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Thesis - Teknisk Design

1. major fault or critical fault 1 ANSI VITA 40 2003 is a status indicator standard that is generally applicable to products using lights to convey status information to the user 2 CEI IEC 73 Basic and Safety Principles for Man Machine Interface Marking and Identification Source Hartley C 2010 Colors Internet Available at http www av40 org AV40Site Colors html 89 Appendix VIII Seven design intervention POWER AWARE CORD Visualising electricity use through pulses flows and intensity of light Visualising variations in energy production during ELECTRICAL SEPHAMORE the day ECO INFORMATION strategies TYRANNY OF THE PLUG Blender powered by human energy to create reflection on power WATTBLOCKS Master step switch enabling all connected appliances to switch off ENERGY LOCK Provides feedback on energy usage and enables user with one switch to switch off unneccessary appliances o Q VAMPIRE PLUG gt Mechanical timer where user OL Y sets how long a product should charge before it switches off ECO CHOICE WATTSON Displays actual household energy consumption and cost HOME JOULE Displays actual household energy consumption and ENERGY AWARE CLOCK Displays actual household energy consumption through with numbers and colour p real time cost of electricity size of pattern and
2. pact of their behaviour Scripts and behaviour steering based on providing products with scripts or directions on how they should be used Intelligent products and systems based on prod ucts having more control over its functioning In a further developed model Bharma et al 2008 define seven different design strategies The authors have categorised the strategies according to three el ements considered important for behavioural change intention habits and control see Fig 6 These strate gies have different levels of power in decision making between the user and product In the strategies that are categorised under intention the power lies more in the hands of the user whereas in the strategies that are categorised under control the power to create a behavioural change lies more with the product itself 8 1 Three elements of behaviour al change The three defined elements of behavioural change will be described below 8 1 1 Intentions Intentions are affected by attitudinal social and affec tive factors Bhamra et al 2008 Attitudinal factors Attitude refers to the sometimes evaluative behaviour or outlook upon which a user may have on an object Moore 2001 in Faiers et al 2007 In the model of Bharma et al 2008 the factors have been determined as the level of knowledge or the be liefs that a user holds These factors influence the way which a user may understand an issue o
3. pen pen pen d d d d d d d d d d d d di d d d d d d d d d d d d d ix XIII Different components of the carrier product ix XIV Cards to analyse pattern of use ix XV Flow charts ix XVI Initial analysis on potential energy wastage ix XVII Theoretical calculations ix XVIII Effect of usage time ix XIX Effect of frequency of use ix XX Effect of distribution frequency ix XXI Effect of cold water ix XXIV Demographic data from the user studies ix XXV Pattern of use ix XXVI Context of use x XXVII Distribution frequency ix XXVIII Energy wastage factors from user actions ix XXIX Energy wastage factors user perspective ix XXX Energy wastage factors technical perspective ix XXXI Idea generation ix XXXII Idea generation of the Energy Overview ix XXXIII Concepts for method ix XXXIV Energy Overview Product ix XXXV Matrix Product ix XXXVI Matrix II Product ix XXXVII Energy Overview Product 2 ix XXXVII Matrix Product 2 ix XXXIX Matrix II Product 2 ix XL Energ ability Tool cards Introduction Background The background to the thesis will be presented be low 1 1 Household energy consump tion Climate change has during the past years become a prime source of concern Without preventive meas ures on a global level it could have a serious impact on human life and the environment all over the world In order to avoid the worst
4. you the most energy 40 2 25 2 18 Have energy efficient Choose eco option Have products with Switch off products products on product auto switch off Female MN G J Appendix XXII Energy context mapping session How do you perform the user goal When you do per form the user goal How do you perform the user goal When you do perform the user goal S Template with a a 24 h timeline 00 00 03 00 06 00 09 00 12 00 l i MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THRUSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 15 00 18 00 21 00 24 00 THRUSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY HOLIDAY 15 00 18 00 21 00 24 00 User goal context stickers to place on the template on the template User goal stickers to place iy B i 102 Appendix XXIII Energy context mapping session How much energy do you think is being consumed How do you feel while per forming the user goal What other kind of things would you do while performing the user goal How do you perform the user goal DAY TIME r Template with 4 different timelines j w Emotions stickers Action stickers gt Other action yu 99 D oDe DDO 2919 Percentage of energy consumed stick
5. Accessed 22 March 2010 Jackson T 2005 Motivating Sustainable Consump tion a review of evidence on consumer behaviour and behavioural change A report to the Sustainable Devel opment Research Network Centre for Environmental Strategy University of Surrey United Kingdom Janhager J 2005 User Considerations in Early Stages of Product Development Theories and Meth ods Doctoral Thesis KTH Industrial Engineering and Management Stockholm Joint Research Centre for the European Commission 2007 Electricity consumption growing in spite of efficiency drive says EU report 2007 07 13 Internet Available at http europa eu rapid pressReleasesAc tion do reference P 07 1091 amp format HTML amp aged 0 amp language EN amp guiLanguage enjuly 2029th 202010 Accessed 29 July 2010 Jordan P W 2001 An Introduction to Usability Tay lor amp Frances Ltd Padstow UK Karlsson M 2005 Lyssna till kundens r st Kur skompendium Produktutveckling Behov och Krav Gotebprg Institutionen for product och produktion sutveckling Chalmers Tekniska H gskola Karlsson R Luttropp C 2006 EcoDesign what s happening An overview of the subject area of EcoDe sign and of the papers in this special issue Journal of Cleaner Production 14 15 16 pp 1291 1298 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2002 The Power Control User Interface Standard Consultant Report for California Energy Commission Pier
6. Energy Use and Efficiency 2008 IEA however conclud A 13 ed that there still remains a large potential for further energy savings through increased energy efficiency As an example the energy consumption related to standby power can be significantly reduced According to Ellis 2007 it is technically feasible to reduce standby pow er by as much as 90 without worsening the features Companies such as Fujitsu Siemens have gone so far as to tackling the standby issue by simply eliminating energy consumption from standby and OFF mode with their O Watt display and PC Fujitsu 2010 Other solu tions implementable within the product itself include having a hard switch power management system or using alternative power sources such as a photovoltaic cell or battery to power the standby function Mohanty 2002 For products with an EPS it has been suggested to replace these alternatives with corded solutions but the portability of the products would then be lost In addressing users who tend to leave their charger plugged in there are several types of technical solu tions Timers can switch off when the battery is fully charged and batteries can be optimised to minimise overcharging Despite this simple battery chargers which can be both inefficient and have constant power consumption are often preferred due to their lower ini tial costs McAllister and Farrell 2006 7 3 Educational measures Governments and environmental
7. Once the user goal of the product being investigated has been determined by the participants an overview of the product that links user actions user interface power modes time and power consumption will be put together on a given graphical template A set of instructive cards will step by step guide the participants through this stage and also help them to categorise the power modes and user ac tions that are present in the product into types see Ap pendix XL To distinguish between the different power mode and action types on the graphical template a set of stickers can be used See Appendix XXXIV and XXXVII for two examples of the Energy Overview 29 2 Stage 2 Analyse In the Analyse stage presumptive energy wastage is examined for each of the 3 Approaches through a set of instructive cards see Appendix XL The cards will examine whether the product fulfils the principles of each approach by examining whether certain energy wastage factors exist In the Product Honesty approach energy wastage is examined depending on the ease of understanding and ensuring zero energy consumption whereas in the User Perspective it is examined in the user interface and context of use For the Technical Per spective energy wastage is examined after having de termined the conversion effectiveness of the product For each approach the What Why and How will be ex amined in other words 70 M What kind of energy wastage can occur
8. This could be an indication of that younger generations of people have been more exposed to this symbol than the ON OFF symbol The survey also showed that a larg er part of the respondents 97 8 associated standby with electricity consumption see Appendix X None of the respondents chose the I do not know alternative indicating that the term standby is widely recognized and related to electricity consumption The respondents appeared to prefer different types of switching off solutions depending on the product see Fig 12 Approximately 55 1 of the respondents pre ferred to switch off a TV by themselves but preferred the dish washing machine micro wave and coffee machine to have an automatic switch off 44 0 44 4 and 36 3 respectively A large percentage of users 55 1 37 6 36 8 36 3 35 33 8 15 4 el A A Le A A a 3 A A ia Switch it off myself by pressing a button Have the product switch it off automatically Have the choice to switch it off myself and on product or remote control have the product switch off automatically Fig 12 Question How would you like to switch off the following products after use stated that they would like to have the choice between 13 3 2 Understanding switched off switching off themselves or having the product switch The majority of respondents 57 7 believed that off automatically a produ
9. Why does the energy wastage problem occur How can the energy wastage problem be solved The results of the examination can be filled in two sepa rate matrices In Matrix the energy wastage is ascribed to the power modes whereas in Matrix II it is ascribed to the user actions In both matrices the Next step can also be determined in which potential follow ups to ver ify or further investigate the identified energy wastage can be depicted see Appendix XXXV XXXVI and Ap pendix XXXVIII XXXIX for examples of the matrices There are two ways of approaching the What Why and How For Product Honesty and User Perspective the energy wastage factors will be examined with help of the Energy Overview The latter will show the partici pants the power mode and action types of the product and this will determine which cards should be used The cards are colour coded in accordance with the power mode and action types As a result only the cards rel evant to the product will be used Each card is struc tured to contain a question explain the potential en ergy wastage factor provide with an example of the energy wastage in a product to create an understanding for its occurrence and offer suggestions of how the en ergy wastage could be solved The Technical Perspective has a different way of approaching the What Why and How than the other two approaches Once haven deter mined the conversion effectiveness the cards will help
10. electricity consumption than normal and red as higher than normal The Power Aware Cord uses blue due to that user tests showed that blue light was perceived as representing electricity current Other ways of provid ing users with visual feedback was through variations of pattern size This shows that there is no standard way of using colour to communicate energy related aspects 3 Survey The analysis of company s domestic appliances had pointed out that there were aspects of the user inter face that needed to be addressed including a possible misperception of when a product is or is not consum ing energy This was therefore further investigated in a survey 26 M 13 1 Purpose The purpose of the survey was to gain insights in the general user understanding of energy using products Focus was put on the user interface to determine whether it could be a cause of energy wastage The as pects that were addressed included users perception of the ON and OFF of a product and what elements of the user interface that help users to determine when a product is switched off 13 2 Method Below follows an account of the method of approach 13 2 1 Developing the survey In order to be able to gather information as well as to reach out to a wide range of people it was determined that an online survey would be the best medium of achieving this Surveys can have a non structured or a structured form The advantage o
11. frustrated LTA T ES ee Reed ener ee rn E irritated resigned 93 2 10 If a product is consuming a low amount of electricity should it tell you this through for example a small indicator light Yes the product No if it is only a low should tell me it is amount of electricity consuming electricity then it does not matter J rc 97 12 Imagine you have a product with an eco button This button could be a new button on the product or replace an existing button on the product If you press this button what would you expect 61 5 a The performance of the product will be er Ps 94 4 b The energy consumption of the product will be SL d c The time it takes the product to perform its function will be 00001 Q 13 Some products have a standby mode What does this mean to you 88 2 1 0 99 14 Some products can consume a low amount of electricity when you are not using them This could be because they have a certain function that needs this electricity For which of the following products is this ok for you 92 3 E m It is mot ok I do not know 100 15 What would be your main motive for reducing the energy consumption of your products You can choose one or 81 2 Prolong the lifespan I have no motive 16 If you wanted to reduce the energy consumption of your products which of the following do you think could save
12. have been recognised as a way to identify aspects such as habits that prevent a sustainable usage Theoretical methods to investigate the usage phase have however not been identified but could from a company per spective be beneficial as they are less costly They do not require home placement tests but instead enable a product to be investigated in an environment separate from its actual context of use Such a method could not only be a cost effective way of identifying the factors that can lead to energy wastage but also provide a ba sis for developing products for the Silent Green Based on the findings of the literature study it was therefore concluded that in examining energy con sumption and potential energy wastage during the us age phase there were two aspects of the user product interaction to pursue To examine the user understanding of the user in terface of energy using products To examine how the usage phase is influenced by users by conducting a study on a carrier product ee 211 The results of these two investigations would in turn form the basis for developing a theoretical method to identify energy wastage and what aspect of the user product interaction for which a behaviour change need ed to be created This method would also be the means to explore how sustainable usage could be implement ed in the domestic appliances of the company 22 M Preliminary work Introduction In the
13. ing the user goal and all the required actions had to be o 0 01010 Fig 44 Above Types stickers for actions Below Types stickers for power modes 58 Fig 43 First version of instructive cards rephrased to avoid confusion It should no longer be about determining the most energy efficient usage but instead the intended way of achieving a user goal The usage of this phrase was considered more appropriate as product developers will most likely easier relate to it lt was also concluded that the rephrasing would not affect the outcome of the analysis as the analysis ex amined deviations from a specific way of usage 26 Final development In this stage the method was completed It was also decided that the method that was being developed was not to be referred to as a method but instead Triggering question to examine energy wastage Consequence in terms of energy wastage Fig 45 Example of a card analysing energy wastage as a tool This decision was based upon the fact that the word tool felt lighter and less intricate than the word method Upon the suggestion of a mentor it was named the Energ ability Tool This name was found appropriate considering that the case study survey and method development process had evolved with focus on usability from an energy perspective 26 1 Purpose The purpose of this stage was to finalise the to
14. product developer to create an Energy Overview and to create cards for examining the What and Why of en ergy wastage from the user perspective 25 2 Method In this stage cards instructing how to create an Energy Overview and to analyse energy wastage were devel oped and tested 25 2 1 Energy Overview In the Further analysis potential energy wastage had been investigated by comparing a product to an ideal way of using it This approach was seen as successful and assumed to be a way with which energy wastage could be examined in other products Thus the aim of the Energy Overview was to determine and make ex plicit the most energy efficient way of usage and there after investigate the possible deviations from this The Energy Overview from the previous stage was improved and a template that the product developer could use to create an overview of the product was developed A set of instructive cards were thereafter created 25 2 2 Cards for analysing energy wastage The Question Basis for the user perspective was used as a foundation to develop cards examining the What and Why of energy wastage It was decided that each question should have a separate card 25 2 3 Testing the method A test version of the method was created and tested on a product As a result several areas of improvement were identified but the positive aspects of the method were also made clear 25 3 Results The results of this stage will be pr
15. use behaviour and to take responsibility of their actions through providing consumers with options Bhamra et al 2008 Providing users with choices can enhance the cause and effect in which a user having to make a choice will re flect over their decision and be more likely to learn from and adapt their behaviour accordingly Lilley 2009 How the user makes a choice could however influ ence its cause and effect Jackson 2005 mentions that choices can according to the rational choice theory be made by evaluating the expected outcome and choos ing the alternative that is most beneficial to the user The author also mentions that choices do not always have to follow a deliberate thought process and the potential benefit of the cause and effect could thereby result in an undesirable behavioural change Features that should enable the user to use a product in a more sustainable way are only beneficial to the environment if these features are selected and used by the user This could be affected by the amount of choices given to the user Too many choices or too much information can according to Jackson 2005 result in feelings of help lessness which people in general try to resist as they 18 like to feel in control of their lives Lockton et al 2008 therefore mean that if there are several options that a user can choose between the tendency for the user to choose the eco friendly option will increase if it is easy
16. 35 Resultando nidad 57 25 3 O Wsenenrnasainpan n tata aaa aaa a ia ia 57 25 3 2 Cards for analysing energy WASTE mic es 58 25 3 3 Evaluating the testing of the Method eecssssssesssesensesntnssuessetsmeneessenesttsnesnetereenestnsnisrsesertiesests 58 26 Final SE VEI OPS NSE sassone naii ttccaucdesias buco A O NE AANA AE ARAN AN A 58 DON PURPOSE ae 59 DG 2 MENO danaa a aa A E e N AA E AE E AA 59 DOP te ENS OVA E E E A E 59 26 2 2 Cards for analysiMg Cer gy WASEGGC masia aa 59 26 2 3 SUMIMGHSINE results Of THE anal Sarri n 60 2624 Creating the NONGDOOK rica 60 26 2 5 Testing and vdluatingtne Toda aian a 60 e E A A E A E A E E E N 6l A ENOVOS EW a a a e A bee toeteaieaticea daeesiabnatecatee l 26 3 2 Cards for analysing energy WaStag inicien l 26 3 3 Summarising the results of the ANALYSIS esses l 2034 ME e o E A E 62 203 3 I AeWOrKS hO Deense a e ea 62 101 1 1 A O E E A ara panes etsadnaed itso acted aetaaape 65 A A ted da E N A E A A 66 28 The Approaches to Energy Effective Pro ects iii d 66 28 Product ARES da 67 28 2 Mechnical Pers DECIS ea E E E scnaiecnaen 68 28 3 JS IPC pidas 68 10A The Nandor AP NE E ONEA 68 29 he neral Ta A a 68 2a otage DENSa ann tot aise Asean va ain menial hacen ae Manama Gaia ce tee tani tates 70 LID SLABS DPA aly Se sess A ceon neonate A aia 70 273 RS Mirad iaa 71 30 CONGEp ial eas tor the came producida aorta iden 71 A einstein cai ee anche iodine 73 A O 74
17. Mode Energy Losses In New Appliances Measured in Shops Actions and policy instruments EA APP EU Interna tional Standby Workshop Sherwin C and Evans S 2000 Ecodesign Innovation Is Early Always Best IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment pp 112 117 Stern Review 2006 Stern Review The Econom ics of Climate Change Internet Available at http siteresources worldbank org INTINDONESIA Resourc es 226271 1170911056314 3428109 1174614780539 SternReviewEng pdf Accessed 9 February 2010 Tang T Bhamra T A 2008 Understanding Consumer Behaviour to Reduce Environmental Impacts through Sustainable Product Design In Undisciplined Design Research Society Conference 2008 Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield UK 16 19 July 2008 Visser F S Stappers P J v d Lugt R Sanders E B N 2005 Contextmapping experiences from practice CoDesign Vol 1 No 2 June 2005 p119 149 Taylor amp Francis Group Ltd Wallenborn G Prignot N Rousseau C Orsini M Vanhaverbeke J Thollier K Simus P 2009 Integra tion of Standards Ecodesign and Users in energy using products ISEU Final Report Phase 1 Brussels Belgian Science Policy 2009 Research Programme Science for a Sustainable Development Internet Available at http www belspo be belspo ssd sci ence Reports ISEU Report 20Phase1 DEF pdf Wever R van Kuijk J Boks C 2008 User centred Desig
18. O Coffee machine O O O O TV O O O O 8 When are you certain that your product is switched off You can choose one or more of the following options All the indicator lights are off The OFF light is on Other Please Specify 9 How would you feel if you switch off a product and you later find out that it is still consuming a low amount of electricity Disappointed 92 Betrayed It does not matter Other Please Specify 10 If a product is consuming a low amount of electricity should it tell you this through for example a small indicator light Yes the product should tell me it is consuming electricity No if it is only a low amount of electricity then it does not matter 11 Buttons or small indicators on products can light up in different colours when they are in use What do you think the product is telling you when a button or indicator lights up with the following colours Product is ON Product is OFF Product is in Something is Does not mean am colour Other Please standby mode wrong with the anything e g it blind and can Specify product is only used for not distinguish decoration this colour Green O O O O O O O Red Q O O de Q Q O Yellow orange O O O O O O aie O O O O O O O White O O O O O O o 12 Imagine you have a product with an eco button This button could be a new button on the product or replace an existing button on the product If you press this button what would
19. Public Interest Energy Research Program Internet Available at http eetd Ibl gov controls publications pubsin dex html Accessed 22 Feb 2010 Lilley D 2009 Design for sustainable behaviour strategies and perceptions Design Studies Elsevier Ltd Lilley D Lofthouse V Bhamra T 2005 Towards Instinctive Sustainable Product Use Presented at the 2ns International Conference Sustainability Creating the Culture 2 4th November 2005 Aberdeen Exhibi tion amp Conference Centre Aberdeen Lockton D Harrison D Stanton N 2008 Mak ing the user more efficient Design for sustainable behaviour Preprint version International Journal of Sustainable Engineering Taylor amp Francis Lockton D Harrison D Stanton N 2010 Design with Intent 101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design Internet Available at http www danlockton com dwi Main_Page Accessed 10 March 2010 AAA 81 Lofthouse V 2004 Investigation into the role of core industrial designers in ecodesign project Design Stud ies 25 2 pp 215 227 Lofthouse V Lilley D 2008 Design for Behavioural Change An Engineering Subject Centre Mini project Award 2008 End of Project Report Loughborough University Internet Available at www staff lboro ac uk Design_for_Behavioural_Change 20 20 end_of_project_report pdf Accessed 10 March 2010 Luttropp C Lagerstedt J 2006 EcoDesign and The Ten Golden
20. RS 232C WiFi HDMI infra signal red other than that of remote control e Network Battery is charging Product is either in the charging station or connected to an external charger Charging si El j Lowpower mod s Not providing with any function Product is not connected to the charging sta for products with an EPS o tion or external charger No load j a Providing function to avoid discharging Product is fully charged and connected to Maintenance lay of battery either a charging station or external charger Providing one or more of the main Active mode 1 functions LEGISLATION INTERNAL GUIDELINES EC No 1275 2008 By 2010 lt IW By 2013 lt 05W EC No 1275 2008 By 2010 lt W without display lt 2W with display By 2013 lt 0 5W without display lt W with display EC No 1275 2008 By 2010 lt IW By 2013 lt 0 5W NB There is an ongoing study to establish more specific regulations for network modes EC No 278 2009 By 2010 different average active efficiency limits depending on P a By 2013 different average active efficiency limits depending on P a and EPS type AC AC AC DC or low voltage EC No 278 2009 By 2010 lt 0 5W 0 lt P lt 250 By 2011 lt 0 5W for all AC AC lt 0 5W P gt 51W lt 0 3W P lt 51W for AC DC and low voltage EPS EC No 1275 2008 By 2010 lt IW By 2013 lt 0 5W The text has been removed in reference to
21. WHEN to perform an action User does not know HOW to perform an action User does not receive FEEDBACK of performed action Context of use The product may not be adapted to where it is being used The product uses more energy than the minimal theo retical energy to fulfill a user goal The product uses energy without the user knowing User may leave the product plugged in User does not perform action at User can place User has to double Action can take Fig 52 Overview of energy wastage factors from the 3 Approaches Stage I DEFINE DEFINE Stage 2 ANALYSE WHAT WHY HOW NEXT wrong amount of check that an action longer than right time or does objects has been performed expected not perform it at all Action can take User chooses the User does not un longer than wrong combina derstand automated expected tion of actions power modes Stage 3 WHAT The product uses energy when the product is not in use The product is not effective in fulfilling a user goal WHY an Energy Overview of the product by linking user actions user interface pow er modes time and power consumption the product does not comply with the Product Honesty Principles Step 2 2 Investigates energy wastage that can occur due to that the product does not fulfill the User Perspective Principle by analysing
22. action 3 O O O Fig 40 Template for the Energy Overview How to perform the action Power mode Power mode When to perform the action Feedback of performed action Fig 41 A part of the Energy Overview that can be used to de pict how a product with its interface elements can make the user perform an action that causes a power mode transition 56 MTT Power mode O O C 4 D db wo dy User Interface 6 gt AAS v v v v lp Ip Ip Up ways of formulating the questions It was realised that there was a possibility to develop the question cards in a way so that only the cards relevant to the specific product under investigation could be selected and uti lised The colour code that had been developed for the Question Basis could for example be used for this In ad dition the cards could evolve and grow in number over time Another discovered benefit when comparing the concepts was that only the identified energy wastage that had been determined during the analysis would be summarised in the matrix lt was concluded that Concept 2 was the best idea to continue with It was however pointed out that these cards even though they were simply formulated were too abstract for product developers The given examples made it dif ficult for them to relate a potential described problem with a product and it was therefore suggested that the cards should include a specific example from the case study to make the q
23. and is therefore not consuming any energy Low power modes Product is connected to a pow er source and will either consume a low amount of electricity or none at all for a given functionality Low power modes for products with an EPS Prod uct is connected to a power source through an EPS and will consume a low amount of electricity for a given functionality Active modes Product is connected to a power source and consumes energy to fulfill one or more of the main functions of the product EXAMPLES OF POWER MODES WITHIN EACH CATEGORY Disconnected E Unplugged f io Soft off Standby a Network mode Mode Unplugged Low Power a Modes Hard off Low Power Modes for g products with an EPS Charging Std Maintenance No load Active 1 Modes Heating k IiE im Brewing Vacuum cleaning Stirring Fig 3 Overview of the power mode categories O g Lo Unplugged User plugs Hard off Unplugged User plugs Hard off in coffee ON OFF button off machine p 1 User presses inTV ON OFF button x 10 User presses Brewing K i User presses Standby standby button on 1 TV s active mode remote control 6 10 Automatic switch Hard off Fig 4 Examples of power mode transitions Top a TV Bottom a dripfilter coffee machine Each power mode category can in tur
24. caused by a user action or automatically by the product itself a need to visualize the connection between these two aspects arose Different ways of visualizing this was de veloped see Appendix XXXII In finding ways of visual ising these connections an initial inspiration was found from the interaction model of the company For con fidentiality reasons the model in its original form was not permitted to be included in this thesis The Energy Overview gradually evolved into a holistic view of the user product interaction providing a visual overview of YS power modes power distribution length of time user actions and the three main interface elements that had been determined in the Further analysis 24 2 3 Concept generation and evaluation During the parallel development of the Question Basis and Energy Overview the idea of combining these two emerged The combination was considered appropri ate as the Energy Overview showed the basic aspects of the user product interaction upon which the investiga tion could be based In determining how these could be combined together with the criterion of how to present the results of the analysis different ideas were generat ed and resulted in two concepts These were evaluated and one was chosen for further development 24 2 4 Evolvement of the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products During the Further analysis the idea of having a set of principles and recommendations for p
25. colour ECO FEEDBACK FLOWER LAMP A FLOWER POD Rewards user when energy usage is low Electronic flower that grows or wilts in relation by unfolding its petals and thereby giving LM to the level of energy consumption more light p 7 ECO SPUR PUZZLE SWITCH Designed to enhance understanding of ON OFF and to encourage user to switch off through their built in desire for order ECO STEER ERRATIC RADIO Radio frequency and volume can change depending on the amount of appliances that are in usage POWER HOG Children can user their appliances Aye for 30 minutes by feeding pig with coin ENERGY CURTAIN Window shade collecting solar power during day and emitting light during evening ECO TECHNICAL 90 Appendix IX Questions of the survey This is mel Dish washing machine Micro wave oven Coffee machine TV SURVEY ON ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS My name is Sophie Thornander and am a student of Industrial Design Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Sweden am working on my Master s thesis on electricity consumption of household products and need your help to answer 16 questions about products that are powered by electricity the questions are distributed over two pages In this survey the word product will only refer to a product that is powered by electricity through a cord that is plugged into a wall socket Examp
26. continue the investigation in three consecutive steps The first step examines what aspects can lead to that the product may use more energy than the minimal theoretical energy The second step requires detailed knowledge of the product functioning to understand the occurrence of energy wastage The third step con sists of two sets of recommendations for how energy wastage could be solved in low power modes and other energy using power modes respectively 29 3 Stage 3 In depth The In Depth stage can be performed to complement the Analyse stage and contains two separate guidelines for conducting Detailed user studies in home environments Energy measurements to determine the energy im pact of the usage phase The guidelines summarises the undertaken approach of the case study and require both time and access to real users in their context of use as well as a lab with proper measurement equipment The guidelines for conducting the user studies includes recommendations for obtaining a deeper understand ing of user habits by examining how they are using the product through user observations in home en vironments and conducting energy context mapping sessions The guidelines for conducting energy meas urements provides instructions of how to create user profiles and user scenarios to investigate the effect of the distribution frequency on the energy consumption as well as the annual energy consumption and also to establish
27. for the user to select this option 8 2 3 Eco Feedback A strategy to inform users clearly about what they are doing and to facilitate consumers to make environmen tally and socially responsible decisions through offering real time feedback Bhamra et al 2008 Feedback has by many been advocated as a way of mo tivating people to change their behaviour Appropriate feedback can help users to develop more accurate men tal models Lockton et al 2008 helping them to un derstand the current situation and thereafter have the ability to make the right decision The way the feedback is presented is thus important as it relies on the users ability to relate it to their behaviour and to thereafter make the right choice When how and what type of feedback are therefore important Early studies by Senders et al 1952 have shown that feedback given during or immediately after the usage of a product is more effective as it enables users to more easily relate their usage to the product Wood amp Newbourough 2002 This type of feedback give users the possibility to change their behaviour immediately after the feedback has been given Lockton et al 2008 Providing users with information does not however always imply that it will lead to an action Darby 2001 in Lilley 2009 and many advocates emphasise the importance of also giv ing users an incentive to change An often used argu ment to change behaviour that is mentioned in seve
28. for two energy using scenarios Effect of us age time and Distribution Frequency The calculations were performed by comparing the measured energy values from the energy measurements with the mini mum theoretical energy 18 3 Results The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement A 39 18 4 Conclusion The energy measurements showed that energy wastage could occur due to two factors i possible ways of us ing the product that is allowed by the system design ii and the function of the system design itself The energy measurements for the energy usage scenarios showed that the way with which the users can use an appliance could have an impact on the energy consumption due to that Product allows for variations in the amount of time to achieve the user goal Product input can affect the energy consumption Energy required to achieve a user goal is affected by frequency of use and its distribution frequency Product uses energy when not it use The conversion effectiveness emphasised the fact that even when the product was used as ideally as possible in relation to what is possible with the technical func tioning of the system design the effectiveness of the product was still low This was attributed to Product is not optimised for the user goal and uses more energy than necessary for the user goal 19 User studies At this st
29. how severe the impact of an energy wastage factor would be and the probability of its occurrence These two combined could give an indication of which aspects of the user product interaction that would have the highest impact on the energy consumption Ideas for evaluating these were developed but in discussion with a mentor the idea was discontinued It would not only require information from detailed energy meas urements but also of different users knowledge and abilities which would not always be readily available The remaining factors that were found to be relevant were thereafter translated into a matrix The Matrix was kept simple and also aligned with a What Why and 6O M How structure to enhance the link to the analysis of en ergy wastage During the development of the Matrix it became evident that there was a need for two ma trices one in which energy wastage could be ascribed to a user action and one in which it could be ascribed to the power modes of a product This conclusion was based on the fact that when investigating a product from a technical perspective it makes more sense to examine and evaluate the product function within a specific power mode This is due to that not all user ac tions such as an external one will necessarily result in the activation of a certain function of the product In addition when conducting energy measurements it is easier and more efficient to investigate and determine the diffe
30. interaction This multi disciplinary tool is intended to support product developers with different discipli nary backgrounds in creating a common understanding of the product and its potential energy impact during the usage phase With this insight product developers should have a better ability to improve products already during early development phases and thereby prevent the products from using unnecessary energy during the usage phase Table of Contents Ls A l VAG UN canos 2 lk Household Sh rey CONSUMO uan 2 1 2 New approach to energy PeqUction miii aa aaa n 3 O O 3 Lali PUTOS Er Aid 3 DoD Cmar nna a rect cnscepeeasats obastg aunt a E a a ai 3 liada aida 3 Sil x Phase l Frame Of FETErEN CE ae 3 3 2 Phase Zo Pires nin WO rta 4 33s PHASES CSES WOVA N AR aa a A canine aaa 4 34 Phase 4 Method development PrOCSSS sss sassssasgvieedsGzececaeseignsenantcncenessenecectssshatigpacigas a ian a Nn 4 ges a po E ETO AAE NA AAO E 7 PP E A E EA EE 8 Ali LL A apia o E AE A O E EE NS RR 8 A OCES Saia a aaa aa O E A A cee 8 Dy Energy Using products aannam iaaa Aa A a aR a A a a AERA 8 Dal POWEF MO deSen nonni N N ARARAS R E E RAR RRRA RG 8 Sells Gategorisation Of pOWeF TOES dt 9 Oil Ze A A I ie Ea o 10 5 1 3 Low power modes for products with an EPS iii es I iz Future EIS IAS e 53s USE UMTS ITA CS ais O SOVITIDOIS A iaa 12 A OOP sitet e cect etic ates E a acct aaa ictal alla E ate 12 Ge SSIES and Energy
31. organizations have been advocating users to buy more energy efficient products through information campaigns and energy labelling of households appliances Schlomann 2010 mentions that in some countries such as Switzerland and the Czech Republic the purchasing has been pro moted through subsidies An interesting observation which was made when googling for ways to reduce en ergy consumption was that the commonly seen ener gy saving advice on the internet included unplug your product or use a power strip to switch off your prod uct In other words the most recognised way to con 14 trol energy consumption of products was through the purchase of an additional device These included power strips with a hard switch timers or devices monitoring energy usage and sensing when to power them down when not in use Another recommendation was for us ers to buy a meter to determine if their product is us ing energy continuously The implication of this advice is that users cannot trust their products This is not in any way out of the ordinary as many products on the market today lack a hard switch and there is therefore no option other than pulling out the plug to ensure that no electricity is being consumed Mohanty 2002 7 4 The counteractive factors of increased energy efficiency Energy wastage in energy using products has mostly been associated with and addressed in low power modes which have become a growing
32. rate of energy using products with mul tiple power modes This will be a result of Increasing communication and networking be tween products Almeida et al 2006 More products with automatic controls such as sensors Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2002 More products with external power supplies Law rence Berkeley National Laboratory 2002 More complex products with additional functions such as large multi colour displays Gruber amp Schlo mann 2006 5 3 User interface The user interface for energy using products can include a combination of manual and automatic controls and power mode indicators in which symbols coloured LED lights displays as well as audio and tactile indicators can be used In indicating the different power modes there is often a lack of consistency in the user interface not only when comparing different types of product but sometimes also within the same type of product Even though many products have power management fea tures present in their interface studies identified that these were often used incorrectly or not at all due to the complexity inconsistency and confusion that they were associated with The energy saving potential that these features have were therefore lost Lawrence Ber keley National Laboratory 2002 There are standards focusing on single aspects of the user interface such as indicators or symbols but no standard covering the entire user interface
33. rebound effect in which the money that con sumers save on energy efficient products can instead lead to increased usage or be spent on other products and services Herring and Roy 2007 An interesting finding from a press release of a report published by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in 2007 was that as older equipment is updated in a household it is still often transferred to other parts of the home instead of being replaced thereby contribut ing to greater electricity consumption 8 Design for behavioural changes Technical and educational measures may not be suf ficient to achieve significant energy reduction given the previously described limitations This knowledge confirms what was suggested in the introduction that product led interventions may be an alternative way to reducing the energy impact in the usage phase of prod ucts and will thus from hereon be the focus of this the sis In the words of Bhamra et al 2008 p 2 Products as the interface between consumers and consumption activities can give immediate and direct responses to users operations how it is perceived learned and used Designing a product means designing a user ex perience with the product which also determines the compound impacts of this experience Within product led interventions Lilley et al 2005 dis tinguish between three potential approaches Eco feedback based on informing users of the im
34. sec ondly by always providing the user with the possibil ity of switching off a product into a hard off Creating a consistency across energy using products can help us ers to create a correct mental model and make them A 67 be confident regarding the outcome when switching off a product In this way a trustful relationship between user and product can be built and the user does not have to doubt or be unsure of whether the product is consuming energy or not 28 2 Technical Perspective The Technical Perspective strives for products to be as effective as possible in their usage of energy by only using the amount of energy necessary for fulfilling a specific user goal This can be achieved if the product strives to reach its minimum theoretical energy when in use and by not using energy when the product is not in use The latter has in products often been present as comfort functions in terms of enabling easy reac tivation or a certain aesthetic look to a product This approach does not in any way propose that comfort should give way to energy effectiveness but instead urges to find other innovative technical solutions that can achieve the same comfort level 28 3 User Perspective The User Perspective states that an intuitive user inter face should be developed to enable users to use the product as energy effectively as possible with minimum thought and effort By examining aspects of the user product int
35. the pre specification stage as the available data is of poor quality Karlsson amp Luttropp 2006 The early stages of product development are however critical and environmental aspects must be integrated here as research indicates that 80 90 of a product s economic and environmental costs are determined in the early stages of the PDP Council 1997 in Sherwin and Evans 2000 Early integration has resulted in the most significant reductions in the environmental impact of products as design changes at the stage prior to the specification being set prevents quality problems after manufacturing Bhamra and Evans 1999 During the pre specification stages the knowledge of the product is rather small but at the same time there is a greater degree of design freedom as nothing has yet been set tled Luttropp amp Lagerstedt 2006 Tailor made solutions have been identified as a key fac tor to successful implementation of ecodesign as well as the usage of common language and knowledge be tween those involved in the process Pascual Boks and Stevels 2003 However many of the tools currently used in ecodesign were initially designed for engineers Lofthouse in Lofthouse 1994 and Sherwin and Evans 2000 mention that these often contain very specific quantified data on the impacts of certain types of man ufacturing processes which are not relevant to indus trial designers Differences in background and training 48 TO of differ
36. theoretical evaluations Of USAGE CLTOFS issues 47 22 3 2 Analysis of requisites for ecodesign OS inicie ri 48 2233 Andysis Of referente CONS ia 48 224 Discussion ANG ADI CAL OTS id 48 23 Une analys taaan 49 O 49 DS De MS E E garter itean nonastagpcidtenaecacea ch nunge daca nanan oa mn Rena AA AAE 49 23 2 1 Analysing the What and Why from a user perspective cai 50 LIL MVESH SOLAS the Wa AAA bt aida 50 LI RS a aa 51 23 3 1 The What and Why analysis from a user perspective 51 23 3 2 The What amp Why from a technical perspective cinc 52 IA CONC ia 52 24 Developing the BASIS anna 53 Pa E e e E E EE E E A E E AEAEE T E RT E A aes 53 DAD o self teeters see cet et O O E cee he deena E 53 24 2 1 Developing a Question Basis from a user PerSPOCtiVE vss 53 24 2 2 Developing a visual basis Of investigation ussen 53 24 2 3s Concept Generation and CVGIUGHON aria did rin 54 24 2 4 Evolvement of the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Product cnica 54 24 o RESUS n n E A E O a A E E E 54 24 3 1 Question Basis from a user perspective ii es 54 LAI Lo ENT VW AA A ASA AS 55 24 33 Evaluation Of CONCE Stan id a aiaa 55 24 3 4 The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products 57 La Ar EO IACI ELSI Oean A nn a E 57 25 Further development rada 57 A a a E A A A A tale tdiet ie earieeee tect 57 DES Di O 57 252k TEM OPV OVV Winning a A a 57 25 2 2 Cards for analysing energy WASTE imac e 57 25 23 MESS TAG MEMO lt and eaaa 57 25
37. user actions user interface and context of use L Step 2 3 Investigates energy wastage that can occur due to that the product does not fulfull the Technical Perspective Principle and thereby uses more energy than required to fulfill a user goal Fig 53 Overview of the Energ ability Tool tial follow ups to verify or further investigate the identified energy wastage through for example energy measurements or focus groups lines for conduct ing detailed energy measurements an energy energy wastage does the energy can the energy STEP is the energy does the energy overview can occur wastage occur wastage be solved impact wastage occur Step 1 1 1 9 Creates Step 2 1 Investigates energy wastage that can occur due to that Determines poten Step 3 1 Guide Step 3 2 Guidelines for conducting user studies to obtain a deeper understanding of user habits by investigating how a user is using a product SS the participants to fill in the results in three templates which will be the deliverables of the analysis 29 1 Stage I Define In Define an Energy Overview of the product is cre ated to establish a common understanding for the us er product interaction and its energy consumption It brings together and shares the product knowledge of different departments to facilitate communication be tween them and to also create a good basis of discus sion to which all can contribute
38. you expect Better No difference Worse The performance of the product will be O Q O The total energy consumption will be O O The time it takes the product to perform its function will be O O 13 Some products have a standby mode What does this mean to you The product is not consuming electricity The product is consuming a low amount of electricity The product is consuming electricity do not know what standby mode means aE 14 Some products can consume a low amount of electricity when you are not using them This could be because they have a certain function that needs this electricity For which of the following products is this ok for you Dish washing machine that you have programmed to start washing in a few hours Micro wave oven with a digital display e g telling the time Coffee machine that is keeping itself warm so that it can brew your next cup of coffee quickly TV that you can use with a remote control Product that consumes electricity for no specific function It is ok O O O a O It is not ok O O9 0O OQO Q Ido not know a O O 15 What would be your main motive for reducing the energy consumption of your products You can choose one or more of the following options Lower my energy bill Environmental concern Prolong the lifespan of my products have no motive Other Please Specify 16 If you wanted to reduce the energy consumption
39. A first attempt to create one was funded by the Public Interest Energy Research Program of the California Energy Commission and conducted by A 111 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory The research led to that an IEEE standard for User Interface Elements in Power Control of Electronic Devices Employed in Of fice Consumer Environments was published in 2004 5 3 1 Symbols The graphical symbols used to indicate different pow er modes that are in accordance to the international standards are presented in Appendix II Of these the standby and ON OFF symbol are of particular interest see Fig 5 Fig 5 Left ON OFF symbol Right Standby symbol The ON OFF symbol is used for hard switches to show that the product is not using electricity whereas the standby symbol is used for soft switches to indicate that the product is consuming electricity An issue that was brought up by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2002 was the distinction between the ON OFF and standby symbols The symbols are to their appearance rather similar and user studies in the US show that the standby symbol has come to be associated with the term power on or power on The ON OFF symbol can also be associated with these terms In the new IEEE standard for user interface elements it was therefore suggested that a crescent moon symbol should be used to indicate a low power mode including standby and that the standby symbol should u
40. CHALMERS Predicting Energy Thieves The development process of a theoretical tool to identify potential risks for energy wastage during the usage phase of products Master of Science Thesis in Industrial Design Engineering Sophie Thornander Department of Product and Production Development Division of Design amp Human Factors Chalmers University of Technology G teborg Sweden 201 Preface This report is a result of a thesis for Industrial Design Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology Swe den in collaboration with a company Due to the confi dentiality of the industry agreement the name of the company cannot be disclosed In this report the proc ess and research that has been conducted to address the usage phase of energy using products will be de picted The thesis has been under the guidance of three men tors to whom would like to express my warmest gratitude to Marianne Karlsson for her academic know how and spot on the dot advice pushing me to believe in my method My second mentor for her warm personality and passion for sustainability who has throughout the process provided me with sound advice inspiration and helped to set limits for my am bitions My third mentor for her inspiring and en couraging words always having the time to meet with me and welcoming me into the company in the best possible way would also like to express my sincere thank yous to my fam
41. Consumes energy and after a set period of time changes into a low power mode standby or off Technically determined Consumes energy during a set period of time to fulfill a technical function User determined Consumes energy and the length of time that the product is in this mode is depends on the user Action types Primary action Action leads to a power mode transition Secondary action Action performed within a power mode External action Secondary action requiring input from objects other than the product itself Regulating action Secondary action affecting or regu lating the amount of power within a power mode Fig 39 Overview of power mode action and interface element types Interface elements z When An interface element that communi cates to the user when to perform the action How An interface element that commu nicates to the user how to perform the action Feedback An interface element that provides feedback to the user of a performed action were developed an assigned to each one see Fig 39 24 3 2 Energy Overview The Energy Overview developed into simple and sepa rate timelines depicting the power consumption length of time power modes user interface elements primary actions and secondary actions These timelines were placed parallel to each other to indicate the relation ship between them see Fig 40 A parallel placement enabled the power distribution to be sh
42. Eco steer A strategy to facilitate users to adopt more environ mentally or socially desirable use habits through the prescriptions and or constraints of use embedded in the product design Bhamra et al 2008 Scripting products with affordances and constraints could help make unsustainable behaviour automatic or impossible Affordances are details or cues that show a user how a product should be used Constraints used to create a behavioural change are also referred to as forcing functions which are built into the system and refrain users from using products incorrectly A known constraint is the poka yoke This is a Japanese term for mistake proofing in which product defects are elimi nated by preventing correcting or drawing attention to human errors Lockton et al 2008 These can include more preventative constraints which prevent the user from performing an error An example of this would be an interlock where a user has to perform actions in a certain order only being able to go to the next action if the previous one has been performed correctly A typi cal example would be a microwave oven that does not start operating until its door is closed A detective con straint is another type in which the user is alerted when a mistake has been made Examples of this would be warning beeps Robinson 1997 8 2 6 Eco technical intervention A strategy to restrain existing use habits and to per suade or control user beh
43. NA GE RREA A 38 17 3 1 Energy consumption from a basic physical perspective vss 38 I2 Re Neguen O US dad dicas 38 12 33 The theoretical energy INACE sd A i a E a O tan 38 A CONUS O Agenesia aaa E RASAN E RNa 38 FS Understanding the energy Pa 38 A PP a a E annant 39 EL IM SEO eases cates A A A RNAAR 39 B2 MESAS paa 39 18 22 ENera ES ENI O Saranan e nce imatetn aa a ai aA 39 18 2 3 Conversion EFFECTIVENESS essssssssssssssssssssissssssssssssssnsssiunssssusssssssssiunsssiussssiassssiussssisasssussssousssssiussssanasssassssiansssisnsssisnes 39 EI RUS A id 39 So CONUS ON ECN PO eceast setae te N terre steeienvpeereteeestee ete gion eeateaectetsteceen aretneaeete 40 Te MISSI PP RO 40 did RUIDOS oa 40 IM dir A A A linia channel Uailtuaniaadiieain wield 40 WDD NG DSC FVII CORP OPC PEO OE O a a a itis tetecbiecte stot 40 19 22 Energy COMLEXE MGPDING SESSION ia A RE a 4l O QUES E aan a a e e a a a aoa 42 13 RESU diia aida 42 V Mice o OE A aoe ia A E tenia att te ee ecrner ote 42 20 Conclusions amd implications TOP AUPE WORK ni idad 42 Moo LS Je sag nit FOC arena 45 7 ga CUM T TEES E E A E ES AA SEE E I A N E E E ENE 46 Alec pco A A a 46 P AT N O A E N A E N E E S NT N T ltd 46 DD AMET fret Ute StUGYE maaa a a a a a a A a 46 DWM PMG OS iea E E E teaorareet atic teeeceeaneet 46 DI De o E 1010 a PEO OO E uu a teh meen eee S teers ating sean teat 46 EDS RESUS E hata nie E E AE E E N ena NEES 47 22 3 1 Analysis of
44. Rules generic advice for merging environ mental aspects into product development Journal of Cleaner Production 14 pp1396 1408 Mohanty B 2002 Perspectives for Reduction of Standby Power Consumption in Electrical Appliances Published in Guidebook on Promotion of Sustainable Energy Consumption Consumer Organisations and Ef ficient Energy Use in the Residential Sector for United Nations ESCAP ST ESCAP 2207 Internet Available at http www unescap org esd energy publications psec guidebook part two htm Accessed 10 March 2010 Nielsen J 1993 Usability Engineering Academic Press Nordman B Siderius H P Harrington L Ellis M Meier A 2009 Network connectivity and low power mode energy consumption Presented in EEDAL Con ference Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting in June 2009 Berlin Germany Official Journal of the European Union 2008 Commis sion Regulation EC No 1275 2008 of 17 December 2008 implementing Directive 2005 32 EC with regard to ecodesign requirements for standby and off mode 32 TO electric power consumption of electrical and electron ic household and office equipment OJ L 339 Official Journal of the European Union 2009 Com mission Regulation EC No 278 2009 of 6 April 2009 Implementing Directive 2005 32 EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecode sign requirements for no load condition electric power consumption an
45. SA edie ODJOCH VE casts ctrerct err ucorennteiet E E nee 74 32k Man PUSE Rada 74 32 2 RESCUE ON ctricos 74 A O dette ea eee 75 BD EOC ESS iaa 75 Silt Phase ls Erameiof Peper era Ges iia 75 332 A ON 75 SS A A 76 33 4 Phase 4 Method Development Process minar 76 O aaan aA A A A ah A a 77 34 The 3 Approachesto Energy Effective Produits 77 342 The Energabl lity Tolar A NR at 77 BS Recommendation cesna A AE A 77 EEEL AE E heat sc Li Lane E E Rion ve PU a o E aes 85 Appendix l OyerviewOf power GES oe 86 Appendix Graphical SYmMBOlS dd 88 Apenas Eater to A RAA AAR 89 Appendix VIll Seven design intervention strategies inicie 90 Appendix DS QUestions Of the SUVs adi 91 Appendix Results sOf the SUVE ainia 95 Appendix XXII Energy context Mapping SESSION cinc ne 102 Appendix XXlll Energy context mappine sessio laci n ai aian ai 103 Appendix removed from this version of the thesis Appendix IV Product overview of specific product category AppendixV Product overview of specific product category Appendix VI Product overview of specific product category Appendix XI Hierarchical Task Analysis d d Appendix VII Study of domestic appliances d d ix XII User Process Tree Appen Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap Ap pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen pen
46. a poor perception of which prod ucts were consuming the most energy Elias 2007 Brook Lyndhurst 2007 Abrahamse et al 2005 in Ai He amp Greenberg 2008 put attention on the fact that users do not necessarily use products in the most energy effi cient ways and another author points out that users are not aware of any detail of energy saving options Bren nan 2006 in Gruber amp Schlomann 2006 In the article Sustainable Use Changing consumer be havior through product design Bhamra et al 2008 p 3 write that It has been recognised that although consumers express strong concern about the environ mental and social impacts of their activities their action do not reflect their concerns One reason mentioned by Tang and Bhamra 2008 p 183 2 is that Environmen tal benefits of the wider global community compared with the individual desires are not strong enough to motivate a different lifestyle This could be explained by the fact that many users have difficulties in relat ing the outcome of their behaviour to a global context which makes it hard for them to draw parallels between the way they are using a product and the possible im pact it could have Many educational interventions such as information campaigns have therefore not been suc cessful as they often relate to environmental aspects from a global perspective Lilley et al 2005 7 Measures to reduce energy The common way of tackling th
47. age user studies were performed The process and outcome will be described below 19 1 Purpose The purpose of this study was to gain deeper insights of the user product interaction and understand why and which of its aspects may result in energy wastage The focus was on finding an explanation for the occurrence of the identified energy wastage that was attributed to the possible usage allowed by the system design but also to examine whether there were other aspects of the interaction that can lead to energy wastage 40 19 2 Method Nine user studies were performed to collect qualitative data from users in their home environment These users were selected to include a broad range of different us ers with respect to gender age household type profes sion and level of education The length of experience with the product differed from 1 5 to 10 years The user studies consisted of the following Observation To observe the users pattern of use and context of use when performing the user goal Energy context mapping session To further un derstand the user product interaction by examin ing the pattern of use other non product related actions during usage emotions and perception of energy consumption during usage It also aimed to understand the distribution frequency Questionnaire To obtain background information of the users To prevent biased answers the participants were in formed that the focus o
48. age in energy using products could be iden tified and examined during the usage phase was devel oped The method which was named the Energ ability Tool evolved from the results of the previous phases and the development process was extremely iterative In this phase it was also realised that in order to fulfil PHASE I PHASE 2 Frame of Preliminary reference work Fig 2 The four main phases of the thesis project the given objective and make the Tool easy to under stand for the people at the company there was a need to create a general understanding for the Tool This lead to the development of the 3 Approaches to Energy Ef fective Products which consists of a set of generic prin ciples and recommendations of how energy wastage can be prevented in energy using products These ap proaches were compiled in a handbook as an easy to read deliverable for the company The handbook also provides with insights from the online survey as well as the case study It further contains an introduction to the Energ ability Tool and a glossary of the terminology for energy using products including low power modes Conceptual ideas of how to address the identified ener gy wastage of the carrier product were also developed during this phase PHASE 3 Case study PHASE 4 Method develop ment process Frame of reference 4 Introduction In this phase an extensive theoretical study was con ducted in which literature was
49. andard for symbols is not followed For cer tain products the ON OFF symbol was used on despite the fact that they consume off mode elec tricity when having been switched off with this button In addition the crescent moon symbol was not observed in any of the products and none of the employees of the company had seen the sym bol before Products can still be using energy after an auto matic switch off Another interesting observation made during discus sions with company employees was that there ap peared to be a different level of understanding for the low power modes This could be ascribed to that a specific low power mode could include many differ ent types of functionalities and that the power modes could have different definitions 12 3 2 Potential carrier product In an internal document of the company the annual energy impact of a variety of products had been inves tigated from a single user perspective but also in re gards to the total volume of sales in which the global implications of the energy consumption during and af ter use had been determined This information showed that the impact of a specific product could increase drastically in relation to the volumes of sale 12 3 3 External analysis In examining the market of energy using products it was observed that few attempts have been made to create products aiming to reduce energy consump tion through product led interventions As previously menti
50. area of concern particularly given the development towards comfort functions such as displays sensors and network com munication Although Woodall and Bates 2009 men tion the given trend towards an increased purchase rate of energy efficient products this can alone not solve the predicted increase in energy consumption that will be faced in the future Significant improvements in energy efficiency have had a counteractive role in the growing trend of increasing household energy consumption The IEA 2008 p 3 however acknowledges that the cur rent rate of energy efficiency improvement is not nearly enough to overcome the other factors driving up energy consumption Firstly energy efficiency has not been sufficient enough to balance the significant growth in number size and features of electrical appliances Herring and Roy 2007 With a steadily increasing global population ap pliance ownership is rising which is affected not only by income growth and the increasing diversity of applianc es Almeida et al 2006 but also by the growing trend of decreasing average household size a single person household consumes approximately 60 more energy than a two person household Roberts 2008 Secondly despite that a common way for a user to re duce energy consumption is by changing to more ener gy efficient products this does not necessarily result in lower energy consumption on the contrary it can give rise to a
51. aviour automatically by de sign combined with advanced technology Bhamra et al 2008 Products can be designed to correspond to the actual way the users use them Wever et al 2008 and those exerting more control over the user could be advan tageous in certain contexts when users may not have the knowledge or concern to make the right decision However products performing an action at the wrong moment or in a too regular way could raise feelings of irritation making users try to find ways of evading the persuasive features and thereby counteracting the in tentions of the product Lilley 2009 The timeliness of interventions is therefore a crucial aspect when trying to influence the user Fogg 2003 Evidence also pro poses that by varying the frequency and modality of in tervention irritation can be reduced Arroyo et al 2005 in Lilley 2009 Adding a surprise factor to the product could satisfy the user in a way that removes annoyance but also increases the emotional attachment making the user not want to purchase another product An other way of maintaining the user product relationship would be through having a more interesting and evolv ing interaction Lilley 2009 E 1 8 2 7 Clever design A strategy to automatically act environmentally or socially without raising awareness or changing user behaviour purely through innovative product design Bhamra et al 2008 Clever design enables users to continu
52. bility Tool 32 3 Sub criteria In Phase 4 four sub criteria were established in addi tion to the research question The Energ ability Tool answers three of the four sub criteria One criteria was to provide a holistic overview of a product to create a common multi disciplinary understanding for its user product interaction This was addressed by the Energy Overview Another criteria was to provide with an over view of a product s energy wastage and where the focus for improvement should be put The matrices in which the results of the analysis is to be written answers this criteria The third criteria was to create a guideline for conducting an in depth study of an energy using prod uct with the same approach that had been undertaken in the case study One part of the Energ ability Tool contains a set of cards that describes this process The fourth criteria was to develop conceptual suggestions for a redesign of the carrier product These suggestions were a part of the previous chapter 33 Process This thesis project was conducted individually which in itself was a new experience as one of the main charac teristics of Industrial Design Engineering is to perform extensive projects in groups A benefit of working in groups is that ideas can be discussed on the same level of knowledge of a project In this thesis the decisions that determined the continuation of the project could only be individually based Nonetheless during t
53. can change from standby to discon nected E Illustrative example Fig Example of a primary action Fig 47 Example of a card that helps the product developer to create an Energy Overview instead sent an overview of the Approaches so that all participants would be on the same level and were aware of the goal of the Tool Two sets of Tool cards were available and the Energy Overview template as well as the Matrices were pinned to the wall In order for the participants to have a reference throughout the process the Energy Overview and Matrices from the case study were put up on a residing wall 26 3 Results The results of the final stage will be presented below 26 3 1 Energy Overview The instructive cards for the Energy Overview evolved into 9 specific steps required to create the overview The steps consisted of instructions or a question writ ten on the front of the card and an illustrative exam ple from the case study written on the back of the card see Fig 47 These cards together with a set of type stickers would help the product developer to create an Energy Overview of a product on the template see Fig 40 See the cards in Appendix XL 26 3 2 Cards for analysing energy wastage The cards were developed to be more in line with the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products The informa tion on these cards were also aligned with a What Why and How structure see Fig 48 In addition the col
54. cial proof as a way of persuading users to be more sustain able by comparing a user s energy consumption with that of other users This approach could lead to reduced energy consumption but there is also a risk that the op posite occurs in which a user may feel that they have to consume as much energy as others Roles are related to what a user may consider as appropriate behaviour 16 in regards to the social position a user may have in a specific context whereas self concept refers to the view that users have upon themselves and the goals that they should pursue How users perceive themselves is important in the sense of how they should or should not behave Jackson 2005 Affect In the Triandis model Jackson 2005 has in terpreted affect as being an unconscious contribution to our intentions in which users in specific situations react instinctively Decision making can be based on emotional responses and need therefore not be a de liberate process according to Jackson 2005 Damasio has proposed a model in which the process of making a decision is influenced by physiological triggers within the body which give positive or negative feelings and thereby creating biases towards specific options These triggers can either be instinctive or have been accumu DECISION MAKING lated through habits Imbuing an emotional value to a product could therefore affect the way users feel and use their product According to Linden am
55. cipants could look through be fore attending and that could be initially discussed in case there was anything that was not clear The focus of the workshop would then be to analyse and come up with solutions This could however eliminate the learn ing effect Another observation made during the work shop was that it could be useful to divide the type stick ers into two separate sheets one for power modes and one for actions to make it more easy to distinguish between the different types In addition it could also be good to have a reference sheet showing an overview of the different action and power mode types and to divide the power consumption timeline into sections to facilitate for the user to see the difference in power consumption depending on which power mode it is in An area of concern prior to the workshop had been the categorisation of action and power modes into types i e whether or not this would require too much of the participant During the workshop it was observed that the way they were categorised seemed to be un derstandable and straightforward One user however initially thought that something was odd when not all the different power mode types were present in the product It would thus be important to enhance that different types of products will have different types of product modes and not all products will have all prod uct mode types The discussion that evolved during the workshop was found to be us
56. ct would not be consuming electricity when switched off whereas 38 5 believed it to still be us 57 7 38 5 Not consuming Consuming a Consuming I do not electricity little electricity electricity know W oo Ca eC EE Female A Sl Male A C Fig 13 Question What does it mean when a product is switched off A 29 86 3 All indicator lights OFF light is on are off Female O Mie sw Fig 15 Question When are you certain that your product is switched off ing a low amount of electricity see Fig 13 A thought provoking observation was that 57 of all respondents with a university background believed that it would not be consuming electricity Approximately 86 3 of the respondents were certain that a product was switched off when all the indicator lights were off see Fig 14 76 5 chose this as their only option A number of re 54 3 Disappointed Betrayed Female A Male A 93 2 Yes the product No if it is only a low amount then it does not matter _ 3 should tell me Female GE Mie A E Fig 16 Question If a product is consuming a low amount of electricity should it tell you this through for example a small indicator light spondents 17 1 were certain that the product was not using energy when the OFF light was on an option that more men than women chose 15 7 men com pared to 5 3 women In the Othe
57. d average active efficiency of external power supplies OJ L 93 3 Pascual O Boks C Stevels A 2003 Communicat ing eco efficiency in industrial contexts A framework for understanding the lack of success and applicabil ity of eco design IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment pp 303 308 Rauniar Rupak Doll William Rawski Greg Hong Paul 2008 Shared knowledge and product design glitches in integrated product development Int J Production Economics 114 pp 723 736 Roberts S 2008 Demographics energy and our homes Energy Policy 36 p4630 4621 Robinson H 1997 Using Poka Yoke Techniques for Early Defect Detection Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Software Testing Analysis and Review STAR 97 Internet Available at http facultyweb berry edu jgrout pokasoft html Accessed 12 March 2010 Ross J P Meier B 2002 Measurements of whole house standby power consumption in California homes Energy 27 p 861 868 Sauer J Wiese B S Ruttinger B 2003a Designing low complexity electrical consumer products for ecological use Applied Ergonomics 34 2003 pp521 531 Elsevier Ltd Sauer J Wiese B S Ruttinger B 2003b Ecologi cal performance of electrical consumer products the influence of automation and information based measures Applied Ergonomics 35 2004 pp37 47 Elsevier Ltd Schlomann B 2010 SELINA Standby and Off
58. d how it could be pursued This could for instance be a specific person or department This was found to be a good idea and was added to the results that were sent out to the participants Illustrative example Suggestions of how energy wastage could be solved Fig 48 Example of cards analysing energy wastage from a user perspective 52 WHAT Action Action type vastas can occur WHY HOW does the energy can the energy wastage occur wastage be solved Power mode W H AT W H AT Power mode ad r energy wastage is the energy type can occur impact WHY HOW does the energy can the energy wastage occur wastage be solved Fig 49 Matrices for summarising the results of the analysis One participant expressed that the Tool was complex for the first time users and that it required the presence of an expert This could be agreed upon as it took time to read the cards and many steps of the process were therefore verbally explained The workshop took longer than expected The required time had been estimated to an hour but it required an additional 30 minutes One participant mentioned that it would be much faster if she would do it a second time A large part of the time was spent on creating the Energy Overview Perhaps what could be done to reduce the amount of time could be to have an Energy Overview already prepared for the workshop that the parti
59. d its energy usage ii how users use the product in their context of daily use partly as a consequence of the technical function and design of the user interface and iii the choice of technology related to the effec tiveness of the product s technical design It was also concluded that there was a need to create a common user understanding of when energy using products con sume energy or not as well as to design products that are intuitively used as energy effectively as possible The fact that several of the users in the case study had developed certain usage habits many of them not opti mal from an energy perspective emphasises the impor tance to develop products that are designed either to cue the right habits or around existing It is in designing a product that the interaction between user and prod uct is ultimately shaped and as a result also future hab its We need to know what behaviour is desired from an energy perspective and design accordingly In order to do so we need to understand what factors we need to design out of the product A set of generic design principles and recommenda tions Three Approaches to Energy Effective Products has therefore been created to address how products can achieve the lowest possible energy consumption In addition a theoretical tool Energ ability has been developed with the purpose to systematically identify potential energy wastage as a result of the user prod uct
60. dback of a performed action The analysis of the case study had shown that if a user Fig 37 Overview of energy wastage factors from a user perspective ee 5 Product USER INPUT aunts When action should be performed r PRODUCT OUTPUT Context of How action should be performed use Feedback of a performed action ASPECTS OF THE USER INTERFACE THAT NEED TO BE CONSIDERED Fig 38 The role of the user interface in the user product interaction does not know when to perform an action they may Product uses more energy than the minimum theo not perform the action at all or may perform it at a later retical energy to achieve user goal point in time If a user does not know how to perform Product uses energy when not in use an action the action can for example be performed p p The fundamental reasons for the occurrence of these wrongly whereas if a user does not receive feedback p Bly factors have been removed with reference to the confi when he has performed an action he may not know a dentiality of the industry agreement that the action has been performed A lack of feedback can also give the user a wrong impression of the prod R 23 4 Conclusion uct s energy consumption and the user will therefore The Further analysis showed that the energy wastage not have a correct mental model of the product Thus that had been identified during the survey user stud these three interface elements can
61. e cards to investigate a product from a technical perspective it was realised that many of these questions required detailed infor en 59 mation that could not be obtained without conducting in depth energy measurements In addition it was real ised that in order to investigate a product from a tech nical perspective there had to be a basis from which the analysis could proceed The undertaken approach in the Further analysis in which the energy wastage was investigated after having determined the product s con version effectiveness was seen as appropriate This de cision was backed up by the fact that companies often have a measure of the amount of energy used by the product and would therefore have an estimated value that could be used for the basis of analysis The Ques tion Basis for the analysis from a technical perspective therefore evolved into developing instructions of how to calculate the conversion effectiveness and develop ing triggering questions to examine whether or not the energy usage was optimal To address the sub criteria that was determined in the beginning of the method development process to provide guidelines for in depth studies of energy using products cards for this was also developed 26 2 3 Summarising results of the analysis In the initial development of the Matrix a short brain storming session was held to identify which factors related to energy wastage should be included Among these were
62. e increasing energy con sumption has been through education and technical development The latter has been pushed by legislation 7 1 Regulatory measures Numerous regulations address the issue of increas ing energy consumption through the establishment of minimum efficiency requirements The EU are among others addressing the increasing energy consumption through implementing policies to set minimum require ments of efficiency and clear labelling of the energy us age of appliances European Commission 2009 The European Parliament and the Council of the Euro pean Union have established a directive with ecodesign requirements for energy using products Two of the im plementing measures of this Directive are the regula tion EC 1275 2008 and the EC 278 2009 These regu lations have a two phase entry implementation the first phase on April 27th 2010 and the second phase on April 27th 2011 The EC 1275 2008 is applicable for all the company s products with a mains connection including those with external power supply Internal company presentation The requirements demand that the power consumption shall not exceed a certain limit for the standby and off mode respectively See Appen dix I In Phase 1 all products must unless inappropri ate for intended use have a power mode that follows the power consumption limits of low power modes In Phase 2 which is to be implemented in 2013 all prod ucts must unless inappropria
63. e thesis was established Silent Green This was not an initial aim of the thesis but was seen as a natural way of addressing the users who could benefit from products developed to enable sustainable usage This target group was in discussion with one of the mentors named Silent Green The study of the seven design intervention strate gies showed that an important mediator of change would be through creating new habits with products This would especially be important in domestic appli ances as habits are harder to break with low complex ity products The important thing would be to create the right habits and through repetitive usage make these new types of behaviours rooted and instinctive The study also indicated that different types of design solutions could be acceptable to different types of us ers Intervention strategies in which emphasis is put on persuasiveness or making sustainable usage intuitive have been pointed out to provide with the possibility of reaching a wider range of users Products having a higher level of persuasiveness could therefore be the means to address the Silent green An important discovery during the study on design for Fig 7 The counteractive factors of energy efficiency behavioural change was that there were indeed tools to address user behaviour but none to identify what aspect of the user product interaction for which a be haviour change needed to be created User studies
64. e to the strong relationship between the different reasons for energy wastage factors but also in an attempt to reduce the number of categories In the second categorisation the questions were cat egorised after the two action types primary and sec ondary which had been determined during the case study This categorisation evolved from the fact that considering the variety of different energy using prod ucts there is a wide range of possible user actions and by categorising the questions according to the type of user action only questions relevant for each ac tion type would be posed During the categorisation there arose an awareness that the action types could be elaborated further upon The user actions of three different products were therefore determined and an alysed further In the third categorisation the power modes were also divided into types as it was realised that the character of a power mode was dependent on whether it was consuming energy or not but also by what it was that determined the length of time a product spent in a power mode see Fig 39 Several measures were taken to simplify the Question Basis To reduce the amount of text abbreviations as well as a colour code were assigned to distinguish be tween the different power mode and action types For the three interface elements three different symbols Power mode types O Non energy consuming Does not consume any energy at all Automated
65. e with the same behaviour as they always have had The extent to which persuasiveness can be applied in product design and the resulting effectiveness and acceptability may differ from user to user and must therefore be investigated These type of products could however separate the cause and effect by moving the decision making to the product which may restrict the user s recognition of sustainability issues Lilley 2009 In that sense such a product would not offer an incentive for the user to take responsibility of their actions Lilley et al 2005 On the other hand in regards to users who are not motivated in behaving sustainably this approach would be a way of reaching out to them so that they would not have to compromise on their lifestyle Lilley et al 2005 9 Methods and tools for sustainable usage The previous chapter has shown that there is as Bharma et al 2008 point out not one solution to creating be havioural change but many The authors further state that To successfully integrate behavioural concerns into design practice and to make this process repeat able appropriate information and tools must be devel oped and incorporated into the design process 2008 p 8 They also mention that their seven design inter vention strategies can be used as a tool to inspire and enable designers to address user behaviour Similarly the Design with Intent Toolkit aims to inspire designers that have been gi
66. ease in the future If consideration is not given to the potential energy wastage that can occur as a result of the product design products will continue to be designed in ways that allow unnecessary energy to be consumed during the usage phase This can be pre vented and requires an industry driven change in which companies of electronic consumer goods take a greater responsibility to reduce the impact of their products during the usage phase This can be done not only by making the usage of energy using products simple but also by bringing an added sense to them by being as energy effective as possible in their use As a first step it is recommended for the electronic con ee 77 sumer goods industry to reflect upon the 3 Approaches and consider how they can be implemented in future road maps Many companies are today already conduct ing extensive user research through data loggers home placements tests and focus groups As a second step it is highly recommended to integrate into these research methods an energ ability perspective from which user insights can be elicited and used for designing the ener gy effective products of the future A third recommen dation is to educate product developers with different educational backgrounds of the different power modes Product developers with more knowledge of for exam ple the functions of the different power modes can bet ter understand the implications of their design choices As a fo
67. ed RECOMMENDATION All energy using power modes should give an indication communicating that the product is consuming energy All products should give the user the option to switch the product off with a hard switch TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE use the minimum theoretical energy to fulfill all of its user goals No 3 The product is developed to Investigate how the product can be USER intuitively be used as used as energy effectively as possible PERSPECTIVE energy effectively as possible and with this information develop a user interface requiring minimum thought and effort of the user Inform the user of best usage fe No 4 The product is developed to Examine the product from a systems perspective to identify the energy losses that occur Strive to achieve the minimum theoreti cal energy when the product is in use by developing use only the energy you need products changing to effective technology and or reducing energy losses Strive to achieve zero energy consump tion when the product is not in use by eliminating low power modes replacing power source and or improving the efficiency of the power supply Fig 51 Overview of the 3 Approaches and its principles and recommendations 28 1 Product honesty Product honesty aims to create a common understand ing of energy using products by firstly making it visually clear when a product is or is not using energy and
68. ed and summarised into a histogram The question that was not analysed was the one that addressed the usage of colours as an indicator in the user interface This was due to that the possible responses to the question had been programmed incorrectly in the survey 13 3 Results The analysis of the survey will be presented below See Appendix X for detailed results 13 3 1 Means of ensuring zero electricity consumption The majority of the respondents 73 9 were certain that a product would not be not consuming any elec tricity after having unplugged it see Fig 11 Approxi mately 58 of all the respondents chose this as their only alternative 9 8 of the respondents did not know which alternative to choose and most of these respond ents were above the age of 40 An interesting result was that 94 9 of the respondents seemed to be aware that products with an auto switch off consumed electricity when switched off and that more people were certain 28 O that a product was not consuming any electricity when pressing the button with the standby symbol The latter verifies the research conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory stating that many people associ ate the standby symbol with power ON and OFF When looking at the age group 20 to 29 years it was observed that 20 of these respondents were certain of zero electricity consumption when using the standby sym bol and only 5 were certain with the ON OFF symbol
69. eful for creating a common understand ing for the product and sharing insights among the dif ferent departments It would however have been ad vantageous to have had a person from marketing and an E G3 electronics engineer present the latter to understand the electronics within the product Perhaps it could also be interesting to include someone whose work was not related to the product This could not only bring anoth er perspective to the analysis of the product but also generate more out of the box ideas to reducing energy wastage 64 M Results 27 Introduction The results of this thesis will be presented below These include the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products an Energ ability Tool and suggestions for improving the carrier product 28 The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products is a set of approaches aiming to address how products can achieve the lowest possible energy consumption during the usage phase through three areas of focus Product honesty User perspective and Technical perspective see Fig 50 Each approach has a set of generic prin ciples and recommendations of how energy wastage can be prevented to fulfil the purpose of each approach see Fig 51 These approaches may overlap but are here treated as separate issues The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products can act as a guideline and a source of inspiration for people in v
70. enarios were created for the energy measurements Effect of usage time Frequency of use on an annual basis Distribution frequency 18 2 3 Conversion effectiveness One way of examining a product s technical inefficiency and determining the products with the greatest poten tial for improvement is by comparing its efficiency to a theoretical minimum energy use Elias 2007 This was assumed to be an appropriate approach in determin ing the effectiveness of the carrier product regarding its usage of energy This approach is usually denoted as the conversion efficiency but has in this thesis been designated as the conversion effectiveness The use of the word efficiency created confusion among certain product developers as they related this word with an isolated part of the system which in the carrier product had a high efficiency One product developer proposed the word effectiveness which could be used to provide with a measure of the extent of achieving a user goal This term was proposed to several developers and was found to be more fitting From here on the conversion effectiveness will thus be used This term will give a of how effective the product is in achieving the user goal by comparing the minimum theoretical energy required to fulfill a user goal with the actual amount of energy that the product uses to fulfill this goal The conversion effectiveness of the carrier product was examined
71. endix XIV From this analysis flow charts depicting different sequence possibilities of performing an action were cre ated see Appendix XV The identified energy wastage factors from the data logger readings and the theoreti cal usage analysis were placed in a matrix The ques tions regarding the user product interaction that arose during the analysis were also included see Appendix XVI 17 2 3 Determining the user profiles From the information provided by the data logger read ings four different user profiles were created to exam ine how the energy consumption could differ depend ing on the time it took to perform the user goal see Fig 22 Three of the profiles were created from the average of the minimum average and maximum logged time from the data logger readings One user profile was an ideal fictive user whose way of usage would lead to that the product was used as ideally as possible This user profile constituted the basis with which the other three profiles could be compared 17 2 4 Determining the theoretical energy impact The theoretical energy impact of the four user profiles was calculated with help of energy values available from the company see Appendix XVII 17 3 Results The results of the initial analysis on potential energy wastage will be presented below 17 3 1 Energy consumption from a basic physical perspective 33 gt MO One way of determining the amount of energy used in ene
72. ent disciplines can give rise to language barriers and affect general problem solving and communication Communication and shared knowledge are vital aspects of the product development process and can have a large impact on the project performance Rauniar et al 2008 concluded that a process based on shared knowl edge enables a greater understanding of each others strengths and thus maximises the knowledge resources of the team members and reduces development time and costs as well as glitches which occur when require ments of the product do not meet up with those of the consumers 22 3 3 Analysis of reference cards Reference cards were studied in terms of how they structured information and made it easily accessible to understand The IDEO method cards a set of 51 cards depicting different methods that can be used in a design process to better understand the end user IDEO 2010 were studied in particular as well as numerous refer ence cards available on the internet for creating web sites A characteristic for many of the reference cards was the way with which large amounts of information was categorised in generic dimensions which made it easy to find the information that was of relevance for the user using the cards Some of the reference cards for web site creation were however so detailed that they resembled a glossary When examining the IDEO method cards one of its advantages was the fact that for every project only the ca
73. eraction that can give rise to energy wast age and or taking into consideration user habits and context of use the user interface can be developed to prevent unsustainable usage The User Perspective also suggests that users should be informed of the best us age by integrating advice in the user manual or quick start guides 28 4 The handbook The handbook of the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products presents the 3 Approaches by summarising the findings of the case study and survey It strives to inspire those reading it to think differently about the 63 M development of products and to create an initial un derstanding for factors that can lead to energy wastage during the usage phase The handbook also contains a glossary of commonly used terms for energy using products to address the need of a common language in multi disciplinary teams A complete matrix of the power modes their functionality features and external as well as internal regulations can also be found in the handbook 29 The Energ ability Tool The Energ ability Tool examines an energy using prod uct from the 3 Approaches to systematically identify po tential energy wastage that can occur during the usage phase see Fig 52 for an overview of energy wastage factors Prior to using the Tool it is recommendable for the participants to read the Handbook to become ac quainted with the 3 Approaches The Tool is intended for a multi disciplinary team and t
74. ers aly LO 10 Le energy little energy quite a lot of energy LO very little energy around half the energy 100 energy 103
75. esented below 25 3 1 Energy Overview A template as well as a set of cards instructing how to make an Energy Overview of a product was developed see Fig 40 and 43 The instructive cards depicted a step by step approach to determine the user goal and A 57 define the determined user actions and power modes into action and power mode types The cards also guid ed the product developer to put all the information to gether in the template Type stickers were also made see Fig 44 These were based on the colour code and abbreviations that had been assigned to the different power mode and action types and could be placed on the template to distinguish between them 25 3 2 Cards for analysing energy wastage The information provided in each card was divided into three parts see Fig 45 Triggering question to examine energy wastage Consequence in terms of energy wastage An example for further understanding the question The cards were categorised according to action type and interface elements 25 3 3 Evaluating the testing of the method The Energy Overview was found to be useful for cre ating an understanding for the different aspects of a product s user product interaction The initial step of the method was however slightly confusing for the product developer In this step the most energy ef ficient way to use the product was to be determined Thus with this feedback it was decided that determin
76. eval checking selection and information communication For each of these categories there existed a list of potential prob lems The PUEA uses the same list to identify the errors but also attempts to categorise the reason behind the problem and relates this to lapse slips rule based mis takes knowledge based mistakes and violation A problem that the ECW and PUEA had identified and tried to address was the need of a clear and under standable overview of the conducted analysis Both methods therefore developed a way to present the re sults of their analysis in matrices An important part of the ECW matrix included an attempt to grade the se verity of an identified problem and determine its occur rence probability to see where the focus should be put In the PUEA matrix an interesting point is that it brings in the consequence of the problem and leaves room to address how the problem can be solved in terms of how ee 47 the product provided the user with recovery or preven tion possibilities 22 3 2 Analysis of requisites for ecodesign tools Most of the tools currently used in ecodesign focus on the design stage after the product specification has been set i e after parameters such as functions and properties are determined Hardly any of the tools within ecodesign are suitable for the early stages of design In addition current tools within ecodesign de mand a large volume of data which often cannot be provided in
77. examined The informa tion that was obtained helped to further define the scope of the thesis 4 1 Aim The aim of this phase was to obtain a deeper under standing for the globally increasing household energy consumption and the measures that had been under taken to address this problem Another aim was to un derstand how a sustainable user behaviour can be en couraged 4 2 Process This phase started with a thorough and extensive lit erature study to examine the situation of the increasing household energy consumption Many of the articles mentioned the problem of low power modes in energy using products but did however not provide sufficient knowledge of these It was considered important to ob tain a general understanding for the terminology used for energy using products International standards as well as regulatory documents of the EU were therefore studied Although the international standard IEC 62301 includes new definitions for power modes this stand ard is still under scrutiny and may therefore not be re ferred to Thus the definitions of the power modes that have been used in the thesis are based on those given by the European Union To not only obtain clarity but also to address the existing lack of power mode over views the power modes were divided into four main categories The power modes have been categorised into categories which have been given generic names that are commonly used in the terminology of e
78. f the end result a theoretical method It was also early in the thesis decided that product led interventions with a high level of persuasiveness were required to address the increasing household energy consumption This can be seen as a rather loose formulation as persuasiveness can be applied in different ways With time this evolved through the obtained insights during the thesis project into the 3 Approaches 33 2 Phase 2 Preliminary work In the internal analysis of the company s domestic ap A 75 pliances it had been determined that the usage of colour in the user interface was not always consistent How users perceived this was therefore a part of the investigation in the online survey However due to er rors when programming the given results could not be analysed correctly This was unfortunate as the results could have been interesting 33 3 Phase 3 Case study It could be claimed that the method applied in Phase 3 corresponded to a method for identifying and examin ing energy wastage There were however a few aspects that could have been done better During the project the importance of having quantitative data to con vince employees of the company was emphasised on a few occasions For the nine user studies of the carrier product despite that 4 5 qualitative studies have been determined to be enough to draw a conclusion more user studies could have brought forth other interesting insights and could have br
79. f cross fertilization between sustainable product design research and human focused design disciplines like user centred design and interaction design 10 Conclusions and impli cations for further work An early conclusion that was made during the literature study was that the increasing purchase rate of energy efficient products can not alone solve the predicted in crease in energy consumption Not only will they have to counteract the expected increase of appliances but also the rebound effect in which users may end up us ing more energy with an energy efficient product It was also realised that although energy wastage has of ten been acknowledged and addressed in low power modes the complexity of energy using products could also play an important role This was due to the multi tude of power modes and the sometimes lack of con sistency in the user interface For users energy reduc tion should not require additional products such as a power strip to control the energy usage Moreover many users ascribe the responsibility to the manufac turers There is therefore a need to develop products that help the user to a more effective energy usage This in order to not only overcome the counteractive factors of energy efficiency but also to make energy re duction accessible to a larger group of users including those who do not express an environmental concern or have the adequate knowledge As a result a target group for th
80. f energy consumed Energy wastage factors both existing and hypothetical were thereafter determined through analysing the data logger readings and conducting a theoretical usage analysis From the data logger readings a set of user profiles was created from which the theoretical energy impact was calcu lated 17 2 1 Analysing the data logger readings To gain insights in the usage of the carrier product the internal document was studied This document sum marised the information provided by data logger read ings from a specifically developed logging device that had been placed in products in a specific number of households From the data logger readings existing en ergy wastage factors could be determined The raw data from the data logger readings was thereafter examined to further investigate and obtain more intrinsic knowl edge 17 2 2 Conducting the theoretical usage analysis To investigate the hypothetical energy wastage of pri mary and secondary actions the possible patterns of use for performing the user goal were analysed This analysis first occurred with help of a set of cards specifi cally created for the purpose Each card corresponded ee 37 to a specific action or operation that had been deter mined in the Hierarchical Task Analysis The cards were placed in different sequences to investigate alternative patterns of use and potential outcomes if a specific ac tion or operation had been forgotten see App
81. f the latter is the ease with which the data can be analysed Karlsson 2005 A fixed response questionnaire which is an example of a structured survey was therefore chosen for this survey It consists of a list of questions in which the respond ents are provided with a number of responses for each question Jordan 2001 Different questions with fixed responses were developed to address the different as pects of the user interface that was to be investigated These questions grew in number and were gradually re duced to only include 16 of the most essential Accord ing to Jordan 2001 it is important to not only provide a complete range of possible responses to ensure that there is a response that the respondent can agree with but also to use a simple language to make certain that the questions are fully understood The formulations of the questions and responses were therefore discussed with the mentors and rephrased numerous times in or der to be as clear as possible To clarify to the respond ents that energy using products required electricity for their functioning the term energy using products was 234 RESPONDENTS A Female 56 4 A Male 43 6 AGE 13 19 years 1 7 50 59 years 5 1 20 29 years 72 6 60 69 years 2 6 30 39 years 14 1 above 70 years 0 4 40 49 years 3 4 LEVEL OF EDUCATION Primary school 0 4 High school 8 1 University 91 5 Fig 10 Demographics of the online survey substi
82. f the user study was the user product interaction Energy consumption was not men tioned Of the nine user studies two were performed simultaneously as the participants were from the same household In three of the studies other members of the household were present but were not directly in volved in the study The focus in the analysis of the re sults from the user study was to obtain qualitative data and not on linking the results with the demographic data This decision was based on the fact that nine users were not enough to be able to draw such conclusions 19 2 1 Observation As a first step of every user study each user was asked to perform a specific user goal with the carrier product in their home environment This was thought to give a more informal start to the user study and according to Jordan 2001 observing users in the environment that they usually interact with their product is one way of increasing the validity of the collected data Having the observation constitute the initial part of every user study was thought to make the usage of the carrier product be more present in the minds of the partici pants In addition aspects of the user product interac tion that had been observed could be referred to at a later point in the study Each observation was combined with a think aloud protocol to gain further insight in the user s interaction with the product In a think aloud protocol users can perfor
83. guide the user to ies and energy measurements could be pursed further the right usage whereas inadequate interface elements and categorised into generic dimensions by examining or a lack of one of these can depending on the context a product from its ideal usage but also an ideal system give rise to energy wastage It is however important to It also showed that the majority of the reasons for the keep in mind that the presence of the three interface occurrence of energy wastage could be attributed to elements may not be necessary for all user actions as the product From a technical perspective it is ascribed too much information provided by the product is not to the fact that a product is not effective in its ener always eligible gy usage From a user perspective energy wastage is a result of how the information provided by the user 23 3 2 The What Why from a technical interface was adapted to contextual factors and techni perspective a cal constraints but also to how honest it was in com The energy wastage factors that were identified when municating the energy consumption of the product In determining the factors of the system design that lead other words energy wastage can be prevented if the to energy wastage were right product is developed which is a product that uses only the energy that is needed to fulfil a user goal and 52 TO provides the user with the right information which de pendi
84. has also tried to address other aspects that have been brought forth during the thesis project such as creating a common understand ing of the product among the employees Regarding the extent to which one can use the results of the Energ ability Tool this will most likely depend on whether the analysis was performed on a conceptual or an already existing product Many of the suggestions to improve the carrier product were found to create too much of a change for the user This implies that there is a fine balance in how much can be changed in the interface or functioning of an already existing product without changing the user experience too much Users will al ready have a way of using the product and if a re design of the product compromises on the functionality or the comfort factor users may not be satisfied and the company would therefore not be willing to conduct a re design Therefore the Tool may be better utilised for conceptual products where there is a greater possibility of creating the desired habits from the beginning 35 Recommendations This thesis project has shown that the way products are designed in terms of the technology that is present and the user interface that is designed around it can shape the user product interaction and thereby also future habits Energy using products are becoming more and more complex and the number of products as well as the global household energy consumption is expected to incr
85. he en tire project there was always valuable support and pos sibilities to discuss with the mentors and people from the company which was of great help 33 1 Phase I Frame of reference This project started with a broad objective formulated around the growing awareness for a need of a more user oriented approach of the usage phase of energy using products It was difficult to know what the end result presented to the company would be but the time and effort allocated in this phase was helpful in defining the scope of the thesis It was realised that to address the global increase in household energy consumption the largest possible group of users had to be targeted In what appeared to be a rather drastic and daring deci sion the longer the thesis project progressed the more sense this proposal made What initially was thought of as a self experienced complexity and perplexity of en ergy using products was found to experienced by others as well Several friends who had responded to my sur vey contacted me to say Wow your survey really made me start thinking about products This feedback helped me to realise that the thesis was on the right track In the early stages of the project it was also realised that in answering the objective the focus would be on iden tifying aspects of products that could be addressed by a behavioural change and finding a way to identify and examine these This realisation determined the form o
86. he two respondents who It is an accepted truth by me expressed no motive for energy reduction were male and in the age group 20 to 29 The survey also showed that the acceptance for low Around 25 of the respondents believed that it was electricity consumption differed depending on the func their own behavior that could lead to the most ener tionality that it was intended for See Fig 17 The re gy savings see Fig 18 Approximately 70 of the re sults showed that the acceptance was high for a timer f spondents however believed that it was the product function in a dish washing machine a digital clock in the i itself in which most energy savings could be achieved micro wave and for the TV For the latter the accept a either through the purchase of an energy efficient prod ability however seemed to decline with the age group uct choosing an eco option or having products switch For a product consuming electricity for no specific rea e ing themselves off automatically after use In the other son the unacceptability was high approximately 92 category most of these respondents stated that they wanted to have a combination of the different alterna 13 3 4 Motives and beliefs for reducing tives and one respondent proposed that I should not energy consumption buy any products In a question addressing the usage 40 2 25 2 18 Have energy efficient C
87. heoretical analy sis was performed to look into what aspects could lead to energy wastage during the user product interaction Data logger readings from the carrier product that had been logged in a specific number of households were studied and showed that the time it took users to per form a specific user goal could widely vary From this information user profiles were created and energy measurements were conducted to examine how much the energy consumption could differ The conducted energy measurements showed that energy wastage could be attributed to the possible usage ways allowed by the product but also to the actual system design of the product itself This was followed by nine qualitative user studies in households to among others understand what factors could influence the time it takes the user to perform the user goal In these user studies observa tions were conducted as well as an energy context map ping session which was specifically developed for the purpose to enable a more interactive way of interview ing the users This in order to identify their habits that could not be seen or understood during the actual user study The insights gained from the case study as well as the online survey from the previous phase resulted in the identification of three ways to achieve energy re duction in energy using products 3 4 Phase 4 Method development process In the last phase a theoretical method to examine how energy wast
88. her 3 4 expressed the words angry annoyed bothered concerned frus trated irritated and resigned A few comments in the Other category include 6 4 2 6 6 4 2 6 5 6 I do not know 67 5 54 7 53 36 8 2 1 It is ok Fig 17 For which products is it ok for you that a low amount of electricity is being consumed when they are not in use 31 Bothered but feels a hassle to do anything as taking The two main motives for the respondents to reduce in and out the plug is inconvenient especially for the energy consumption of their products were envi products that we use daily ronmental concern 85 0 and lowering the energy bill 81 2 See Appendix X Of the combinations of motives lowering energy bill and environmental con I know that most appliances draw current when not in use so unplug most appliances when they are not P p cern had the largest percentage of respondents fol in use can live with those don t unplug drawing gest p 8 P F lowed by lowering energy bill environmental concern current since it s my choice Y 8 Ey Oii and prolonging lifespan of product For the latter 14 If it was standby for a feature I frequently use more men than women found prolonging the lifespan wouldn t mind of their products important T
89. hoose eco option on Have products with Switch off products Other products product auto switch off myself Female LA Mm T Male A Mm Cl mm rr Fig 18 Which of the following do you think could save you the most energy 32 of an eco button the majority of respondents thought that there would be no difference in performance the energy consumption would be better and that there would be no difference in the time it took for the prod uct to perform its function 14 Conclusions and impli cations for further work The analysis of company s domestic appliances pointed out that there were several aspects of the user interface that could lead to that users do not not having a cor rect understanding of products energy usage This was confirmed in the survey which did not only show that respondents were uncertain whether a product was or was not consuming electricity when switched off but also revealed that for many the only way to be certain that a product had zero energy consumption was to un plug it From the results of the survey it can be concluded that one means of achieving energy reduction can be through product honesty in which a common under standing for energy using products is created This could for instance be the ability to distinguish between when a product is or is not consuming energy Without this energy understanding there is a possibility that energy wastage can occur
90. ily friends and dogs for the continuous support and affection would also like to thank a few colleagues whose names cannot be mentioned in this thesis Abstract With a predicted increase in household energy con sumption and appliances as the most rapidly growing energy consuming category within the household sec tor there is a growing recognition that increased energy efficiency alone cannot address the problem Instead to achieve substantial energy reduction there is a need to not only understand and address user behaviour dur ing the usage phase of products but also to approach a larger group of users including those who are not moti vated to behave in a sustainable manner In this thesis the user s influence on the usage phase of products has been investigated to examine what fac tors affect the energy consumption and result in energy wastage This was accomplished through a survey to de termine users understanding of energy using products and an extensive case study of a household product In the case study a series of energy measurements based on usage data from data logger readings showed that the energy consumption to perform a specific user goal could greatly vary between users A set of qualitative studies was performed to understand the reasons why Based on an analysis of the survey and case study it could be concluded that energy wastage could be at tributed to i users understanding of the product an
91. impact it is there fore important to start minimizing the changes that are occurring in our climate One way is by stabilising the C02 level ideally by 2050 an 80 reduction of our current level emissions would be required Stern Review 2006 There has become an increasing awareness of utilising the global energy resources in a better way to reduce these emissions this includes reducing the usage of fossil fuels which accounts for approximately 66 of the global electricity produc tion International Energy Agency 2008 Spade heating The household sector accounts for 29 of the global energy consumption and the OECD countries mainly rely on electricity and natural gas as the source of energy The global household energy consumption has between 1990 and 2005 increased by 19 This is mainly attributed to the use of appliances which has been identified as the most rapidly growing en ergy consuming category within the household sec tor see Fig 1 The increased energy usage related to appliances is mostly ascribed to an increasing ownership of small appliances Within 19 member countries of the International Energy Agency IEA in the same period of time the electricity use for household appliances increased by 57 account ing for approximately 59 of the total electricity use in households in 2005 IEA 2008 By 2020 the IEA have estimated that the electricity consumption of appliances will have increased with 25 com
92. ion differed de pending on its functionality This implies that these are two aspects of the user product interaction that could be investigated and taken into consideration in the de velopment of products The survey confirmed that users had a greater belief for products to achieve energy reduction rather than they themselves through changing their own behaviour This data can be seen as emphasising the need of product led interventions and that do not compromise on the lifestyles of users or demand them to take action Con sidering this and that the external analysis showed that there were few products on the market that targeted energy reduction from a behavioural perspective there may be a market opportunity to develop products that help users to a more energy effective usage During the analysis of company s domestic appliances it was shown that there were different interpretations of the low power modes among the different employ ees involved in the product development process If the power modes are not well understood among the employees it can then be assumed that it cannot be expected that the users will understand them This sug gests a need to create a common understanding for not A 33 only the users but also the employees The analysis fur ther determined the carrier product of the case study This decision was made in discussion with the mentors and the findings from the internal analysis in which certain aspects
93. is necessary to have a better understanding of what users do with and how they interact with products as well as the hidden factors behind the daily decision making process 2 Objective The objective of the thesis has been to with focus on the interaction between user and product investigate ways of integrating sustainability into the domestic ap pliances of a specific company for the development of the next level sustainable products 2 1 Purpose The main purpose of the thesis was to answer How can sustainable usage be integrated into the domestic appliances of the company Focus was put on identify ing new ways of achieving energy reduction during the usage phase and was addressed by examining How can energy using products be designed to change the daily interaction with its users and en courage them towards sustainable behaviour How can energy consumption differ during the usage phase and what aspects can lead to energy wastage Focus was put on one product and the final solution set sight on being a source of sustainable design inspira tion 2 2 Limitations Energy wastage will be examined in relation to the user goal that is to be achieved in other words the desired end result provided by the product and that the user would like to obtain Why the user may wish to achieve this goal will not be examined nor will energy wastage that may arise from misuse through poor maintenance be exa
94. lectric energy for example on devices starting or stopping the production or use of electric energy Pause interruption IEC 5111 JTC1 011 To identify the control device by means of which the run e g of a tape is interrupted by means of a break mechanism and mechanical disconnection from the driving mechanism which continues to run Ready ISO 1140 JTC1 009 To indicate the machine is ready for operation Save economize IEC 5581 To identify a control whereby an economy program becomes activated for example to save energy or water Note The percentage of economizing may be indicated in the figure Appendix Ill Colour COLOUR CEI IEC 73 ANSI VITA 40 2003 GREEN Normal state of equipment or anormal condition of a process OK normal satisfactory operation active or in service AMBER Abnormal state of equipment or an abnormal condition of Attention or service action required a process BLUE Mandatory significance i e to indicate something that is associ Service action allowed ated with a required action WHITE Has no meaning Provide an aid to locating a particular system or subassemblyln order to make the locator indicator be more noticeable it uses a distinctive FAST BLINK that is very different from the SLOW BLINK used by other indicators RED Emergency or dangerous condition Out of service
95. les of such products are dish washing machines micro wave ovens coffee machines and TV s 1 What is your gender Female Male 2 What is your age below 12 years 13 19 years 20 29 years 30 39 years 40 49 years 50 59 years 60 69 years above 70 years 3 What is your level of education Primary school High school University 4 What is your nationality A drop down menu listing the countries of the world eh 5 What does it mean when a product is switched off The product is not consuming electricity The product is consuming a low amount of electricity The product is consuming electricity ldo not know 6 In which of the following situations are you certain that a product is not consuming any electricity Symbol A Symbol B Ihave unplugged the product have pressed the button with symbol A have pressed the button with symbol B The product has an Auto Switch OFF function and switches itself off automatically donot know Other Please Specify 7 If you would like to switch off the following products after use which kind of solution would you prefer Switch it off myself by Have the product switch it Have the choice to switch It does not matter pressing a button on prod off automatically it off myself and have the uct or remote control product switch off auto matically Dish washing machine O O O O Micro wave oven O O O
96. ling of Domestic Appliances Internet Available at http ec europa eu energy efficiency labelling label ling_en htm Accessed 16 February 2010 Fujitsu 2010 Green Innovations Internet Available at http ts fujitsu com products Owatt html Ac cessed 16 March 2010 Gruber E Schlomann B 2006 The Current and Future Electricity Demand of Appliances in German Households In European Commission Institute for Environment and Sustainability Energy efficiency in Domestic appliances and lighting Proceedings of the Ath international conference Eedal 06 UK 21 23 June 2006 European Communities Luxembourg Gyberg P Palm J 2009 Influencing household s energy behaviour how is this done and on what premises Energy Policy37 p 2807 2813 IDEO 2010 Method cards for IDEO Internet Avail able at http www ideo com work method cards Accessed 22 July 2010 International Energy Agency 2008 Worldwide Trends in Energy Use and Efficiency Key Insights from IEA Indicator Analysis Internet Available at http www iea org papers 2008 indicators_2008 pdf Accessed 9 February 2010 Intertek 2009 Eco Design Directive EuP Analysis of the Standby Off Mode Implementing Measure In ternet Available at http sweden intertek etlsemko com about intertek white papers details 26 Ac cessed 22 February 2010 Hartley C 2010 Colors Internet Available at http www av40 org AV40Site Colors html
97. m specific tasks and are asked to speak aloud about their thoughts and feelings when interacting with the product Jordan 2001 The entire process was video filmed 19 2 2 Energy context mapping session An energy context mapping session was specifically de veloped for the user studies The purpose of it was to enable a more interactive way of interviewing users to analyse their interaction with and understanding of the product It also aimed to identify user habits that could not be seen or understood during the actual user study The session was developed to make the user feel less exposed as understanding why users do something in a certain way can be a sensitive topic The session was inspired by the method of context mapping This is a generative user study technique used to elicit contex tual information of the factors that influence the expe rience of using a product It aims to not only gain an understanding for what users know feel and dream but also to reveal tacit knowledge or latent needs which of ten can determine the user experience and are for users often hard to express Visser et al 2005 The energy context mapping session consisted of two different templates each on a separate A3 paper The users could with different sets of stickers express as pects of their interaction with the product on the tem plates This a general principle of generative techniques where users can articulate and become aware of their ex
98. macro scenarios See Appendix XL 30 Conceptual ideas for the carrier product The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement 71 72 Discussion 31 Introduction Below follows a discussion on the work and how it has achieved its objective as well as reflections on the proc ess and results Further recommendations have also been included 32 Achieving the objective The thesis project started with one objective and two research questions In regards to the evolving character of the project an additional reseach question emerged together with a number of sub criteria 32 1 Main purpose The main purpose of the thesis project was to investi gate the following How can sustainable usage be inte grated into the domestic appliances of the company and provide the company with a solution that would set sight on being a source of sustainable design inspira tion This has been found to be addressed through the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products and the En erg ability Tool that were developed during the project These meet the objective in different ways The 3 Ap proaches provides general principles and recommen dations of how products can become more effective in their usage of energy setting an aim of what a product should strive to achieve The Energ ability Tool is on the other hand the means of investigating what aspects need to be add
99. mine how the energy consump tion could differ during the usage phase depending on how a user uses the product Focus was put on two main points of investigation 1 How the energy consumption can differ during the user phase depending on Effect of usage time Frequency of use on an annual basis Assumed distribution frequency 2 How effective the product is in its usage of energy 18 2 Method The energy measurements were based on the four user profiles and a set of energy usage scenarios that were created The distribution of the power and energy con sumed was analysed from a systems perspective in which the entire usage was investigated By looking at the usage in its totality instead of an isolated part of it it is easier to discover energy losses that can occur The power and energy consumption was also analysed for each power mode in order to increase the understand ing for the product functioning as well as the factors that lead to energy wastage 18 2 1 Measurements The measurements were performed with five carrier products and conducted with a power meter Yokogawa WT300 and a programmable power source Elgar SW5250W See Fig 26 for test set up The measure ments were conducted with 230V and 50Hz which are used in the power systems within Europe and the data of the energy and power consumption was logged with a two second frequency 18 2 2 Energy usage scenarios The four following energy usage sc
100. mined All legislative documents that will be ad dressed within this thesis are from the European Union as this is where the company is situated 3 Approach The thesis has evolved in four main phases in which the initial phase strongly influenced the subsequent phases see Fig 2 Each phase has been characterised by an explorative as well as iterative process and has also had a convergent character 3 1 Phase Frame of reference The initial phase started with a wide objective but as the knowledge grew became more concentrated and even tually helped to further define the scope of the thesis A theoretical study was conducted during which cur rent literature within the field of sustainable behaviour was examined From this it was concluded that in order to tackle the increasing household energy consump tion energy saving should be made easy for a wider target group In other words it had to address others than those who were specifically in their everyday life already taking actions to reduce their energy consump tion Literature also pointed out the complexity of en ergy using products including the multitude of power modes and the inconsistency of elements used in the user interface In addition it was also realised that the methods and tools that address sustainable usage was limited In fact there was no existing theoretical meth od that examined the user product interaction during the usage phase to identify wha
101. n literature on ecodesign tools were studied to identify what aspects should be taken into considera tion during the development of the method Reference cards as well as check lists and matrixes used in differ ent usability methods were also examined to see how the method could be structured and visualised 22 3 Results The results will be explained below 22 3 1 Analysis of theoretical evaluations of usage errors The article Metoder f r att unders ka brister i samspe let mellan m nniska och maskin by Blig rd and Osval der 2009 was studied in detail in which information of Cognitive Walkthrough CW Enhanced Cognitive Walkthrough ECW Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach SHERPA Action Error Analy sis AEA Predictive Human Error Analysis PHEA and Predictive Use Error Analysis PUEA were described It pointed out that in examining presumptive errors or problems in user product interaction methods are of ten goal oriented and that the starting point of the de scribed methods was a Hierarchical Task Analysis HTA in which the tasks required to fulfil the user goal were determined The HTA was thereafter used as a basis to identify and examine presumptive errors An important aspect that the authors of the article point out is that a HTA only describes one way by which a user can obtain a goal As the ways by which a user can achieve a goal can be multiple it is important to keep this in mi
102. n consist of a va riety of power modes See Appendix I for further infor mation of each power mode and their respective func tions features and legislation Two different examples of transitions between different power modes of a product are given in Fig 4 5 1 2 Low power modes Power modes within this category use a low amount of energy to power a specific functionality Standby This power mode consumes energy to power a reactivation function and or a continuous function The latter provides with information or an indication of the status of the product on a display A reactivation function enables a product to be activated into another power mode through for example a remote control or internal sensor Official Journal of the European Union 2008 There is a wide range of domestic appliances with standby power and despite its rather low power range of 1 17 Watt the environmental impact is con siderate in regards to the total amount of appliances with built in standby power within each household An average home in Europe Japan Australia or North 10 America is equipped with 20 devices continuously on standby Ellis 2007 30 40 of the energy that an ap pliance uses during its life cycle can constitute of stand by power Energimyndigheten 2007 The total amount of household energy that is lost to standby mode lies between 5 10 and accounts for approximately 1 of global CO2 emissions Ellis 2007 Off mode This po
103. n for Sustainable Behaviour International Jour nal of Sustainable Engineering Vol 1 No 1 2008 Wood G Newborough M 2002 Dynamic energy consumption indicators for domestic appliances envi ronment behaviour and design Energy and Buildings 35 2003 pp821 841 Woodall G Bates J 2009 How the Recession and a Targeted Energy Efficiency Marketing Program Can Create a Greener Economy and Benefit Energy Utilities Rockbridge Associates Internet Available at http www rockresearch com Energy Efficiency Programs php Accessed 28 March 2010 AAA 83 84 Appendix Appendix Overview of power modes CATEGORY POWER MODE FUNCTION FEATURES 86 Not providing with any function Disconnected from power supply Disconnected mode Unplugged sol J O Not providing with any function Hard switch with symbol Not providing with any function Indicator showing OFF mode soft switch with OFF symbol Im Providing function that ensures electromag EMC filter soft switch with symbol netic compability Reactivation function enables product to Remote switch control internal sensors timers Low power modes A ca r be activated into another power mode indication of function soft switch with O bol Standby pem ue Continuous function indicates information Information or status display clocks or status of product Providing reactivation through network LAN USB
104. nd and assume the most common way of reaching the goal An other common denominator for the methods was that definitions of the target group and context of use were required as a basis for the investigation of presump tive errors Many of the methods had a question based approach and these questions were studied regarding their formulations and how they examined presump tive errors In the methods described by Bligard and Osvalder 2009 the questions were task oriented and directed at operations nodes and or functions in the HTA In examined usability checklists the questions were often formulated in a way that provided with a yes or no answer In examining the process and ques tions used in the methods it was realised that many of these were detailed in their investigation and therefore time consuming The tasks were at times broken into too small details and in addition the questions posed during the analysis were not always relevant for every determined task In identifying the underlying reason for the occurrence of a problem an important observation was that sev eral methods had a way of categorizing the identified problems into types In the ECW the problems were categorized into five types according to whether they were caused by the user or by the product such as lack of given clues or placement of text and icons In SHERPA and PHEA every determined operation in the HTA was classified into five categories action retri
105. nergy using products A matrix was thereafter created in which the power modes were linked with their respec tive functions features and legislation see Appendix I The matrix was discussed and revised in discussion with an employee from a specific department of the com pany for validation An extensive literature study within the field of sustain able behaviour was also conducted Focus was put on the seven design intervention strategies formulated by Bhamra et al in 2008 to obtain a deeper understanding for the ways with which products can create a behav ioural change The decision to focus on these strategies was based upon the fact that they were the most elabo rate of the theories for achieving a sustainable usage 5 Energy using products Energy using products is in this thesis a term used to de scribe products that require energy from a mains power source to perform one or more functions The product can be connected to the mains either through a per manently attached cord or through an embedded re chargeable battery that is charged in an external power supply EPS or by an external charger 5 1 Power modes A power mode is a condition or state of an energy using product that characterises its power consumption and functionality A product can have several power modes and will stay in a power mode for an indefinite time un til it is activated into another power mode either by the user or by the product itself th
106. ng on the situation can consist of three interface elements communicating When the action should be performed How the action should be performed and providing Feedback of a performed action 24 Developing the basis Below follows an account of the development process for creating the basis of the method 24 1 Purpose The purpose of this stage was to focus on two of the cri teria that were established during the literature study i to have a set of questions to predict possible energy wastage ii to have a basis from which the questions of presumptive energy wastage could be posed 24 2 Method The development of the method in this stage was divid ed into three main parts The focus of the first part was to create a Question Basis for examining energy wast age from a user perspective In the second part a visual basis of a product s user product interaction was elabo rated upon In the third part concepts were generated to see how the Question Basis could be combined with the visual basis 24 2 1 Developing a Question Basis from a user perspective Questions on presumptive energy wastage factors were developed from the matrix in Appendix XXVII and XXIX but also from studying other domestic appliances The questions were written down on Post its and placed on several A3 papers From the large quantity of de termined questions there arose a need to simplify the process of questioning the product under investigati
107. nging consumer behavior through product design Changing the change Design Visions Proposals and Tools Conference Torino 10 12 July 2008 p234 246 Bligard L Osvalder A 2009 Metoder f r att unders ka brister i samspelet mellan m nniska och maskin Enhanced Cognitive Walkthrough ECW och Predictive Use Error Analysis PUEA Institutionen for produkt och produktionsutveckling Avdelning Design amp Human Factors Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola G teborg 2009 Brook Lyndhurst 2007 Public Understanding of Sus tainable Energy Consumption in the Home A research report completed for Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs September 2007 80 TA Elias E W A 2007 The Potential for Domestic En ergy Savings through Assessing User Behaviour and Changes in Design EcoDesign 2007 5th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing 10 13 December 2007 Tokyo Japan Ellis M 2007 Fact Sheet Standby Power Use and the IEA 1 watt Plan Internet Available at http www iea org papers 2007 standby_fact pdf Accessed 17 February 2010 Energimyndigheten 2007 Har du stangt av p rik tigt Internet Malmo Elanders Berlings Available at http 213 115 22 116 System TemplateView aspx p Energimyndigheten amp view default amp cat Broschyrer amp i d 11c4d6c7fa764029be6de7f9476a1b84 Accessed 17 February 2010 European Commision 2009 Energy Energy Label
108. nsures that the habit is locked in Sauer et al 2003a state that with low complexity prod ucts it is harder to modify user behaviour than when compared to high complexity products which have a higher level of automation more functions and easier maintenance This is especially true for products within the domestic environment Habits are developed more easily with low complexity products as users are usually not trained in how to use them Instead these products are subject to a more skill based learning in which users tend to teach themselves how to use them Wiese et al 2002 in Sauer et al 2003a also mention that the lower the level of complexity the higher the risk is that the user does not read the instruction manuals which can instruct the user of best usage High complexity prod ucts on the other hand are subject to a more knowl edge based learning in which users are more conscious about the decisions they make This type of created be haviour is therefore easier to influence 8 1 3 Control Products in which the control lies more in the hands of the product than of the user does not rely too much on the mass consumer They can therefore be a way to target users who are not committed to sustainability or who would not like to change or compromise on their lifestyles Lilley et al 2005 Changing user behaviour through control could however have unintentional ef fects as well as raise different moral and ethical issue
109. nts had however only submitted the questions on one page and these were therefore not taken into consideration during the analysis The gen der distribution was rather even with 56 4 female and 43 6 men and the respondents came from 43 differ ent countries see Fig 10 for demographics The results were looked upon from 2 sets of parameters age and gender in which the percentages were based on the to tal amount of women men and age group respectively In other words when 75 of women replied to a certain question it corresponded to 75 of the total amount of women who participated in the survey In the age group 13 to 19 years there were only 4 respondents Furthermore there was only one respondent above 70 years These were thus not included in the final analysis as it was thought that it would be misgiving Due to the wide spread of nationalities this was decided to not be a parameter for the analysis An attempt to categorise the results depending on the continent of the country was also not found to be relevant as countries within E 27 73 9 18 8 Unplugging Pressing button Pressing button with symbol with symbol Female GET E Male A EE O S E Auto switch off I do not know function J __ J Fig 11 Question When are you certain that your product is not consuming electricity each continent may not be representative of each oth er All the questions except for one were analys
110. ny 23 3 Results The results of the analysis will be depicted below 23 3 1 The What and Why analysis from a user perspective Energy wastage factors caused by actions that users perform in their interaction with a product and that can lead to energy wastage can be seen in Fig 37 The analysis of these factors resulted in four generic dimen sions to which the fundamental reasons behind the oc currence of an energy wastage factor can be ascribed user interface context of use system design and prod uct honesty which refers to how honest the product is in communicating the energy consumption of the product The common denominator for these generic dimensions is that the occurrence of the energy wast age factor is not directly attributed to the user In a further analysis of the four generic dimensions it was concluded that they interrelate with each other and that the user interface acts as the main link between them It was also concluded that energy wastage from a user perspective can be a result of how well the product is communicating to the user in relation to its context of use actual energy consumption and the habits that are created depending on the system design The aim of the interface is therefore to provide the user with the right information which can be communicated through three main interface elements see Fig 38 When the action should be performed How the action should be performed Fee
111. o be used in the early phases of product development It aims to support product developers with different disciplinary backgrounds in creating a common under standing of the product and its potential energy impact during the usage phase With this insight product de velopers should have a better ability to develop prod ucts that are designed either to cue the right habits or around existing The Energ ability Tool consists of three different stages Define Analyse and In Depth The first two stages are theoretical and provides the possibility to analyse a product when the option to assess them in home envi ronments does not exist The third stage provides with an in depth guideline to conduct more extensive user studies of existing products in home environments as well as how to conduct detailed energy measurements see Fig 53 for an overview of the Energ ability Tool The participants will for each stage examine a product through a set of A6 cards These cards will also assist APPROACH GENERAL ENERGY WASTAGE FACTORS SPECIFIC ENERGY WASTAGE FACTORS AIM TOOL CARDS PRODUCT HONESTY USER PERSPECTIVE TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE The user does not know when the product is or is not consuming energy The user has to unplug the prod uct to ensure that no energy is being consumed User Interface The user does not receive the right information from the product User does not know
112. of its user interface were found to be interesting to pursue Moreover the energy impact in regards to its annual volume of sales was found to be significant 34 M Case study 15 Introduction In this case study energy wastage in the usage phase of the carrier product was investigated Theoretical as well as empirical research was conducted 15 1 Aim The objective of the case study was to explore how the carrier product is used in real life to identify and un derstand the factors that lead to energy wastage The investigation was limited to examining the usage phase relative to a specific user goal determined for the car rier product Focus was put on pursuing the following three questions What aspects of the user product interaction can lead to energy wastage How can the energy consumption differ depending on the way of usage Why does the energy consumption differ between users 15 2 Process The case study was divided into four separate stages each with a different process and focus regarding the user product interaction In the first stage an under standing for the product was obtained and was thereaf ter followed by a theoretical study of the possible ener gy wastage that could occur during the usage phase In the third stage energy measurements were conducted to investigate how much the energy consumption could differ depending on usage In the last stage an answer to why the energy con
113. of the case study and survey findings with help of a What Why and How approach aiming to answer three main questions What presumptive energy wastage can occur Why does the energy wastage occur How can the energy wastage be solved These questions were primarily looked upon from a user perspective where factors in the user product in teraction that can be affected by or influence the user were examined The questions were secondarily looked upon from a technical perspective in which the focus was on examining energy wastage that arises due to the actual system design The sub criteria was to establish 1 A guideline for conducting an in depth study of an energy using product with the same approach that had been undertaken in the case study 2 A deliverable for the company providing an over view of a product s energy wastage and where the focus for improvement should be put 3 A holistic overview of a user product interaction to create a common multi disciplinary understanding for a product 4 Develop ideas for a redesign of the current product based on the findings of the case study 6 MT 21 2 Process The iterative method development process consisted of five stages Literature study Further analysis Devel oping the basis Further development and Final devel opment In the first stage a literature study was con ducted and helped establish a set of criteria to steer the development of the method In
114. of your products which of the following do you think could save you the most energy would have products that are energy efficient would choose the eco option e g eco button if my products have such an option would have products that switch off automatically after use would switch off my products when they are not in use Other 94 Appendix X Results of the survey 5 What does it mean when a product is switched off 57 7 6 In which of the following situations are you certain that a product is not consuming any electricity 73 9 95 7 If you would like to switch off the following products after use which kind of solution would you prefer hom LO y A Lm i wd n 2 Switch it off myself by Have the product switch it Have the choice to switch it off pressing a button on off automatically myself and have the product Product or remote control switch off automatically 8 When are you certain that your product is switched off You can choose one or more of the following options 76 5 All indicator lights OFF light is on All indicator lights All indicator lights are off are off OFF light are off unplugged ison Female GEE oc E Malo A E m E E 9 How would you feel if you switch off a product and you later find out that it is still consuming a low amount of electricity 0 9 Supnsed 54 3 3 4 Not surprised 3 4 Ang y annoyed bothered concemed
115. ol and test it with a group of product developers This would partly be achieved by expanding the method to encom pass a What Why and How approach but also by align ing it with the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Prod ucts and developing a Matrix to summarise the results of the analysis 26 2 Method The results from the previous stage were not only elab orated further but also expanded to be more in line with the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products Additional cards to analyse energy wastage from a Back of card contains an example from the case study to further under stand the question Technical Perspective and Product Honesty were devel oped All cards were determined to be an A6 in order to contain all the necessary information A handbook introducing the 3 Approaches was also created and a workshop was held to evaluate the Tool 26 2 1 Energy Overview The instructive cards for the Energy Overview were elaborated further upon The formulations of instruc tions and the layout were evaluated and improved Consistency was a key element in particular for the layout and wording used 26 2 2 Cards for analysing energy wastage The cards created in the previous stage were further improved and the number of cards was reduced as some of the cards addressed the same matter Cards addressing energy wastage from a product honesty perspective as well as a technical perspective were also created In developing th
116. olved in the product development process It is devel oped as a reaction to an identified need to make energy saving simple and accessible to a wider range of users i e the Silent Green target group which includes both users who do and do not express a concern for the en vironment and those who are and are not motivated or have the knowledge of how to achieve energy re duction in the usage of products These 3 Approaches strives to guide product developers to develop products that enable sustainable usage from the beginning They not only suggest that products should be designed in a way that enables them to achieve the lowest possi ble energy consumption for each and every of its user goals but also that product developers should find ways of designing around user habits or simply creating the right habits from the start Making it understandable to PRODUCT the user when a product is or f is not consuming energy HONESTY USER Developing an intuitive energy PERSPECTIVE J effective user interface TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE Making the product energy effective with technical solutions Fig 50 The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products 66 ME APPROACH PRINCIPLE OF APPROACH PRODUCT HONESTY The user will know when the product is ON and when the product is OFF The user does not have to un plug the product to make sure no electricity is being consum
117. on Questions were grouped and re grouped and these at tempts gradually led to three categorisations 24 2 2 Developing a visual basis of investigation To begin with the visual overviews that had been cre ated for the carrier product during the case study were elaborated further These overviews resulted in the idea of a visual model for each of the different user profiles to show the difference in energy consumption in rela tion to how they were using the product However as the large differences in energy consumption are usu ally time related and a potential difficulty in visually assigning the small and specific details to their impact on to the energy consumption this idea was forsaken Instead the idea of using one overview to show that there could be a potential difference in energy con sumption grew This idea coincided with the criteria that had been established in the literature study that a basis from which presumptive energy wastage could be examined was necessary and that this basis would show the entire user product interactions necessary to achieve the user goal This basis could also be used to make the user product interaction clear to developers with different backgrounds and roles in development work The idea was therefore expanded further upon into an Energy Overview The Energy Overview started with elaborating on the relationship between the power modes and user ac tions As a transition of a power mode is
118. on background knowledge 20 Conclusions and impli cations for further work The case study of the carrier product has shown that one and the same product can result in different lev els of energy consumption The energy wastage can be attributed to the way with which the user may use a product and the habits that are developed partly as a consequence of the technical function of the product Differences in energy consumption can to a certain de gree also be affected by the context of use and to the user s understanding of the product and its energy us age partly through the design of the user interface The latter was in the user studies to a certain extent reflect ed in that most users were not aware that the product was consuming energy after having been switched off This finding emphasises what had been concluded from the survey that there is in fact a need to create a com mon understanding for when energy using products consume energy or not The case study has also shown that even when the product is used as ideally as possi ble by a user the product is still not very effective in its usage of energy It is thus important to not only ensure that a product is as energy effective as possible but also to provide users with a correct mental model of a prod uct s energy usage and to consider how users may use a product in its context of use In order to address en ergy wastage in energy using products it was therefore c
119. on the ideal way were considered as an erroneous user type see matrix in Appendix XXVIII The essence of the fault in the error was thereafter de termined and categorised into energy wastage factors which depict generic incorrect user actions that could lead to energy wastage The occurrence of these energy wastage factors in other domestic appliances was also investigated and included in the matrix These factors had been established by analysing and discussing with employees the technical functions and user interface of the appliances In identifying the fundamental reasons for an energy wastage factor the erroneous user types depicted in the matrix in Appendix XXVIII were related to the iden tified reasons behind the cause of error This was first done with Post its on an A3 paper and thereafter creat ed into a matrix The occurrence of the energy wastage 50 O factors were thereafter traced to a higher level of cause and categorised into the following initial generic dimen sions product related timing option user positioning user perception and context of use The initial generic dimensions corresponded to the conclusions drawn from the case study In pursuing an even higher level of cause the following question was posed Why will the user not perform their actions in the most energy efficient and ideal way The fundamental reasons behind the occurrence of an energy wastage factor was as a result traced to fou
120. oncluded that three aspects need to be considered for integrating sustainable usage in the development of products Product honesty Creating a common and basic un derstanding of energy using products User perspective Designing for context of use and user needs Technical perspective Designing an energy effec tive product with technical solutions The method or approach that evolved during the course of the case study has shown that the influence on the usage phase could be investigated through a What Why and How approach in which energy wastage was identi fied the reasons for why it occurs was examined and that these insights could act as a basis for finding ways of how to solve them In order to develop a method to theoretically examine the usage phase in energy using products it is important to identify the factors that can lead to energy wastage in order to find ways of design ing around user habits or simply designing for the right habits from the start 43 44 Method Development Process 21 Introduction The findings from the previous phases lay the founda tion for developing the theoretical method 21 1 Aim The main aim of this phase was to develop a theoreti cal method assessing the usage phase of energy using products to identify and understand the underlying reasons of energy wastage that can occur as a result of user product interaction The method evolved through a further investigation
121. onclusion The user studies showed that it was possible to use the carrier product in many ways which was reflected in the differing patterns of use for the nine users It also showed that several users developed certain usage hab its around the system design of the product of which some were not optimal from an energy perspective Another conclusion drawn is that the way the system design of the product is made can make it possible to use the product in an erroneous way where the user will obtain an end result that is not desired Different aspects of the examined user product interac tion could explain the occurrence of the identified ener gy wastage factors and can be summarised as following Timing and pattern of use Timing in relation to the sequence with which ac tions are performed can increase the energy con sumption User positioning Users are not always positioned by the carrier product during usage and this can lead to that it 42 takes them either a longer time before they return to the product or that they forget to return Context of use Removed entirely with reference to the confidenti ality of the industry agreement User understanding amp perception of energy Users do not know that the carrier product con sumes standby energy because the light of the standby button is off when the product is switched off Users understand the energy consumption of the product differently depending
122. oned the main way of controlling the energy consumption of products was through the purchase of an additional device An overview of products and concepts within each of the seven design strategies was created see Appendix VIII As is mentioned by Lofthouse and Lilley 2008 most of the products are A 25 conceptual and those that are commercially available are few There is however a growing assortment of me ters focusing on providing feedback on household en ergy consumption Many home meters are able to syn chronise with computers enabling users to get a better overview over their energy consumption through for example comparing their results from one month with previous months Certain products such as washing machines and dish washing machines were found to have an eco button enabling the user to wash their things in a more eco friendly way This feature was however not observed in any other products Common for many of the products and concepts identified within the design strategies was the usage of colour as an indicator for energy usage it was used to indicate actual energy consumption actual cost of electricity and variations of energy production Different colour combinations were however used The home meter Home Joule used a traffic light sequence to indicate the different cost levels of electricity The Wattson on the other hand uses a blue purple and red combination with blue used to indicate a lower
123. ought a stronger credibility to the work The user studies could have been comple mented by conducting a quantitative survey specifically on the user habits and understanding of the carrier product and more recent data logger readings could have increased the validity of the findings However both the available time and data had to be used as ef ficiently as possible The specifically developed energy context mapping ses sion was found to be a good way of interviewing the users on their usage The depicted user emotions dur ing the usage did not on the other hand contribute with significant insights The emotional aspect could perhaps be more useful if the user instead was creating a us age diary over a long period of time This could help un derstand whether a certain action could be influenced by a certain context of use More emotionally related questions could have also been asked during the user studies such as how would they feel if they later found out that the product was using standby energy when 76 M switched off to better tie this together with the survey findings These questions were however not posed in order to not bring this kind of product specific informa tion out in the light 33 4 Phase 4 Method Develop ment Process The method development process was the hardest of all phases of the thesis project Translating the findings of Phase 3 and 4 into a method was a long and tedi ous process The data was
124. our code that had been developed for the action types was also assigned to the cards in an attempt to create a clearer linkage between the cards and the Energy Over view This would also enable the product developer to easily see which cards could be used to question a spe cific action of the product The guidelines that were de veloped for conducting an in depth study of an energy using product were based on the conducted case study and consisted of two steps how to conduct user studies in terms of observations and energy context mapping sessions and how to conduct energy measurements See the cards in Appendix XL 26 3 3 Summarising the results of the analysis Two matrices were developed to summarise the results of the analysis In one Matrix the identified energy wastage could be assigned to user actions whereas in the other Matrix it could be ascribed to the power A G modes of a product see Fig 49 The Matrix for power modes has an additional column in which information of the energy impact obtained through detailed energy measurements could be placed 26 3 4 The handbook The handbook that was developed for the product de velopers at the company was distributed as an easy to read deliverable of the thesis project It presented the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products as well as more detailed information on the case study and online survey It also included a glossary with common terms used in the area of ene
125. own in relation to the user actions and power modes This was found to be a good way of making it clear where in the process of usage most energy is consumed A timeline ascribed to the time aspect aimed to give a better perception of the length of time spent in a specific power mode and to also complement the power consumption timeline The Energy Overview was also further developed to show the relationship between power modes user actions and the three main interface elements see Fig 41 24 3 3 Evaluation of concepts The two concepts that were developed are as follows see Appendix XXXIII Concept 1 Integrating questions in the Energy Overview itself Concept 2 Energy Overview question cards and a matrix to fill in the results In Concept 1 different matrix solutions were among the concepts that were thought of By looking at the Energy Overview the participant could easily see where the potential problems lay However an overview like this not only looked complex but would also be complex to use In addition it could give the product developer an incorrect impression of where the actual problems lay as it did not show the probability of the problem occur ring or the consequence of the problem For Concept 2 different cards were produced to exam ine how they could be structured and to test different ee 55 E Power consumption 5 _ _ gt y S Primary action 2 Secondary
126. p Thelander 1997 products that users are more emotionally in volved with are usually better taken care of thereby also lasting longer Lilley et al 2005 8 1 2 Habits Habits arise through repetition and reinforcement which in turn are affected by frequency and strength respectively Jackson 2005 The way with which a user reacts to a specific situation can either be a conscious decision following a deliberate and rational decision making process or it can be subconscious in which users respond instinctively indicating that they must not always be aware of something in order to react in a certain way Heijs 2006a in Pettersen amp Boks 2008 Habits play an important role in the decision making in everyday life studies have shown that they make up for approximately 45 of the everyday actions that occur on a nearly daily basis and often in the same location Verplanken amp Wood 2006 in Bhamra et al 2008 In regards to this aspect as well as the high degree of au tomation that habits entail Jackson 2005 concludes that breaking these routine behaviours can be difficult Habits are according to Andersen 1982 in Jackson 2005 created in a three stage process Firstly in the declarative stage where information regarding a spe cific choice or action must be processed Secondly in the knowledge compilation stage the information must lead to a new action and be translated to a new habit Lastly the procedural stage e
127. pared to 2000 Almeida et al 2006 As most types of appli ances operate on electricity Wood amp Newborough 2002 improvements in their use of energy can play an important part in the reduction of emissions Fig 1 Household energy use by end use in the 19 member countries of the International Energy Agency IEA 2008 1 2 New approach to energy reduction One way of addressing the increasing global energy con sumption is from a technological perspective in which the overall energy efficiency is improved The possibil ity of reducing the environmental load of a product has however technical limitations Pascual et al 2003 In addition these measures have little impact on the prod uct usage phase which is largely determined by con sumer behaviour and is for many electronic consumer goods the phase having the largest environmental im pact Lockton et al 2008 The way with which a house hold uses energy may vary greatly even when the appli ances are identical studies in the Netherlands United States and UK have shown that approximately 26 36 of the household energy consumption is determined by user behaviour Wood amp Newborough 2003 There is therefore a growing recognition of the need to tackle this challenge through product led interventions by having a more user centered approach to sustainability where focus is put on the interaction between user and product Tang and Bhamra 2008 p 183 2 suggest that it
128. periences through creating artwork such as collages and drawings Stapper amp Sander 2003 in Visser et al 2005 The two templates acted as a basis of discussion and was combined with a semi structured interview to gain as many insights as possible from the user A semi structured interview can be seen as a combination of an unstructured and structured interview In an un structured interview the participants are given open ended questions whereas in structured interviews participants are asked to choose a response from for example a pre defined set of categories As it is impor tant that the issues that are to be addressed In a semi structured interview are clear to the interviewer and can be prompted to ensure that they are covered Jor dan 2001 a list of topics to be addressed during the interview was therefore present The entire session was recorded in order to facilitate the analysis of the data Template 1 aimed to create an understanding for the users distribution frequency see Appendix XXII Tem plate 2 consisted of four different timelines Each time line represented an aspect of the user product inter action that needed to be understood and had its own set of stickers see Appendix XXIII On the first time line the user had to place action stickers in the order which they performed the user goal The idea was that the user should place the actions according to the ac tual time it took for them to perfo
129. previous phase the complexity of energy using products had been determined as one of the counter active factors of energy efficiency The complexity was partly ascribed to users understanding of low power modes and the user interface of these products In this phase these aspects were further investigated through both a theoretical and empirical study 11 1 Aim This phase had three aims Firstly to assess the cur rent portfolio of the company and determine a carrier product on which focus would be put in the subsequent phase Secondly to examine the market of product led interventions aiming to achieve a behavioral change The third aim was to conduct an empirical study to ex amine how users understand the user interface of en ergy using products 11 2 Process In this phase a study on product led interventions was conducted A theoretical study to analyse existing prod ucts within the company was also performed and pro vided insights to which products had the most potential for improvement This study also pointed out several aspects of the user interface that needed to be further explored These aspects were among others investigat ed in an online survey that was developed specifically to examine the users understanding of energy using products 2 Analysis of existing products Below follows an account of the internal analysis of the company s domestic appliances and the external analy sis of product led in
130. r category most consumers stated that the product had to be unplugged for them to be certain whereas one respondent men n tioned when the machine turns silent It does not matter Fig 14 How would you feel if you switch off a product and you later find out that it is still consuming a low amount of electricity 30 TA 13 3 3 Acceptance of low electricity con sumption The majority of respondents 93 2 stated that they wanted to know when their product was consuming a low amount of electricity and implied that this should be communicated by the product see Fig 15 The sur vey also showed that disappointment 54 3 and be trayal 18 0 were emotions that the consumer would Dish washing machine to program it to start washing in a few hours flew Microwave ovens to power the digital display e g i Lal telling the time Coffee machine to keep itself warm so that it can oe brew your next cup of coffee quickly LJ TV to use it with a remote control Product that consumes electricity for no specific El function 92 3 56 8 42 7 44 4 gt ll 7 It is not ok feel if they later found out that a product would still be consuming electricity after having been switched off see Fig 16 In the Other category 0 9 expressed themselves as being surprised compared to 3 4 that would not feel surprised Anot
131. r ge neric dimensions that were not directly caused by the user but instead by the product see Appendix XXIX Analysing the What Why from a technical perspective The basis for investigating the product from a techni cal perspective was the research behind the conducted energy measurements The technical functioning of the system design was examined to identify the factors that lead to energy wastage that the user could not influ ence In comparing the design of the carrier product to an ideal one which only uses the minimum theoreti cal energy to fulfil a user goal and does not use energy other than for fulfilling a user goal two simple energy wastage factors were established To establish the fun damental reasons giving rise to the identified energy wastage factors the conclusions drawn from deter mining the conversion effectiveness during the energy measurements were investigated further As these rea sons were product specific they were therefore pur sued to a higher level of cause for their occurrence and rephrased to become more generic in their formula tions see Appendix XXX 23 2 2 Investigating the How Idea generations of how to solve the identified energy wastage factors from the case study were conducted throughout the method development process see Appendix XXXI Ideas were brainstormed around the seven design intervention strategies but also discussed together with product developers of the compa
132. r product and how a user will act or be motivated to act The level of knowledge can in turn be affected by income educa tion cultural background geographical context etc Social factors Social factors influencing a user s inten tion include norms roles and self concept Norms can refer to what a user may perceive as normal or ought to A 15 INFLUENCING FACTORS Knowledge gt gt Attitude Beliefs Norms Roles gt Social factors Self concept Emotions Affect Frequency of past behaviour ELEMENTS OF BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE Intention Habits Control INTERVENTION STRATEGY POWER IN Eco Information Eco Choice Eco Feedback Eco Spur Eco Steer Eco Technology 0 Clever Design Fig 6 Elements of behavioural change linked with the seven design intervention strategies based on the model by Bhamra et al 2008 be done in a certain situation but it can also be based on what others are doing in a similar situation Accord ing to Schwartz s Norm Activation Theory norms arise from an awareness of the consequences of one s ac tions and the ability and willingness to assume respon sibility for those consequences The inclination to change a user s behaviour is greater when the user is aware of the negative consequences and also more in clined to accept responsibility for these consequences Jackson 2005 Lockton et al 2008 mention so
133. ral articles is reduced energy costs and environmental im pacts However on a study by Gyberg and Palm 2007 of different actors trying to influence household s en ergy behaviour in Sweden an issue that was brought up was the fact that the economic profit was often too small to create a change and the environmental ben efits were not tangible enough for the users 8 2 4 Eco spur A strategy to inspire users to explore more sustainable usage through providing rewards to prompt good be haviour or penalties to punish unsustainable usage Bhamra et al 2008 The carrot and stick approach is another term often used to denote rewarding and penalising The essence is that rewards should enhance certain behaviour whereas penalising should deter a user from perform ing a certain action or behaving in a certain way Re wards and penalties are a way of reinforcing behaviour either positively or negatively Jackson 2005 mentions that some behaviourists suggests that this approach is a more effective way of achieving behavioural change than compared to exhortation and information Positive reinforcements are an important determinant in estab lishing new habits a new action that is seen as success ful to the user will motivate the user to continue using the action Jackson 2005 Penalising could however be perceived negatively by the user and could discourage them from using the product again Lilley 2009 8 2 5
134. rds relevant to the specific project could be selected and utilised In addition the cards could evolve and grow in number over time 22 4 Discussion and implications The literature study gave rise to a set of criteria to guide the development of the method Firstly a basis from which presumptive energy wastage could be examined was necessary From the analysis of theoretical evalua tions of usage errors it was realised that this basis could be achieved by defining the goal that the user would like to achieve with the product and the required ac tions for this achievement Secondly presumptive en ergy wastage in a product could be examined through a question based approach In the development of ques tions it would be important to examine ways of opti mizing them so that only relevant questions would be asked The analysis of ecodesign tools established two addi tional criteria Firstly that the method should be per formed by a multi disciplinary group to combine the know how of developers with different backgrounds and secondly that the method should not only be used for existing products but also for conceptual The latter could be beneficial as it is easier to implement a change to the design and to a lower cost in the early stages of product development The literature study gave rise to the idea that the se verity and probability of an identified problem could be interesting to integrate into the method The study f
135. re analysed numerous times and despite the many attempted categorisation expedi tions it always ended up where it had started Little by little progress was made It was only afterwards when in detail describing the method development process that it was realised that the process and its many itera tions had made sense after all and had brought forth many interesting thoughts The initial focus of the method had been on the user and its role in the usage phase but during the course of the project it was realised from the findings of the energy measurements that the system design had a significant role in determining the energy impact of a product These findings were therefore taken into con sideration in Phase 4 and used to develop the Technical Perspective It is not as elaborative as the development of the User Perspective but this was not the aim It was although found to be so important that it could not be excluded The method development process may have lacked in evaluative methods to determine or confirm decisions taken but can partly be explained by the evolving char acter of the process Unlike a product development process the focus was not on generating different con cepts but instead on how to analyse and categorise the data to see how it could be applicable to other prod ucts The findings and conclusions from each stage of the method development process were supported by the mentors and helped to set the pre requi
136. reated and elaborated further See Appendix XII This model can be used to visualize the relationship between a user s action and the tech nical function of a product It examines how the user and technical system interact with each other to create a joint system The model has emerged from a need to combine these two because many products only obtain their whole functionality together with the involvement of the user In other words it is through the collabora tion of these two that a particular goal is achieved The two main components of the user technical process are the user process and the technical process These are in turn divided into two sub components respectively The user process consists of mental activities and user actions whereas the interface functions and technical constitute the technical process These components are placed parallel to each other to illustrate the interaction Janhager 2005 16 3 General description The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement What is important to bring forth is that in the analysis to understand user actions in the interaction with the product it was determined that they could be divided into two categories primary and secondary actions Primary actions lead to a change of power mode and secondary actions are performed within a power mode This categorisation will be used throughout the thesis 16 4 Disc
137. rences in energy impact within a power mode rather than to each and every user action 26 2 4 Creating the handbook During the further development of the Tool it was re alised that there was a need to have an introduction to the topic of energy wastage related to products This could give the product developers more background knowledge before performing the Tool A handbook was therefore developed 26 2 5 Testing and evaluating the Tool A workshop was held with a group of 5 company em ployees to test and evaluate the Tool by using it to examine a product To enhance the relevance of the workshop for the participants but also to maximise the information that could be extracted for the prod uct under investigation the group only included people whose work was related to the product In addition the group had been composed to be multi disciplinary The workshop took place in the Creative room a room with a more creative and relaxed atmosphere All of the participants except for one had attended the fi nal presentation during which the 3 Approaches had been introduced The one who had not been there was Step 1 4a Does the action lead to a power mode transi tion Instruction Then the action is primary Q Case study Switch on is a primary action which can lead to that the power mode changes from standby to active mode Another primary action is unplug in which the power mode
138. ressed to enable sustainable usage 32 2 Research questions In the thesis project the focus was to identify new ways of achieving energy reduction during the usage phase This was firstly examined through two questions that were determined in the beginning of the project The first question How can energy using products be de signed to change their daily interaction with users and encourage them towards sustainable behaviour was 74 first of all addressed in Phase 1 It was then concluded that product led interventions with a higher level of persuasiveness could be the means for addressing this The question was further pursued in the Phase 2 where the internal analysis of the company s domestic appli ances as well as the online survey pointed out that an important aspect of energy using products would be that they provide users with a correct mental model of a product s energy usage The case study emphasised that in order to design products enabling sustainable behaviour it would be vital to not only ensure that a product uses only the energy that is needed to fulfil a user goal but also to understand the product s context of use and the possible ways that a user may use the product The insights gained from these phases gradu ally shaped the 3 Approaches which can be seen as answering the first research question Additionally a further analysis of these insights in Phase 4 concluded that energy wastage could be pre
139. rgy using products 26 3 5 The workshop During the workshop several interesting observations were made Firstly that low power modes of energy using products are complex and not well understood by people involved in product development of these products This was reflected by the fact that several of the participants were not aware of that there was Can the user choose in a given time interval when to perform the action Triggering question to examine energy wastage Consequence in terms of energy wastage User interface WHEN an off mode in the product and the reason for its pres ence The results of the workshop were summarised in a matrix and an Energy Overview and sent to the par ticipants see Appendix XXXIV XXXVI The Tool was found to be useful to identify possibilities for improvements and was seen as a new way of looking at a product It also managed to pinpoint current dilem mas with the product The participants were positive to the Matrix and in par ticular liked the fact that it was possible to note down the energy impact as they believed this could help to steer or motivate people in the right direction i e to focus on the aspects that could really save energy One participant therefore enhanced the importance of mak ing use of real logged data Another participant suggest ed an additional column to the Matrix in which it could contain suggestions of who would pursue a certain mat ter an
140. rgy using products is with the formula E Power x time From this equation it can be concluded that time is an important parameter which can in the user product interaction be affected in two ways firstly the time it takes the product to fulfil a certain function and sec ondly the time it takes before the users perform a spe cific action The amount of power that is applied in a product can depend on the function that the product needs to fulfil 17 3 2 The frequency of use The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement 17 3 3 The theoretical energy impact The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement 17 4 Conclusion The data logger readings showed that the product can time wise be used differently as it is designed in a way that allows the user to choose when to perform spe cific actions The calculations showed that the longer it took to perform these actions the larger the amount of energy that was consumed The theoretical usage analysis identified that the pattern of use could have an effect on the energy consumption but also identified a number of hypothetical energy wastage factors that could occur in the secondary actions 8 Understanding the energy impact In this stage energy measurements were conducted to investigate the energy impact 18 1 Purpose The purpose was to exa
141. rita 2 Measures to me duce eneko yanuna r a ett ata iettataieuieiataeaaiaeaiaaraaaeannetay 3 Tale RESUME riot E A 3 7 2 TECOS aio 3 13 gt EdUCa Ona Measures cars au caoa usan mantis 4 74 The counteractive factors of increased energy effIClENCY miii 4 8 Design Tor behavioural Changes iia Ria 5 Sul Three elements of Dehiaviotitral MANE cea 5 Od cla COIN AAA PU ETN E ted EEA E aaa racic E E E TE 15 OLD 5 ao 0 OPA OO o O ted aol A U AENEA an eat 17 O CONO iia r pib di apasido ando aatactien deta 17 8 2 Thesseven design Intervention Strategiesissninosiirinnainsii iin ia A NA A naar 17 Oal ECON ONN OUO a e E A A fteetdesssiacs tessa cttes easseepseausee ane ceetpasanes 18 G2 2a A A 18 8 23 A unaona a ANN 18 OLA ECO SPUP asossiataditiadtasamuncdiattelle a a 19 92 5 A CF iriqi aana nie naa neal sbeebs Beveled a a 19 8 26 Eco technrical intervention inicie ce 19 O 20 9 Methods and tools for sustainable Usina isaten tica 20 10 Conclusions and implications for further Work iniiciicconinnm 20 re IIe Oe AT 23 Introduction L I Aim 1 2 Process ID Analysis of existing PO DUCES suiran a a ai 24 DENA I GD OSE A td E E 24 DIEM OO A E AA NEE ENE 24 A a ate e a a E N EA Natit tehaaouaatin 24 PZ Dele OTIC NEWS a a A EE ER 24 L232 Potential camer Prod E O ETE 25 233 ExtermalangysiSerurn imna E aN 25 EBs SURVE Voas en a ARA O NNA ARAO EE RAEAN AEn 26 Bl A dad caes 26 A ROG secs eset taser naana esc teat annette oi
142. rm their actions but some of the users found it difficult to understand the concept of creating a time interval It was also realised that the actual timing of the actions was not important the important aspect was to distinguish between the actions that were performed consecutively and the actions that took time before they were performed If the user would perform other actions while using the product they were asked to place other action stickers on the second timeline On the third timeline the users were asked to depict their different feelings during the usage with the help of the emotion stickers The aim had been to identify whether the emotions could differ depending on when they were using the carrier product A 411 and how this could affect the usage This was however not brought forth in this study and is therefore not part of the results On the final timeline the users had to place percentage of energy consumed stickers in rela tion to the actions that they performed 19 2 3 Questionnaire A questionnaire with open ended questions was cre ated to obtain demographic data as well as information about the participants usage of the carrier product see Appendix XXIV for an overview This questionnaire was handed to the users once the user study was finished 19 3 Results The following text has been removed entirely with ref erence to the confidentiality of the industry agreement 19 3 1 C
143. roducts that could guide product developers to a more effective us age of energy but also to help create new energy ef fective products grew forth This idea evolved into the 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products which de scribe three ways of how a product could achieve the lowest energy consumption The principles of each of the 3 Approaches were based on the conclusions drawn from the case study and survey The recommendations were developed from the ideas of how to improve the carrier product but also through discussions with vari ous developers at the company and by studying prod ucts that were found to be sustainable 24 3 Results The results of this stage will be described below 24 3 1 Question Basis from a user perspective As previously mentioned the questions were catego 54 rised in three different ways In the first categorisation the questions were grouped according to two of the generic dimensions for the occurrence of an energy wastage factor user interface and context of use The questions within the user interface category were in turn categorised according to which interface element they were associated in order to pinpoint which inter face element that needed to be addressed The ques tions related to the system design which was the third fundamental reason for energy wastage did not have its own category but were instead integrated into the other questions This decision was taken partly du
144. rough an automatic con trol In the past years the complexity of energy using products has increased from simply having an ON and OFF mode these products have been moving towards multiple power modes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2002 and with different designations In 2005 the International Electrotechnical Commis sion published an international standard IEC 62301 providing with a method of test to measure the power consumption of standby power Energy Efficient Strate gies P L 2010 In this standard standby was defined as the minimum power level while connected to mains Standby became a commonly used term for low power modes and it is only recently that it is becoming clear that energy consumed in low power modes can be at tributed to power modes other than the minimum one Nordman et al 2009 This definition was therefore re vised and a range of new definitions for power modes were presented in a second version of IEC 62301 En ergy Efficient Strategies P L 2010 This standard could when it is officially published bring more clarity and a better understanding for low power modes 5 1 1 Categorisation of power modes The power modes have in this thesis been divided into four categories depending on its type of power source POWER MODE CATEGORY supply and energy consumption see Fig 3 These pow er mode categories include Disconnected mode Product is not connected to a power source
145. s Using control as a mediator for behavioural change leads to a new product user relationship Lilley 2009 states that the relationship has long been character ised as being Master and Slave in which the role of the product has been to serve the user This relation ship changes however when the control of the product lies more in the hands of the product An interaction in which the product dominates over the user could be disconcerting if the user is accustomed to always mak ing the decisions 8 2 The seven design intervention strategies Each of the seven design strategies for product led in terventions defined by Bharma et al 2008 will be pre sented and analysed below E 17 8 2 1 Eco Information A strategy to make consumables visible understand able and accessible to inspire consumers to reflect upon their use of resources Bhamra et al 2008 A first step in creating awareness for energy consump tion could be by making it more tangible to the user One example is the Power Aware cord in which elec tricity is visualised through different pulses and inten sity of light The short term and long term effect can however be questioned once the novelty of a product wears off and becomes integrated in the everyday life the product may no longer create awareness and be as eye catching as it initially was Backlund et al 2006 8 2 2 Eco choice A strategy to encourage consumers to think about their
146. s ae atca O NRN 26 SL Developing CHS UN adi 26 13 22 EXCUSAS SEV OY cantata tear abi laa aida 27 323 ANalysing e SUFVEY sinisa nas oaa a a T A Aa 27 537 RSU a E lisas 28 13 3 1 Means of ensuring Zero electricity CONSUMPTION ninia 28 3 3 2 Understanding SWICISOO ari Ae AA 29 13 3 3 Acceptance of low electricity CONSUMPEION inicie 31 13 3 4 Motives and beliefs for reducing energy CONSUMPTION vss 32 14 Conelusions and implications for f rther WO Erin adas 33 Bo a e Senn E 35 eval neg te Wei ONA aa ers tgeceesseertererac eter E E E ee eeeereeeee eee 36 IAA erenneut ute nueceet E fuscia E erence tartan E 36 92a PCO CESS esses asta en a RRE NT NA AA ARE ANA AAN Aan ORA ARR 36 iG NEPO dUGtasaumnane na A E AA A N E A AAE 36 A OS aii AA a A O A E A E ected 36 CLAMOR OA A N 36 63 General GESPOT iiaea lchccea leases ida 37 ste DISCUSSO aNd CONC en aa A A A a en nteees 37 12 Inttial analysis on potential energy Wa sta Se eatscsacasessrsisacentencsssheeccangesstaesecieadenaeayiveecconystetenabaseaneiestensaadecannasednenneicentsiestieee UR 37 LA PUPO A A 37 Aedes WSU eLa P E e EA E E A astern nner 37 7Ziks Analysing theddta logger TEIN E iii iia 37 17 2 2 Conducting the theoretical usag UNA SiS ini cc 37 17 2 3 Determining the user profiles miii es 38 17 2 4 Determining the theoretical energy irPOCtsessesssecsesssasneseniseenensssstiesnereneemsnsanhasnesesesenenisninenitetenesti 38 73y TO y POE Cn A AA A
147. sed as a generic power indicator IEEE 1621 2005 5 3 2 Colour Colour can be used to communicate the power mode that the energy using product is in often through LED 12 lights The ANSI VITA 40 2003 is a status indicator standard that is generally applicable to products using lights to convey status information to the user Another standard is the CEI IEC 73 Basic and Safety Principles for Man Machine Interface Marking and Identifica tion Hartley 2010 Based on these two standards an attempt to categorise the usage of colour in appliances was summarised in a table that can be viewed in Ap pendix III Red is used to communicate a fault of some kind However the colour red along with green is often used to show that the appliance is in active mode A reason mentioned by Lawrence Berkely National Labo ratory 2002 is that red was the cheapest most avail able and energy efficient colour at the time when LED lights started to be used as indicators They further state that sometimes even the colours blue or white are used as indicators for the same mode 6 Users and energy use Energy has according to Wallenborn et al 2009 p 8 been abundant cheap and invisible This can make it difficult for users to relate to and understand energy consumption Studies have shown that that users are not aware of how much energy their appliances were consuming Bharma et al 2008 Brook Lyndhurst 2007 and that users have
148. sites for the subsequent stage In a way this approach can also reflect the ways of the company in which there is not always time to conduct these type of evaluations and that the acquired knowledge can be used to make the right decisions 34 Results The thesis project has not only showed that low power modes are a problem that needs to be addressed fur ther in the future but has also pointed out that there must be an understanding of how users use products and its potential effect on the energy consumption The results of the thesis have focused on this and will be reflected upon below 34 1 The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective products aim to guide and be a source for inspiration in developing products that enable sustainable usage It could also be regarded as a gradual means of achieving lower en ergy consumption by being taking into consideration in future product road maps Through a step by step im plementation in product portfolios it could eventually phase out products that are not effective in their energy usage The 3 Approaches could also be used as a way of communicating to the users Companies could promote themselves as designing their products to be used as energy effectively as possible 34 2 The Energ ability Tool The Energ ability Tool does not only identify and exam ine the user product interaction for presumptive energy wastage in the usage phase It
149. study to establish a regulation for network modes 5 1 3 Low power modes for products with an EPS For products with an EPS which is connected to the mains the following low power modes are used spe cifically charging no load and maintenance mode see Appendix I for definitions External power supplies are becoming another source of concern it is estimated that approximately 17TWh of electricity consumption is lost annually to power conversion as well as the no load mode and by 2020 it is estimated to increase to 31TWh Official Journal of the European Union In a household survey examining the electricity consump tion of battery powered consumer electronics it was determined that only 15 of the total energy consumed was used for battery charging The remaining was lost as heat during maintenance 75 and no load mode 10 McAllister and Farrell 2006 5 2 Future trends IEA has assessed that standby power will in the future be the fastest growing electricity consumption by end use Almeida et al 2006 in which domestic appliances will be a strong contributory factor A study on standby power consumption concluded that in the future the purchases of new appliances will grow and 70 will have a built in standby mode Ross amp Meier 2002 Whether this 70 is only attributed to standby can be questioned due to the evolvement of its definition What can be concluded is that there will in the future be an increasing
150. sults The results of both the internal and external analysis will be described in the following sections 12 3 1 Product overviews The product overviews of the show a wide variety of products consuming energy when not in use From a deeper analysis of the products the following conclusions were made Energy consuming power mode y 0 Switch off Unplugged E K is Switch off Hard off Energy consuming power mode Energy consuming power mode K i Switch off Soft off Energy consuming power mode K 1 Switch off Standby es Fig 8 Four identified ways of switching off Products with low power modes do often not have a solution enabling or encouraging users to pre vent energy consumption in low power modes In other words the user must unplug their product to ensure that there is no usage of energy Switching off has different meanings When switch ing off a product it does not necessarily mean that the product will no longer be consuming electricity see Fig 8 Switching off has different visual feedback When switching off a product and it is still consuming energy some products provide the user with feed back in the form of an indicator light whereas oth er do not see Fig 9 In case of a present indicator showing the current power mode there was an inconsistency in the colour used to communicate a specific low power mode ISO st
151. sumption could differ was sought 6 The product Below follows an account of the first stage of the study 16 1 Purpose The purpose of this stage was to obtain a deeper un 36 TO derstanding for the carrier product with focus on the user product interaction and technical functioning dur ing usage 16 2 Method To understand the history of the carrier product its intended future and technical functioning semi struc tured interviews were conducted with product devel opers from different departments Internal documents were also studied For an initial understanding of the different user actions required during the usage phase user manuals interacting with the product to gain per sonal experience and observations were performed For the latter three employees were observed as well as one person in a home environment With this infor mation a Hierarchical Task Analysis HTA was conduct ed See Appendix XI This is a method that is commonly used to examine tasks in which the tasks performed by a user to achieve a goal are broken down into differ ent steps and can be viewed at different levels of detail The hierarchical break down into lower levels continues until a level that is suitable for the analysis is acquired Kirwan amp Ainsworth 1992 in Bligard amp Osvalder 2009 For a holistic overview of the user actions and the tech nical functioning of the carrier product a User Techni cal Process Model was c
152. t aspects could lead to energy wastage Thus the important conclusions of this phase was to conduct an in depth investigation of the user product interaction during the usage phase in two ways firstly by investigating the user s understanding of energy using products and secondly by obtaining deeper insights in the actual usage of a chosen carrier product From the results of this investigation a meth od to identify energy wastage during the usage phase would be developed 3 2 Phase 2 Preliminary work To better understand the current portfolio of the com pany s domestic appliances an internal analysis to study the existing products was performed The analysis helped to determine the carrier product and also point ed out that there was a different level of understanding for low power modes among the product developers In addition the analysis showed that there were several aspects of the user interface of energy using products that needed to be further explored An online survey was therefore created to address the user s understand ing of energy using products With its 234 respondents it contributed with interesting results suggesting that one way of reducing energy wastage would be through creating a common understanding for energy using products 3 3 Phase 3 Case study The case study of the carrier product was divided into several consecutives stages Once having established an understanding for the product a t
153. te for intended use have a mechanism or switch that enables the product to go into off standby or another mode that meets the pow er consumption limits of off standby They must also have a power management system that automatically switches it to a low power mode unless it is inappropri ate for intended use Official Journal of the European Union 2008 For products with an EPS limits to power consumption for the maintenance mode are in Europe given in EC No 1275 2008 whereas for no load and charging limits are given in EC No 278 2009 Exempted from the latter are the low voltage EPS in which the voltage and current output of the power supply is lower than 6V and 550A respectively For the active mode which for most products is the power mode that uses most energy there is no legis lation providing with limits to power consumption En ergy labelling can however be seen as addressing this The energy efficiency of a product is rated in different classes with A being the most energy efficient and G being the least efficient 7 2 Technological measures There exists a variety of technical solutions to reduce the energy consumption of products during and after usage These mostly aim at improving the overall en ergy efficiency Legislation and voluntary agreements have helped in pushing the industry towards developing more energy efficient products through their limits for low power modes In the report Worldwide Trends in
154. terventions 24 12 1 Purpose The purpose of the analysis was to examine and become acquainted with the current domestic appliances of the company The analysis would identify possible areas of focus and help to determine a carrier product Another purpose of the analysis was to examine the market for energy using products which in different ways were try ing to achieve a behavioural change 12 2 Method Low power modes had in literature been mentioned as a problem that had been addressed through both regu latory and educational measures Therefore in obtain ing an understanding for the domestic appliances of the company and to have an idea of which product to focus on a graphic overview was established Each overview included the product categories and low power modes of each product see Appendix IV VI The overviews do not cover the entire product range but is based on the information that was available at the time and in discussion with employees of the company The infor mation was gathered from test reports user manuals and product data sheets For a detailed analysis of the products see Appendix VII In examining the market for product led interventions the internet was used To distinguish between the ways by which the identified products and concepts were aiming to create a change in behaviour they were categorised according to the seven design intervention strategies described in the previous phase 12 3 Re
155. the actual system design to identify the factors that could be affected by or influence the user Technical perspective The technical functioning of the system design was studied based on a com parison with an ideal system This was determined to correspond to one that only uses the amount of WHY DOES ENERGY WASTAGE OCCUR gt Cause of energy gt Generic age factors wastage dimensions 49 energy that corresponds to the minimum theoreti cal energy to fulfil a user goal In the second part the How was investigated in which ways to solve the energy wastage were examined This continued throughout the entire method development process 23 2 1 Analysing the What and Why from a user perspective The identified ways of using the carrier product were used as a basis to further investigate the user actions The first step in establishing an overview of the user actions that could lead to energy wastage was to de termine all the different ways of performing a specific action identified from the user studies These were all written down on separate Post its and were denominat ed as user types In order to identify the user types as sociated with energy wastage the most energy efficient way of performing the user goal in terms of the timing and sequence of the required actions in relation to the power modes was determined An ideal user type was determined for every action and the user types that did not perform an acti
156. the confidentiality of the industry agreement 87 Appendix ll Graphical symbols ON power IEC 5007 JTC1 001 To indicate connection to the mains at least for mains switches or their positions and all those cases where safety is involved OFF power IEC 5008 JTC1 002 To indicate disconnection from the mains at least for mains switches or their positions and all those cases where safety is involved Stand by IEC 5009 JTC1 010 To identify the switch or switch position by means of which part the equipment is switched on in order to bring it into the standby by condition ON POFF push push IEC 5010 JTC1 003 To indicate connection to or disconnection from the mains at least for main switches or their positions and all those cases where safety is involved OFF is a stable position whilst the ON position only remains during the time the button is depressed Note In IEC 13251 the definition of 5010 ON OFF ends with Each position ON or OFF is a stable position IEC numbers are from IEC 60417 ISO numbers are from ISO 7000 JTC1 numbers are from ISO IEC 13251 Source Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Environmental Technologies Division ISO IEC JTC1 Graphical Symbols for Office Equipment Internet Available at http eetd lbl gov Controls overview symbols1 pdf 83 M Electric energy ISO 0232 JTC1 008 To signify any source of e
157. the second stage the energy wastage factors identified in the case study and online survey were further analysed to investigate po tential generic dimensions on which the method could be based These were categorised and the underlying reasons for their occurrence were examined In the third stage the foundation of the method was devel oped in which the questions for examining presumptive energy wastage and a visual basis for the examination was created Ideas for how to combine these into one method were evaluated and one was further developed in the fourth and fifth stage Throughout the entire process ideas of how to solve the energy wastage of the carrier product were thought of and integrated in the final stages Other products of the company were also analysed and the input from this analysis was given to the different stages of the development process 22 Literature study Below follows an account of the literature study 22 1 Purpose The purpose of this study was to become acquainted with how theoretical methods could be structured and to also find inspiration in developing the method 22 2 Method Theoretical methods evaluating the usability of a prod uct and probability of human errors in the user product interaction were studied This in order to obtain an understanding of the ways by which methods could in vestigate presumptive energy wastage and approach a product from a What Why and How approach In ad ditio
158. tuted with electricity using products In addition four different types of energy using products were re ferred to in two questions This was to enable the re spondents to relate the questioned functionality to a commonly known product 13 2 2 Executing the survey The online survey was created through Free Online Survey and the 16 questions in the online survey were presented on two separate pages See Appendix IX for the survey questions The link to the survey was sent to friends and relatives through email and social networks and they were encouraged to send it to their acquaint ances The respondents participating in the survey can therefore be considered as a result of combining a con venience sample with a snowball sample The survey was open for response during one month 13 2 3 Analysing the survey In total 247 respondents performed the online survey North America 6 8 Europe 56 8 y Africa 2 6 Asia 30 8 O South America 1 7 43 COUNTRIES Equatorial Guinea Kenya Morocco China India Indonesia Japan South Korea Malaysia Maldives Mauritius Pakistan Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Denmark England Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Scotland Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom Canada United States Colombia Guatemala Nine responde
159. uestions more understandable 24 3 4 The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products The 3 Approaches to Energy Effective Products consists of a set of principles and recommendations of how a product can achieve the lowest energy consumption The approaches include Product honesty User Per spective and Technical Perspective Until now the fo cus of the method development process had been on investigating energy wastage from a user and a tech nical perspective Product honesty can be seen as a part of the User Perspective but was found to be so important that it required an approach of its own The principals and recommendations that were developed for each approach are general in their denomination as these evolved to be applicable to a wide range of en ergy using products 24 4 Conclusion In this stage the basis for the method was established Questions for examining energy wastage from a user were developed and the Energy Overview a visual ba sis for the method was also established In the final part of the stage the entity of the method basis was determined The method would consist of three impor tant parts the Energy Overview a Question Basis and a Matrix in which the results of the analysis could be summarised 25 Further development In this stage the Energy Overview and the Question Ba sis were further elaborated upon 25 1 Purpose The purpose of this stage was to develop a way for the
160. urth recommendation as the 3 Approaches is merely an initiator it can be elaborated further to pro vide more detailed recommendations for the electronic consumer goods industry For example further research on how consumers perceive energy using products through colour and light indicators could be conducted Similarly to increase the relevance of the Energ ability Tool it is also recommended to conduct a series of ex tensive user studies on a variety of different product types to enable a more complete Tool 78 TO Reference Almeida A Fonseca P Schlomann B 2006 Residen tial Monitoring to Decrease Energy Use and Car bon Emissions in Europe In European Commission Institute for Environment and Sustainability Energy ef ficiency in Domestic appliances and lighting Proceed ings of the 4th international conference Eedal 06 UK 21 23 June 2006 European Communities Luxembourg Backlund S Gyllensvard M Gustafsson A Ilstedt Hjelm S Maz R Redstr m J 2006 STATIC The Aesthetics of Energy in Everyday Things DSR Wonder ground Conference 1 4 November 2006 Bhamra T A Evans S 1999 Integrating Environ mental Decisions into the Product Development Process Part 1 The Early Stages Ecodesign 99 1st In ternational Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing Waseda University Tokyo Japan Bhamra T A Lilley D Tang T 2008 Sustainable Use Cha
161. urther emphasised the importance of having a clear overview of the analysis and brought ideas of poten tial method formation and structure for the next stage The notion to investigate whether the identified energy wastage could be categorised into generic dimensions or problems types from which other products could be analysed originated from the study on the reference cards WHAT ENERGY WASTAGE CAN OCCUR USER gt User types gt Compare to PERSPECTIVE ideal usage TECHNICAL gt Compare to ideal PERSPECTIVE system Fig 36 Overview of the What amp Why process gt Energy wast 23 Further analysis The Further analysis will hereby be presented 23 1 Purpose The focus of this analysis was to determine the What Why and How of energy wastage 23 2 Method The analysis was divided into two parts The first part in vestigated the What and Why by examining the factors leading to energy wastage that had been identified in the case study and survey These factors were studied in order to see how they could be categorised into generic dimensions from which the method could be based In examining the energy wastage from a user and techni cal perspective each perspective was compared with an ideal situation see Fig 36 for an overview of the process In other words within each perspective the following was studied User perspective The user actions were studied based on an ideal usage given
162. ussion and conclusion The first stage of the case study further emphasised a conclusion that had been drawn in the second phase of the thesis project that there was indeed a need to create a shared understanding among the product de velopers for the product s user product interaction During this stage it was realised that several important aspects of the user product interaction were found to not always be clear or understood This included the terminology used for the power modes of the carrier product and the power consumption during and after use It was thus concluded that this realisation needed to be considered in the method development process 7 Initial analysis on potential energy wastage Below follows an account of the initial analysis of po tential energy wastage in the user product interaction 17 1 Purpose The purpose of this stage was to further examine the user product interaction of the carrier product and identify hypothetical energy wastage factors and if pos sible investigate its theoretical affect on the energy consumption The focus was on energy wastage that arises due to how a user uses the product relative to the given user goal It would not examine actions that are not performed correctly and lead to that the product prevents itself from functioning 17 2 Method Energy was first looked upon from a basic physical per spective to understand potential factors that could af fect the amount o
163. ven a brief to create behaviour change in products Lockton et al 2008 The toolkit aspires to create design ideas through questions and examples 20 M that are divided into eight lenses in which each lense represents a certain field of research such as architec ture Lockton et al 2010 To identify the influencing factors of user behaviour which can provide input to the brief given to designers Bhamra et al 2008 have advocated the importance of observational studies On the other hand there exists no theoretical method of how to provide this brief with the required information of what aspect in a product that needs to be addressed from a sustainable usage perspective Most methods within sustainable design analyse or improve the sustainability impact in the different phas es of the life cycle such as the Eco Strategy Wheel or the Life Cycle Analysis The latter examines the usage phase but from a single pre supposed user profile and does not examine the differences that could occur with in The awareness of the importance of a user centered approach to sustainability in product development is relatively new which could explain the lack of methods or tools that address ways of investigating a product during its usage phase in regards to its effect on energy consumption An explanation that is given by Wever et al 2008 p 2 to the limited research conducted within the human side of the usage phase is the traditional lack o
164. vented if the user is provided with the right information through the user interface of the product Depending on the situation the information that the product should communicate would be When the action should be performed How the action should be performed and providing Feed back of a performed action The second question How can energy consumption differ during the usage phase and lead to energy wast age was addressed in Phase 2 3 and 4 The survey suggested that energy wastage could arise due to com plexity of the user interface In the case study the deep dive into the data logger readings and energy measure ments showed how the energy consumption could dif fer whereas the user studies helped to understand why these differences could occur In Phase 4 the insights gained from the previous phases were further analysed and indicated that the occurrence of energy wastage could mostly be attributed to the product This is not only a result of that the product is not effective in its en ergy usage but also due to how the information provid ed by the user interface is adapted to contextual factors and technical constraints and how honest it is in com municating the energy consumption of the product During the thesis project an additional research ques tion was established How can energy wastage be identified in other energy using products This question was addressed in Phase 4 and resulted in the Energ a
165. wer mode does not provide with any function but it can include an electromagnetic compa bility filter or an indicator showing that the product is in off mode Official Journal of the European Union 2008 The off mode can in turn be divided into either soft off in which the product will consume a low amount of electricity or hard off in which the product does not consume any electricity at all Lawrence Berkeley Na tional Laboratory 2002 In a study performed by the EU it was determined that the number of products containing a standby and off mode power functionality was estimated to 3 7 billion within the EU The resulting energy consumption was approximately 6 4 billion By 2020 the number of these products is expected to in crease by 24 to 4 6 billion Intertek 2009 Network mode This power mode is commonly ad dressed as network mode In the Guidelines accompa nying Commission Regulation EC No 1275 2008 it has been referred to as networked standby and has been suggested to mean a power mode that has a reactiva tion function that enables a product to be activated into another power mode through a network signal The presence of network modes in products is expected to grow rapidly over the coming years as many products will be connected to a network in the future The power mode is complex and cannot be addressed by the defi nitions of standby Nordman et al 2009 There is there fore currently an ongoing
166. which the users are not aware of In addition they will not have been provided with the possibility to take action If on the other hand the user is provided with this information a first step to creat ing the right habits can be taken A need for product honesty was further emphasised in the survey where a majority of the respondents expressed that they want ed to know when their products were consuming a low amount of electricity and would feel disappointed or betrayed if they did not know this The survey has further shown that the usage of the standby and ON OFF symbols has not been sufficient to create an understanding for when a product is or is not using energy In addition for many respondents a common indication of a product being switched off was when the indicator light of the product was off One way to address this issue could therefore be by making sure that energy consumed after a product is switched off is communicated through for example an indicator light This could emphasise the difference between the standby and ON OFF symbol Such a solution could also be complemented by providing the users with an op tion to switch off into a hard off In other words the user would then not have to go to the extent of unplug ging the product The results of the survey further sug gested that respondents preferred different switching off solutions depending on the product and that the acceptance for low electricity consumpt

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