Affordances, constraints and information flows as ‘leverage points’ in design for sustainable behaviour

Copyright @ 2012 Social Science Electronic PublishingTwo of Donella Meadows' 'leverage points' for intervening in systems (1999) seem particularly pertinent to design for sustainable behaviour, in the sense that designers may have the scope to implement them in (re-)designing everyday products and services. The 'rules of the system' -- interpreted here to refer to affordances and constraints -- and the structure of information flows both offer a range of opportunities for design interventions to in fluence behaviour change, and in this paper, some of the implications and possibilities are discussed with reference to parallel concepts from within design, HCI and relevant areas of psychology

Exploring Reactions to Widespread Energy Monitoring

Part 1: Long and Short Papers (Continued)International audienceThis paper explores the measurement, apportionment and representation of widespread energy monitoring. We explicate the accountability to users of the data collected by this type of monitoring when it is presented to them as a single daylong picture. We developed a technology probe that combines energy measurement from the home, workplace and the journeys that connect these spaces. Through deployment of this probe with five users for one month we find that measurement need not be seamless for it to be accountable; that apportionment is key to making consumption for communal spaces accountable and that people can readily make useful inferences about their energy consumption from daylong pictures formed from widespread monitoring. Finally, we present four issues raised by the probe – the nature of real world monitoring, the dynamic and social nature of apportionment, disclosure of energy data and alignment of incentives with consumption – that need to be addressed in future research