Yearly archives of “2012

CarbonCulture blog launch

CarbonCulture blog launch

It’s been quiet here, for reasons which will be explained later, but in the meantime I should mention that CarbonCulture (with whom I’ve been working for the past two years as part of the TSB-supported EMPOWER collaboration) has a new blog. In anticipation of the […]

Mental Models and Imagining Energy

Mental Models and Imagining Energy

Written for the CarbonCulture blog Imagine how energy flows… You might think of something like a bolt of lightning, or visualise a glowing power cable. The visible glowing of lighting—at home, at work, and in our streets—is indeed a major use of energy, but in […]

Some Aspects of Energy Literacy

Some Aspects of Energy Literacy

Written for the CarbonCulture blog It’s a concept really, a convenient way of quantifying the ability of different things to ‘do work’ in various ways. It allows gas, oil, coal, solar, and many other sources of converting and storing energy to be described in terms […]

If…

If…

(introducing behavioural heuristics) EDIT (April 2013): An article based on the ideas in this post has now been published in the International Journal of Design – which is open-access, so it’s free to read/share. The article refines some of the ideas in this post, using […]

Design Approaches to Behaviour Change

Design Approaches to Behaviour Change

Written for the CarbonCulture blog How users use, and what we can do As the technology we use becomes more efficient, our own behaviour is often the ‘weak link’ environmentally, both at a societal level and at the scale of our everyday interaction with products […]

Why We Use Participatory Design

Why We Use Participatory Design

Written for the CarbonCulture blog Designing with the user We’ve taken the view that any approach to behaviour change needs to be done in a human-centred, participatory way: designed with the people who are going to be using the systems we design, rather than remotely. […]