, Design at Brunel University and WMG at the University of Warwick, EMPOWER benefited from DECC's offices in Whitehall as a pilot site. The project developed More's nascent 'CarbonCulture' energy monitoring platform into a suite of web apps, a user dashboard, blog, visualisations and physical touchpoints designed to engage staff in understanding the energy and carbon impacts of everyday behaviours and practices.





The Brunel and Warwick teams:



•Provided a sound base of knowledge of user-centred design techniques for behaviour change which fed into the other parts of the project, via a literature and practice review

•Carried out a series of original ethnographic workplace studies of users' daily interactions with energy to inform design decision-making

•Disseminated the insights revealed by the workplace studies to the project team, in an appropriate format to provide a base of knowledge for the rest of the project

•Ran a programme of novel participatory user-centred design activities involving building users and other stakeholders

•Contributed to the design and development process for the new service arising from the participatory design activities

•Disseminated research findings to relevant stakeholders and a wider audience, including writing journal and conference papers.



The aim of the pilot was to achieve a high level of staff engagement-measured by repeated use of the platform-demonstrating effective methods of engaging employees in caring about the part their behaviour plays in CO2 emissions, both as a precursor to behaviour change, and to increase buy-in to relevant building operation changes.



Following ethnography, participatory activities, carbon footprinting, and background research (including contributions from all project partners), key areas of staff behaviour were identified to address through CarbonCulture's combination of digital and physical interventions, including:



• encouraging staff working late to move to a single floor

• encouraging staff to eat lower-carbon lunches

• logging commuting transport choices

• involving staff in assessing thermal comfort

• providing information on CO2 impact of business travel



'Apps' were paired with physical touchpoints (e.g. loyalty cards for lunch choices), available via a dashboard presented as part of the DECC intranet. All apps offered users points for logging particular actions, redeemable for prizes; a 'social proof' ticker showed users the actions their colleagues were taking.



Publicly available electricity and gas visualisations-both near-realtime and summary data-connected staff directly to building performance and seasonal changes, enabling conversation with facilities management. The introduction of gas data visualisation at DECC enabled 20% daytime gas savings to be identified.
Exploitation Route The project developed More's nascent 'CarbonCulture' energy monitoring platform into a suite of web apps, a user dashboard, blog, visualisations and physical touchpoints designed to engage staff in understanding the energy and carbon impacts of everyday behaviours and practices. This digital platform has now been launched commercially as CarbonCulture. Other government departments-including Number 10-have also signed up for elements of CarbonCulture.

More launched CarbonCulture publicly in late 2012, with a blog and a DECC-endorsed report including sections authored by Dan Lockton, the Brunel/Warwick researcher on EMPOWER. Academic outputs which might be put to use by others include papers published and in preparation on interaction heuristics, engagement strategies and mental models of energy.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Energy

Environment

Government

Democracy and Justice
URL http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2544170
 
Description The project developed More's nascent 'CarbonCulture' energy monitoring platform into a suite of web apps, a user dashboard, blog, visualisations and physical touchpoints designed to engage staff in understanding the energy and carbon impacts of everyday behaviours and practices. This digital platform has now been launched commercially as CarbonCulture. Publicly available electricity and gas visualisations-both near-realtime and summary data-connected DECC staff directly to building performance and seasonal changes, enabling conversation with facilities management. The introduction of gas data visualisation at DECC enabled 20% daytime gas savings to be identified.
First Year Of Impact 2012
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Environment
Impact Types Societal

Economic
 
Description More Associates 
Organisation More Associates
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Brunel University and Warwick Manufacturing Group contributed user centred design and ethnographic research expertise.
Collaborator Contribution More Associates contributed project management expertise and software development expertise.
Impact Improvements to the More Associates CarbonCulture platform.
Start Year 2010
 
Title CarbonCulture platform 
Description CarbonCulture uses metering to monitor carbon use in the workplace. It helps clients use that data to make better decisions around energy usage and sustainability, enabling them to realise cash savings. It also places great emphasis on design and user interface, enabling people within an organisation to connect, so that employees develop a shared understanding of sustainability 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2012 
Impact Reductions in carbon use, particularly in government buildings 
URL https://platform.carbonculture.net/about/