Sustainability by Design. How to Encourage Users to Choose Energy-Saving Programs and Settings When Washing Laundry

Grönewald, Laura ; Weiblen, Julian ; Laschke, Matthias ; Christoforakos, Lara und Hassenzahl, Marc (2023): Sustainability by Design. How to Encourage Users to Choose Energy-Saving Programs and Settings When Washing Laundry. 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg, Germany, 23. – 28. April 2023. In: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. S. 1-14

Abstract

One way to counteract anthropogenic climate change, is to reduce individual energy consumption. An especially energy-intensive everyday practice is doing the laundry. In Germany, laundry accounts for about 5% of domestic electricity consumption. In part, this is because users do not make use of the energy-saving programs offered by modern washing machines. Based on different principles of behavior change, we created four concepts for washing machine interfaces to encourage users to choose energy-saving programs and settings. These concepts were implemented as functional prototypes. An online experiment (N=400) showed that all concepts increased the choice of energy-saving programs compared to a standard machine. Especially effective was to interrupt impulsive actions and suggest alternative choices (concept B) and to restructure the entry of settings (concept E). This demonstrates how small changes in a standard interfaces can significantly increase the probability of energy conservation in a private setting.

• Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag (Paper)
• Keywords: sustainable interaction design, prototyping, laundry washing, sustainability, persuasive technology, empirical study, sustainable HCI, Behavior change
• Fakultät: Psychologie und Pädagogik > Department Psychologie > Wirtschafts- und Organisationspsychologie
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• Ort: New York, NY, USA
• Sprache: Englisch