IDEO exploring ways to make energy an experience

What happens when you flick on a light switch in your home? The light turns on and you continue with your activities paying little mind to the light or the energy required to produce it.

Apply this scenario to most other household activities, such as cooking or watching television, and you will begin to understand why Ted Howes says we need to change our relationship with energy from an invisible, magic force to something that is experiential and tangible in order to decrease energy consumption.

According to Howes, IDEO’s energy domain global lead, despite the reality that energy efficiency benefits everyone — through decreased financial costs and ensuring a more sustainable future —energy efficiency remains low on people’s priority lists in his native country the United States.

IDEO, a design firm that studies human behaviour, is exploring ways it can change this relationship, by tapping into the human factor to discover how people could interact with electricity, changing the relationship from a commodity to a connective experience.

“I think we need to understand the value of energy differently for us to use it more appropriately,” explains Howes. “You can take it from being a commodity to something that is experiential and that inherently changes the value . . . and in the end makes it much more desirable for people.”

For example, IDEO researched the behaviours of two women who bought their energy using a pay-as-you-go card. The women were able to turn a light on and calculate the exact cost of their action.

Howes says the initiative was incredibly effective in the beginning because the women were financially constrained and able to understand and calculate their energy use, learning behaviours to decrease their consumption.

The design company has seen a similar effect in some people who drive hybrid cars. Certain users were able to listen to the vehicle to learn when the gas engine would click on, and find ways they could accelerate slower to save fuel.

Howes says these examples highlight the ability of technology to engage people but adds more needs to be done to support people beyond initial behaviour changes, including when financial incentives are not a factor.

"Price is just one driver — when price matters, it matters a lot but we’ve also found that when the potential savings are not high, price doesn’t drive behaviour very much," says Howes.

He says IDEO is designing new products that will support greater change, such as an in-home display that will not only make people aware of their energy and its costs, but provide them with tips and resources to continue becoming more energy efficient.

Similarly, IDEO helped Ford build a dashboard for its electric car, which coaxes individuals on how to use the gas pedal and brake to maximize gas mileage.

Howes presented the need for designers to understand human behaviour in order to design better products that support sustainability at a recent debate in Toronto on achieving a world without oil.

The Jan. 21 event convened leading designers to dialogue on the subject, including Dayna Baumeister of the Biomimicry Guild, Sheila Kennedy of Kennedy and Violich Architecture Inc. and visionary designer Bruce Mau.

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