A paper presented as part of World Usability Day at DIPB - Encouraging sustainable behaviour change at home.

1. Encouraging sustainability
behaviour change at home :
Lessons learnt from Living Greener
Dr Tracey Benson || Information Exchange Team

2. • LivingGreener was created as a response
to requests from the community for
government to provide information to help
people be more sustainable at home
• Existing online information was hard to
find, on multiple sites and difficult to
understand
Background
The call to action
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

3. • From 2009 to 2014 there were 4 releases
of LivingGreener, each release bringing
improvements to UX and content
• In 2014, our focus shifted to prioritising
Energy and the site was rebranded to
YourEnergySavings
Background
The call to action
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

4. 1st Release 2009
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5. 2nd Release 2011
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6. 3rd Release 2012
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7. 4th Release 2013
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8. Rebranding to YourEnergySavings 2014
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9. • Design methods
• Research focus
• Usability
• Accessibility
• Sustainability behaviour change
• Keeping content relevant
Key areas of focus
How we developed LivingGreener
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

10. Two key areas of consideration in design of
LivingGreener:
• Making the site as usable and accessible
as possible
• Encouraging people to be more
sustainable – facilitating “sustainable
behaviour change”
Design methods
The need to engage
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

11. • Market research
• Personas and want maps
• Website user goals
• 4 releases over 5 years – applying
lesson learnt at each stage
Research focus
Site development
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

12. • Adopting User Centred Design (UCD)
principles
• Conforming to WCAG standards (Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines)
• Extensive research into audiences
Usability
How LivingGreener was developed
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

13. LivingGreener focused on a number of key
areas to support accessibility:
• the functionality of the design
• the language used on the website in terms
of tone and level of complexity
Accessibility
WCAG + language levels
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

14. Community Based Social Marketing:
• Step 1: Selecting behaviours (i.e. reducing
waste)
• Step 2: Identifying barriers and benefits
• Step 3: Develop strategies
• Step 4: Pilot projects
• Step 5: Broad scale evaluation
Sustainability behaviour change
Building on McKenzie Mohr
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

15. Make it understood. Sometimes people don’t know about a behaviour and
why they should do it. This Lever raises awareness and encourages
acceptance.
Make it easy. People are likely to take action if it’s easy, but not if it requires
extra effort. This Lever establishes convenience and confidence.
Make it desirable. The new behaviour needs to fit with how people like to
think of themselves, and how they like others to think of them. This Lever is
about self and society.
Make it rewarding. New behaviours need to articulate the tangible benefits
that people care about. This Lever demonstrates the proof and payoff.
Make it a habit. Once consumers have changed, it is important to create a
strategy to help hold the behaviour in place over time. This Lever is about
reinforcing and reminding.
Sustainability behaviour change
Unilever’s ‘Five Levers for Change’ are:
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

16. Step 1: Market research
Step 2: Developing Personas
Step 3: Develop want maps
Step 4: Pilot release
Step 5: Monitor and evaluate
Step 6: Updated releases responding to user feedback
Sustainability behaviour change
How LivingGreener adapted concepts:
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

17. • Committed Greenies (the protector)
• Plodding Frugalists (stoical sustainers)
• Pragmatic savers (saving $ first)
• Well-being seekers (whatevers)
• Not-green metros (older male, traditional
values)
Sustainability behaviour change
The LivingGreener personas:
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

18. Some interesting facts that have influenced
content development:
• Consistent #1 'organic' search term – worm
farms
• ‘Backyard chickens' #3
• The rest of the top 10 are energy pages and
guides
This still holds true after rebranding to YES
Keeping content relevant
Using analytics to create content
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

19. • This was to reflect on the majority of the
content – over 80% was energy related
• While there was an increased focus on
energy, we maintained our broader
sustainability content
Rebranding to YourEnergySavings
In 2014 we were requested to rebadge the site
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

20. Although we had site redirects, flagged the move via
social media and had a banner on the LG site, we still lost
50% of our audience initially. Now our numbers are
stronger that in the LG days.
The bounce rate increased significantly – people looking
for ‘green’ did not relate and bounced.
LG never had a marketing budget so all promotion was
done in-house, building audiences ‘organically’. These
networks proved to be very supportive in the rebranding
exercise (in the main).
Challenges of rebranding
Some discoveries
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

21. • http://www.cbsm.com/pages/guide/fostering-
sustainable-behavior/
• http://www.unilever.com/mediacentre/pressreleas
es/2011/five-levers-change-111123.aspx
• www.yourenergysavings.gov.au
References
Online
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au

22. Tracey Benson
Manager: Knowledge, Strategy and Information
Information Exchange Team || Energy Division
Department of Environment and Energy
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au
Thank you
Contact:
Tracey.Benson@environment.gov.au