Neighbourhood wattch - Community based energy visualisation for the home
Parisa Eslambolchilar · 2010
In this paper we describe an investigation into a social, community-based electricity and waste visualisation. We present a system that, through visualisations suitable for all ages, can display the electricity consumption and waste production of a community. This system, originally deployed online, was analysed during a month-long user study, which found that, although eliciting an initial popular response, was not sufficiently embedded in daily life to have a long term effect. Thus a separate device was prototyped to give the system a permanent, more pervasive presence in a household. Additionally, we argue that such a system could be easily adapted for personalised mobile use, and would benefit from the more frequent interactions with, for example, a user’s mobile phone. We also present challenges in producing this interface on a mobile device, and open discussion on how this is best achieved.