Designing pro environmental behavior into product interfaces
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The document discusses several studies that tested the effectiveness of different labeling interventions on increasing the percentage of cold water washing machine loads. The studies found that adding functional, environmental, or energy saving prompts to existing labels had the greatest impact on cold water wash selection, increasing those loads by 30-40% compared to controls. Combining multiple labeling strategies, like functional labels with additional prompts, led to the highest rates of more sustainable washing behaviors.
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Designing pro environmental behavior into product interfaces
- 3. Widespread extinctions Disruption of ecosystem services 20-50% of species face increased extinction risk Coastal cities face increased flooding Damage to corals and fish stocks Decline of agricultural output
- 4. Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.html
- 5. Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.html
- 6. Steven J. Davis, Ken Caldeira, H. Damon Matthews. Future CO2 Emissions and Climate Change from Existing Energy Infrastructure
- 13. Running Washing Machine: 10-30% Water Heating: 70-90%
- 15. Time Feed Forward Action Feed Back
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- 22. High Proximity Low Proximity Control Authority No Authority No Prompt
- 23. Study I Percent Cold Water Washes 40.0% 35.0% T1 30.0% 28.6% T2 T2 T1 27.4% 27.1% 27.1% T2 T2 T1 25.9% 25.1% T2 T2 24.5% 25.0% 23.8% 23.6% T1 21.5% T1 20.3% 20.0% T1 18.4% 15.0% 10.0% No Authority Authority No Authority Authority Low Proximity High Proximity Control
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- 27. Current label Eco/Functional Label Functional Label Cycle recommended Cycle recommended Cycle recommended for clothing type for clothing type for clothing type + + Energy saving cycle Water Temperature No Prompt
- 28. Study II Percent Cold Water Washes T1 T2 40.0% 38.6% 39.0% 35.0% T2 T1 T2 T1 31.0% T2 29.0% 29.5% 28.9% 30.0% T2 28.7% T2 T1 27.0% 24.8% 25.5% T1 25.0% 22.7% T1 20.1% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% Environmental Prompt Environmental Prompt Temperature Labels Environmental Prompt "Saves Energy" button Control + Temperature Labels + "Saves Energy" button label label
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- 30. Wash Temperature Selections by Load Type 200 180 160 140 Number of Survey Responses 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Technical Stained or very Whites Colors Bright Colors Delicates fabrics / sports Sheets Towels dirty items clothing Cold 36 63 95 93 86 52 48 49 Warm 27 51 64 42 34 21 51 49 Hot 36 58 14 14 10 9 42 51
- 31. Number of loads run at once x wash loads separated 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 More Than 5 Unsorted 28 13 2 0 0 0 Sorted 24 83 22 5 2 1
- 32. Survey Results vs. Change in Behavior 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% Have you noticed any signs or labeling regarding energy conservation on the washing machines? 40.0% Do you think the energy conservation labeling changed your behavior? Percent Increase In Cold Water Washes 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Functional Control Environmental Prompt + Prompt + "Saves Energy" Label Prompt functional "Saves Energy" button label labels button label
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- 36. Whirlpool Vantage Display
Editor's Notes
- Thank you Industrialization. Thank you steel mill! Thank you power station! And thank you chemical processing industry which gave us time to read books!
- 70-90 % of the energy used in washing clothes is in heating the water. Irrespective of any engineering improvements to the machines, 70-90% of the remaining energy use is dependent on user choices, and that’s where behavior design comes in. Obviously this isn’t limited to washing machines, much of the energy used by products is directly related to user behavior.Had all 4000 loads in Experiment I been run on cold, NYU would have saved about $6 in natural gas.
- The Fogg Behavior Model forms the basis for this study. For an action to occur, the individual must be able to perform the action, sufficiently motivated, and triggered to act. The theory underlying my study is that high-proximity information is more likely to be effective in changing behavior as it reduces the distance between the information and action.
- The Maytag Commercial washing machines used at NYU have the cycle selection buttons labeled with the suggested use, rather than water temperature. Users may be frustrated by not knowing what settings each button corresponds to, or their desire to use a cold water wash to reduce energy use may be overridden by “I have whites, I should push the whites button”
- The signs included three messages: an informational environmental message about the energy use in washing clothes, a functional message to tell users which buttons to press, an economic appeal regarding clothing life, and in two of the four experimental conditions, the authority appeal.A reassurance that washing clothes in cold water gets them adequately clean was not included.
- Experiment I manipulated two variables: proximity and perceived authority. Proximity was tested by placing a prompt on a label on the control panel, or on a wall sign visible from the washing machines. Authority was manipulated by including the Hercules logo on the signs or leaving it out—Hercules being the owner of the washing machines, a contractor to NYU.There may be an issue of perceived authority with the signs-it may be assumed that the high proximity signs have high implicit authority as a result of being on the machine-and they don’t look like they are from a grubby grad student (or snapple bottle top-like the confound signs)
- Experiment II, deployed in late November and running through the end of the semester, will test whether labeling the energy saving settings or providing information on water temperature, in addition to the factory labels which are labeled by load contents.In the attempt to simplify the user interface, the designers reduced flexibility – labeling the buttons by recommended water temperature and spin speed.Hercules wouldn’t let me replace the recommended Ideally I would have relabeled the buttons, but Hercules wouldn’t let me do that so I had to use less than ideal labeling (add-on)
- There are several issues which this study did not address or could not addressMany people have misgivings of how well their laundry would be cleaned in cold water, which has been a major impetus for cold-water detergent formulasMany students also do multiple loads at a time, often separated into colors and whites, which could be run at different temperaturesAs a result, of running multiple loads at one time, or repeat visits to the laundry room during the multi-week study, independence (assumed for Pearson’s chi-squared test) is not satisfiedOther influences may contaminate the sample of students, such as other signs in the environment (Consolidated Edison, the New York utility) ran a campaign urging the use of cold water for laundry, and it is possible that students visited other buildings and saw different conditions in their laundry rooms (although this is a remote possibility)