This is my final thesis presentation.

1. VISUALIZATION OF
ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN
YOUR SMART HOME
Robin De Croon
@robindecroon & robindecroon.wordpress.com
Supervisor: Prof. dr. ir. Erik Duval
Assessors: Dr. ir. Lieven Desmet
FransVanAssche
Advisors: Dr. Joris Klerkx
Dr. Sten Govaerts

2. Content
• Context
• Design Methodology
• Paper Mockups
• Improvements
• Implementation
• Conclusion
June 28, 2013 2
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/johan2011/johan20111108/johan2011110800040/10226809-3d-little-human-character-writing-with-a-pen-black.jpg

3. CONTEXT
Context
Design Methodology
Improvements
Paper Mockups
Implementation
Conclusion

4. ExplanationTitle
• DataVisualization
• Energy Awareness
• Smart HomeTechnology
June 28, 2013 4
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/johan2011/johan20111202/johan2011120200085/12703570-3d-little-human-character-with-a-tablet-pad-blank-screen-for-copy-space-people-

5. EnergyAwareness
GlobalWarming
Major challenge of man kind
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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOFUPvN5Fbc/UMbYptdHkEI/AAAAAAAAACM/Nng4hx3QT08/s1600/polar+bear.png &http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6808983681_767c057854_o.jpg
Save on household budget
Save 15% on electricity bill
 M. Jahn, M. Jentsch, C. R. Prause, F. Pramudianto, A. Al-Akkad, and
R. Reiners. The Energy Aware Smart Home. In 2010 5th International
Conference on Future Information Technology,pages 1–8. IEEE, 2010.
 G. Wood and M. Newborough. Dynamic energy consumption
indicators for domestic appliances: environment,behaviour and
design. Energy and Buildings, 35(8):821–841, Sept. 2003.

6. Which data from your smart home
do you want to visualize?
June 28, 2013 6
13
16
17
19
34
36
62
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
How many hours TV did I watch?
Other
How many times did I use a (light) switch?
How many times was I in a room?
Which device did I use most?
How warm was it in each room?
How much energy did I use?
Number of people
http://goo.gl/oiSgI

7. 7June 28, 2013

8. 8June 28, 2013

9. Objectives
• Analyze Smart HomeTechnologies
• Search a partner
• Get fine grained sensor data
• Design proof-of-concept application
• Usability
• Practical feasibility
June 28, 2013 9
http://www.performanceobjectivesnow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/stick_figure_solving_puzzle_400_wht.png

10. DESIGN
METHODOLY
Context
Design Methodology
Paper Mockups
Improvements
Implementation
Conclusion

11. Design Based Research
• Rapid prototyping
• User stories
• Prototypes (paper & digital)
• User tests with think aloud
• SUS Questionnaire
June 28, 2013 11
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7221/7351141086_85640e3c06.jpg
How do I
go back?

12. TargetAudience
June 28, 2013 12
• (Smart) Home Owners
• People interested in energy savings
• People living in Europe
• Age: 20+
• All income levels
http://marketingyoucanuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HittingTarget.jpg
Target Audience

13. PAPER MOCKUPS
Context
Design Methodology
Paper Mockups
Improvements
Implementation
Conclusion

14. DesignCriteria
• Consistency
• Aesthetic
• Separation of Concerns
• Minimalistic
• Diagrams ( ubigreen)
• Financial Overview (VELObill)
• Metaphors ( leafully)
June 28, 2013 14
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/johan2011/johan20111207/johan2011120700008/14310549-3d-little-human-character-the-builder-looking-at-a-blueprint-front-view-people-series.jpg

15. Start Screen
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• Minimalistic Separation
• 3 Key words
 DATA
 YOU
 SPHERE
• Sphere is not used anymore
 3D visualization not best
visualization for this kind of
information
 M. Krzywinski. Behind Every Great Visualization is a DesignPrinciple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzeF2hDlhoY,2009. opgeroepen op 24-05-2013.

16. DATA
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•5 categories
 Lights
 Water
 Heating
 Appliances
 Home Cinema
•Electricity is divided in 3
categories
•Pictures
 A. de Almeida, P. Fonseca, B. Schlomann, and N. Feilberg. Characterization of the
household electricity consumption in the EU, potential energy savings and specific policy
recommendations.Energy and Buildings, 43(8):1884–1894, Aug. 2011.
 T. Kamada and S. Kawai. A general framework for visualizing abstract
objects and relations. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 10(1):1–39, Jan. 1991.

17. YOU
June 28, 2013 17
• Where were you the most?
•Treemap
• Hierarchical data
• Space filling visualization
 B. B. Bederson, B. Shneiderman, and M. Wattenberg. Orderedand
quantum treemaps: Making effective use of 2D space to display
hierarchies. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 21(4):833–854, Oct.
2002.

18. Navigation
June 28, 2013 18
swipe
lights metaphor
swipe

19. IMPROVEMENTS
Context
Design Methodology
Paper Mockups
Improvements
Implementation
Conclusion

20. Rapid Prototyping
June 28, 2013 20
5 users 9 users 3 users 11 users
SUS: 70/100 SUS: 80/100 SUS: 82,5/100 SUS: 87/100
Paper Prototype I Paper Prototype II Digital Prototype I Digital Prototype II

21. IMPROVEMENTS
PAPER PROTOTYPE I
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22. TabletApplication?
June 28, 2013 22
 M. de Sá and L. Carriço. Low-fi prototypingfor mobile devices. In CHI ’06
extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA ’06, page
694, New York, New York, USA, 2006. ACM Press.

23. Location
June 28, 2013 23
5/5

24. InterpretationTreemap
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4/5

25. Home Screen
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3/5

26. InterpretationTree
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3/5

27. IMPROVEMENTS
PAPER PROTOTYPE II
June 28, 2013 27

28. Exhausting for the eyes
June 28, 2013 28
 S. Debbie, C. Jarrett, M. Woodroffe,S. Minocha. User Interface Design and Evaluation. Morgan Kaufmann. 2005
Me 

29. InterpretationTreemap
June 28, 2013 29
5/9
Meaning treemap

30. Tabs to change room
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4/9

31. Icons not clear
June 28, 2013 31
6/9

32. IMPROVEMENTS
DIGITAL PROTOTYPE I
June 28, 2013 32

33. General navigation scheme
33
5/5

34. New navigation scheme
34

35. More detailed information
June 28, 2013 35
3/3

36. Selecting a time period
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3/3

37. IMPROVEMENTS
DIGITAL PROTOTYPE II
June 28, 2013 37

38. Heating Metaphor
June 28, 2013 38
4/11

39. RESULTS
SUS QUESTIONNAIRE
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40. SUS Results
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41. SUS Score interpretation
June 28, 2013 41
12,5
20,3
35,7
50,9
71,4
85,5
90,9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Worst Imaginable
Awful
Poor
OK
Good
Excellent
Best Imaginable
SUS Scores
AdjectieveRating
 A. Bangor, P. Kortum, and J. Miller. Determining what individual SUS scores mean:
Adding an adjective rating scale. Journal of usability studies, 4(3):114–123, 2009.

42. June 28, 2013 42
https://picasaweb.google.com/100923738088214702616/Omini3d#5456698262314545906

43. Demo Movie
•MOVIE
June 28, 2013 43

44. IMPLEMENTATION
Context
Design Methodology
Paper Mockups
Improvements
Implementation
Conclusion

45. Alarm (not used)
Wireless router
Miniserver
Main on and off switch
6 small push buttons
Status leds
Loxone
June 28, 2013 45

46. Deployment Diagram
June 28, 2013 46

47. Belgium: € 0,212
0,00
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
0,30
EU-27(2)
Euroarea(2)
Denmark
Germany
Cyprus
Belgium
Spain
Ireland
Italy
Sweden
Austria
Portugal
Netherlands
Slovakia
Malta
Luxembourg
UnitedKingdom
Finland
Hungary
Slovenia
CzechRepublic
France
Poland
Latvia
Greece
Lithuania
Romania
Estonia
Bulgaria
Norway
Croatia
Turkey
Montenegro
Basic price (without taxes and levies) Taxes and levies other than VAT VAT
Calculate Usage
June 28, 2013 47
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Energy_price_statistics

48. CO2 Calculations
June 28, 2013 48
Belgium: 253
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
CO2electricity(gr)perKwh
http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/co2-electricity-g-per-kwh

49. Biggest Unsolved Problem
June 28, 2013 49
• Measure real power usage
• Unfortunately incompatible
with Loxone
• Measured data 
• Theoretical data  𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒
= 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 ↔
60 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑡
230 𝑉
= 0,26 𝐴 &
2000 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑡
230 𝑉
= 8,7 𝐴

50. CONCLUSION
Context
Design Methodology
Paper Mockups
Improvements
Implementation
Conclusion

51. Critical Reflection
• Broad subject
• Context Awareness
• Finding a partner
• Started to soon with a digital prototype
• Happy with the result
June 28, 2013 51

52. Objectives: reached
June 28, 2013 52
 Analyzed some smart home technologies
 Demec as partner
 Statistics from Loxone
 HomeViz as proof-of-concept application
 SUS score of 87
 Real application on Google Play
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/3d-small-people-puzzle-insert-19284510.jpg

53. FutureWork
• Evaluate influence on behavior
• Support more Smart HomeTechnologies
• Analyze statistics and make suggestions
• Implement Social Functions
June 28, 2013 53

54. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gZjNR3XVULs/T_ZOVgE-5lI/AAAAAAAAAg8/6YVmd5Q064o/s1600/questions11.jpg
June 28, 2013 54