This paper discusses previous work in developing intervention apps for sustainability that are designed to be cool and improve user engagement. While much work has been carried out by the HCI community in sustainability, particularly energy consumption; little has been done to improve interaction with this relatively mundane but serious topic to engender a compelling and cooler experience. Using the theme of ‘it’s cool to be uncool’ for sustainability, we discuss the design of an eco-feedback Facebook application for deployment in a trial study. The Power Ballads Facebook app mashed mainstream ‘pop’ chart music with domestic energy data using aversive stimuli. Presented here are the pilot findings that suggest participants found the app cool

Foster, Derek

Kirman, Ben

Lawson, Shaun

Linehan, Conor

English

University of Lincoln Institutional Repository

 Hip to be Square: Designing Serious Apps for Coolness  Abstract This paper discusses previous work in developing intervention apps for sustainability that are designed to be cool and improve user engagement. While much work has been carried out by the HCI community in sustainability, particularly energy consumption; little has been done to improve interaction with this relatively mundane but serious topic to engender a compelling and cooler experience. Using the theme of ‘it’s cool to be uncool’ for sustainability, we discuss the design of an eco-feedback Facebook application for deployment in a trial study. The Power Ballads Facebook app mashed mainstream ‘pop’ chart music with domestic energy data using aversive stimuli. Presented here are the pilot findings that suggest participants found the app cool. Keywords Energy, Cool, Sustainability, Engagement ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,  HCI): Miscellaneous.  General Terms Design, Experimentation Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). CHI’12, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA. ACM 978-1-4503-1016-1/12/05. Derek Foster School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK defoster@lincoln.ac.uk  Conor Linehan School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK clinehan@lincoln.ac.uk    Shaun Lawson School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK slawson@lincoln.ac.uk  Ben Kirman School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK bkirman@lincoln.ac.uk    Introduction Given the importance of contemporary sustainability issues such as food and energy security, the HCI community has carried out extensive research into designing technologies that support interventions in these areas [7],[11]. Most of these interventions are based on generic design, usually for displaying and recording information and pay little heed to the different cultural groups that may adopt them. We believe that ‘Designing for Coolness‘ could play an integral part of the user’s experience when interacting with sustainability interventions and may help to decrease disengagement levels, thereby increasing success rates. The concept of cool is nebulous in nature, spans different cultures with different contexts, with cool in one demographic positively uncool in another. Work by Wllis in the 60’s [10] identified two distinct cultural groups at the time in the UK, bikers and hippies, and described their styles or ‘coolness’ as being a shared material experience. More recently we see cultural groups such as hipsters whose exploitation of cool involves seemingly arbitrary objects with limited utility such as fixie bikes and the adoption of dated technology. Cool could then be seen as inherently local to a cultural group, with its manifestations seemingly random or strange to an outsider. The issue of locality could pose problematic when designing for inclusive coolness.  Recent work by Reid et al [9] and Fitton et al [5] in designing cool sustainability technologies for teenagers revealed they wanted to tap into specific group dynamics such as peer pressure, personal goals and achievement, with emphasis on personalisation. They also found clear age and gender differences on perceptions of cool.  Social identity plays an integral part of being seen as cool by peers, also mirrored in hipsters’ highly personalised and unique appearance.   While cool may be defined within a cultural group with its own rules and guidelines, inclusive design for coolness is a challenging area of research. The work presented here offers early findings in exploring the theme of ‘it’s cool to be uncool’ when applied to sustainability interventions. Can Eco-Feedback be Cool? Previous work in designing sustainable technologies has used artistic and ambient prototypes that are aesthetically pleasing and could easily be termed ‘cool’. Work by Gustafsson and Gyllenward [8] produced the ‘Power Aware Cord’, an innovative approach to ambient per-appliance energy monitoring. It utilised feedback in the form of ambient light emitting from the cord to indicate an appliance’s current consumption, see figure 1. Ambient lights are also used in the Wattson energy monitor [4] which is availabe in a wood finish in figure 2. Both these ambient technologies provide an alternative way of monitoring energy consumption, allowing the owners of such devices to express their sustainable interests outside conventional means. Games have also been used to raise awareness of energy consumption behaviours in teenagers with game rewards of displaying cool information [2]. Designing for cool would then appear to have a place in the design space for sustainability interventions using eco-feedback.     Figure 1. Power aware cord ambient energy feedback Power Ballads Power Ballads [6] is a study investigating the use of aversive feedback that uses punishment, as opposed to reward, when interacting with domestic energy usage through a Facebook application. Punitive, yet playful, feedback is displayed publicly on the users Facebook wall when they consume more energy in two compared time periods. The aversive stimuli in this case is a Facebook wall post stating the user in question is listening to ‘uncool’ pop music whilst consuming more energy than previously, see figure 3. It has been suggested that aversive feedback is not appropriate for online behaviour-change interventions [3],[1] and often refer to the problem of users becoming disengaged when punishment is delivered. It is argued that the easiest way for a user to avoid punishment in such an application is to stop using it, rather than the user changing their behaviour. Users of the app could completely avoid the aversive stimuli by not logging into the application; however this was   Figure 2. Wattson home energy monitor with ambient display not the case in Power Ballads, indicating they were engaging with the feedback despite the potential of playful embarrassment in their alleged uncool music choices. Our app implementation utilised both the Facebook Graph and Pachube API’s to display participants live online energy data on the Facebook platform, using the Current Cost Energy Bridge. Using a mixture of purposive and convenience sampling, nine lead participants were recruited: 4 of which were female, from nine households. The study ran for 5 weeks and the aims were twofold: 1) To investigate the effectiveness of aversive feedback to engage users in eco-feedback applications and 2) Analyse user comments generated from the aversive feedback posts for emergent themes that could then be exploited in subsequent eco-feedback applications. Some of the user’s comments indicated they thought the app was cool:   “I was already using an energy meter from British Gas to minimize our electricity usage. cool idea though! perhaps could be personalised towards things that people would find more embarassing within their peer groups…” “it made a post when we had to use the washing machine a lot one day... I had never heard of the artist/song that was posted on my FB feed, was more baffled than anything else but thought I could show off a bit! :)”.  Figure 3. Anonymised example of an aversive feedback post  Conclusion Our initial pilot findings in Power Ballads demonstrated when participants were exposed to aversive stimuli it did not necessarily bring about disengagement. The theme of ‘its cool to be uncool’ via alternative feedback engaged the participants and resulted in a positive experience. We are carrying out further work exploring the theme in our ‘KillaWhats’1 student energy study. References [1] Ai He, H., Greenberg, S., and Huang, E.M. One size does not fit all: applying the transtheoretical model to energy feedback technology design. In Proc. CHI 2010, ACM Press, 2010 [2] Bang, M., Torstensson, C., and Katzeff, C., The PowerHouse: A  Persuasive Computer Game Designed to Raise Awareness of Domestic Energy Consumption. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 396, 2006 [3] Consolvo, S., McDonald, D.W., and Landay, J.A. Theory-driven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life. In Proc. CHI 2009, ACM Press, 2009 [4] DIY KYOTO 2010. DIY KYOTO – Wattson, available from http://www.diykyoto.com/uk [5] Fitton, D. et al Creating ‘Cool’ Mobile Technologies To Reduce Teen Energy Use The 2nd International Workshop on Persuasion, Influence, Nudge & Coercion through mobile devices, CHI 2011 [6] Foster, D. Linehan, C. Lawson, S. and Kirman, B. Power ballads: deploying aversive energy feedback in social media. In extended abstracts of CHI 2011, ACM Press, 2011 [7] Froehlich, J., Consolvo, S., Dillahunt, T., Harrison, B., Klasnja, P., Mankoff, J., Landay, J. Ubigreen: investigating a mobile tool for tracking and supporting green transportation habits. In  Proc. CHI 2009, ACM Press [8] Gustafsson, A. and Gyllenswärd, M. The power-aware cord: energy awareness through ambient information display. In extended abstracts of CHI 2005, ACM Press, 2005 [9] Read, J. et al, Understanding and designing cool technologies for teenagers. In extended abstracts of CHI 2011, ACM Press, 2011 [10] Willis, Pau.l Profane Culture. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978 [11] Yun, T. Investigating the impact of a minimalist in-home energy consumption display. In extended abstracts of CHI 2009, ACM Press, 2009 1 KillaWhats on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/killawhats 

et al Creating ‘Cool’ Mobile Technologies To Reduce Teen Energy Use

Investigating the impact of a minimalist in-home energy consumption display.

One size does not fit all: applying the transtheoretical model to energy feedback technology design.

Power ballads: deploying aversive energy feedback in social media.

Profane Culture. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,

The power-aware cord: energy awareness through ambient information display.

The PowerHouse: A Persuasive Computer Game Designed to Raise Awareness of Domestic Energy Consumption.

Theorydriven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life.

Ubigreen: investigating a mobile tool for tracking and supporting green transportation habits.

Understanding and designing cool technologies for teenagers.

Hip to be square: designing serious apps for coolness

Hip to be square: designing serious apps for coolness

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