Abstract
A global challenge of the twenty-first century is to find a sustainable way of life. So-called “green” movements helped increased people’s awareness of sustainability issues and propelled development of innovative products to help decrease our ecological footprint. Smart Grid applications, which enable users to monitor their household’s energy consumption, are one of these innovative systems. Critical data visualization helps to build awareness, but does not result automatically in affecting behavioral changes, which is required to benefit the Earth’s future and our survival. One question that emerges is how exactly to motivate, persuade, educate, and lead people to reduce their household energy consumption. Our project, the Green Machine, proposed to research and analyze different powerful ways to improve “green behavior” by persuading and motivating people to reduce their household’s energy consumption through a mobile phone application we called the “Green Machine.” We designed and tested a concept prototype that is based on a behavior-change process. This chapter explains the development of the Green Machine’s user-interface, information design, and information visualization. AM + A conducted this project primarily during May–December 2009, with subsequent development with SAP, Inc., during October–December 2010.
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Marcus, A. (2015). The Green Machine: Combining Information Design/Visualization and Persuasion Design to Change People’s Behavior About Energy Consumption. In: Mobile Persuasion Design. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4324-6_2
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