Designing and evaluating interfaces for domestic eco-feedback: A blended educational experience

In this work we describe an educational experience focused on the design of eco-feedback interfaces for improving the environmental awareness and optimizing the energy consumption in domestic contexts. The experience was held during the HCI course for the Laurea degree in Computer Science of the Università Ca' Foscari Venezia and involved about 80 undergraduate students that worked on 20 independent projects. All the projects were focused on the same conceptual design goal: proposing an ecosystem of interfaces for a family of four components (mother, father and two children aged between 6 and 11), capable of monitoring energy consumption and production of a photovoltaic plant and making different types of comparison, even with neighbors and selected members of social networks. The result of the students' work was evaluated by adults (i.e., researchers and peers) but also by a class of children of the Primary School. The interest of this educational experience is threefold. On one side the study has permitted to focus on the themes of environmental awareness and has led to define interesting conceptual projects that go beyond the commercially available eco-feedback solutions. Then the study has been an occasion for reflecting about methods and goals of an HCI course for undergraduate students, originating a design experience that will be further refined in the next editions of the course. Finally the experience has been an interesting occasion for testing the points of strength and weakness of tools for remote learning. This has led to identify some possible solutions supporting design thinking in a remote or blended educational context, which should foster the shift from simple project sharing to true collaborative design.

In this work we describe an educational experience focused on the design of eco-feedback interfaces for improving the environmental awareness and optimizing the energy consumption in domestic contexts. The experience was held during the HCI course for the Laurea degree in Computer Science of the Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia and involved about 80 undergraduate students that worked on 20 independent projects. All the projects were focused on the same conceptual design goal: proposing an ecosystem of interfaces for a family of four components (mother, father and two children aged between 6 and 11), capable of monitoring energy consumption and production of a photovoltaic plant and making different types of comparison, even with neighbors and selected members of social networks. The result of the students' work was evaluated by adults (i.e., researchers and peers) but also by a class of children of the Primary School. The interest of this educational experience is threefold. On one side the study has permitted to focus on the themes of environmental awareness and has led to define interesting conceptual projects that go beyond the commercially available eco-feedback solutions. Then the study has been an occasion for reecting about methods and goals of an HCI course for undergraduate students, originating a design experience that will be further refined in the next editions of the course. Finally the experience has been an interesting occasion for testing the points of strength and weakness of tools for remote learning. This has led to identify some possible solutions supporting design thinking in a remote or blended educational context, which should foster the shift from simple project sharing to true collaborative design.