Storyboard of my app / service

Please find below the storyboard of how my app / service might look like. This has been submitted as part of assignment 2 of the Human Computer Interaction course.

List five existing designs (inspirations) that relate to your thinking. The relationship could be very concrete or very abstract. For each design, give brief explanations (1-2 sentences) for why you chose those designs.

1. Google Power Meter (http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/) is a good example on online electricity usage monitoring along with comparison to previous usage. Beautiful hourly-daily electricity usage graph is presented. Google dropped this project though. 
2. Microsoft Hohm (http://www.optimumenergy.com/microsoft-hohm-review/) is a copy of Google Power Meter by Microsoft. However, compare to Google Power Meter, Microsoft Hohm could provide breakdown of energy usage by distribution (heating, lighting, etc.) and energy usage comparison with neighbourhood. Like Google, Microsoft also dropped this project. 
3. Bidgely (http://www.bidgely.com/) came as alternative to Google Power Meter and Microsoft Hohm. Bidgely has their owned patented algorithm which could breakdown electricity usage even more detail. Their demo service on website shows some recommendation to reduce electrcity usage and integration with social networks. What a promising service to change the world's electricity usage habit in my opinion.
4. Messages for Japan (http://www.messagesforjapan.com/) is an initiative from Google Japan collecting messages all around the world to support Japan during twin earthquake + nuke disasters in 2011. Simply clean, simple, interactive, and useful!
5. Codeacademy (http://www.codecademy.com) is a good gamification example on encouraging students to code more. "Day streaks" indicator really encourages us to pratice code at least once in a day.
6. Treehouse (http://www.teamtreehouse.com/) is first website that provides interactive badges for web learning that I know. Video rewards really encourage users to learn more. It keeps user wondering how the next video would be.

Which of the design briefs does your observation (from Assignment 1) fall under: Change, Glance, or Time? Explain what activity you observed and how it relates to the brief. Write down your Point of View.

My observation falls under the design brief of change.

Based on my observation that I did to 3 friends in 3 different countries, changing electricity usage habit of the people is a quite difficult task to perform due to cheap electricity cost in most of countries and unawareness of saving energy. Gamify this issue and social network engagement would be one of promising approaches to encourage people to use less electricity. 

By making people compete with friends on electricity usage, motivation to use less electricity would be increased. Social gaming apps on Facebook have proven the theory. Social game could attract more people because they are playing with their real friends, unlike unknown players in online multiplayer games and MMORPG the generations before social gaming. However, it is to be noted that I am not designing a game here, but socially gamify the issue to use less electricity.

Upload a comprehensive set of digital photos or scans of both of your storyboards.

Storyboard #1 - Compete with friends

Storyboard #2 - Challenge recommendations

Needfinding on Energy Conservation Apps

Which of the design briefs does your observation fall under: Change, Glance, or Time?

Explain what activity you observed and how it relates to the brief.

I decided to choose design brief of Change for this assignment.

Nowadays there have been many attempts to promote green energy as well as energy conservation in our live, for the sake of the earth, through many different ways in green technology. However, habit to use less energy/electricity is relatively new to most of the societies, especially societies in the emerging countries, one of the reasons is perhaps due to cheap electricity cost imposed there. I would like to develop web / mobile application which enable to promote how important energy conservation issue is, by analyizing the user's electricity usage habits and giving them suggestion on what to do to save electricity. I think some sort of gamification should be put inside the application to motivate users.

To start this needfinding step, I decided to observe electricity usage daily habit at first on 3 of my best friends, staying in 3 different countries (Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia), 3 different cultures, thus I could expect 3 different stories in observing the electricity usage habit so that it might enrich target goals of the design. Me myself are staying in India, so direct observation could not be done, all the observation was performed through messenger, skype, and telephone.

Describe how three people performed an activity related to the brief you chose. In particular, you should focus on a particularly interesting moment/breakdown/workaround from the observation. Upload a photograph or sketch of each person performing the described activity, with a short caption.

I observed the electricity consumption habits of the three candidates and asked their opinion about energy conservation importance. All of them are commonly do not aware of energy conservation issues since their monthly electricity bills are relatively cheap.

1. Shiddiq

Shiddiq is a 24 years old student studying in Tokyo, Japan. He stays in a foreign student dormitory. Japan must conserve energy a lot after Fukushima earthquake twin disasters in 2011, since all of nuclear power plants is shutdown in whole country. Below is my observation on his electricity consumption habits during weekend, days with his highest electricity consumption.

Electricity consumption habit on Saturday

It is spring season in Japan. Air conditioner is not required. Only refrigerator is turned on 24H in his room. Shiddiq turns off the light when he goes to bed. He wakes up 4AM every morning to perform the morning prayer, after turning on the light and going to toilet for ablution. He sleeps again and wakes up at 8AM. Light is not turned on during this time since the sun brightly shines outside already. He makes his own breakfast, usually a simple cereal with cold milk, and watches movies at the same time. He starts to turn on his PC, monitor, external hardisk, and speakers. He also charges his mobile phone during this time.

When lunch time comes, he goes to the kitchen to cook some foods and uses microwave. Hot water and stove in the kitchen uses gas, not electricity. He left his PC in sleep mode when going to the kitchen. He watches movie again in his room after lunch, and hangout with friends in the party room at evening. He says party usually consume a lot of electricity: big speakers, karaoke, and so on.

After party, he takes bath, goes to the common toilet, turns on the light and exhaust, and turns them off again after finish. However, he finds sometime exhaust is turned on by the previous person, meaning the previous person forgot to turn off the exhaust. He washes clothes after that, using two washing machines at the same time and one dryer. In total it requires around 3H to complete all the washes and dryers. Before sleeping, he watches movies again and turns off everything except refrigerator once he is ready to go to sleep.

Shiddiq pays approximately 3,300 yen (aprox. 30 USD) for monthly electricity consumption. He doesn't mind with the cost and agree that conservation energy is an important issue to be performed around the world, due to environmental matters. He feels that his habit is quite efficient and ideal.

Electricity consumption summary:

1. 1 Room light
2. 1 PC, monitor, speakers
3. 1 Toilet light, 1 toilet exhaust
4. 1 Refrigerator
5. 1 Mobile phone battery charger
6. 2 Kitchen lights
7. 1 Microwave
8. 2 Washing machines
9. 1 Dryer

Breakdown: 1) using two washing machines to accelerate, 2) friends are wasteful

Shiddiq washes clothes once in a week by using two washing machines. One washing machine is insufficient since he has too many clothes collected in one week. 

After has finished taking bath, he turns off exhaust in the toilet. But his friends don't do it.

Opportunity: 1) suggestions / recommendations to reduce , 2) spreading the recommendation to friends

Shiddiq could only use one washing machine actually by washing them two times (i.e. Wednesday and Saturday). The recommendation to suggest some habit changes in reducing electricity consumption could be generated by the application based on user's particular habit. 

The recommendation feature should also be suggested to friends, through social media integration and sort of gamification to motivate them yet to make it fun.

2. Anggita

Anggita is a 24 years old student studying in Daejon, South Korea. She stays in a foreign student dormitory. Unlike Japan after disaster, South Korea primarily runs nuclear plants as their energy sources. Below is my observation on her electricity consumption habits during weekend, days with her highest electricity consumption.

Electricity consumption habit on Saturday

Anggita turns the light off when she sleeps and charges her mobile phone wholenight. She turns on refrigerator and room humidifier 24H. She starts sleeping at 3AM in the morning and wakes up at 8AM. The closing curtain makes the room dark, even at 8AM when the sun rises a bit high already. This makes her to turn on the room light. She takes bath in the morning and prepares for cycling with friends. The toilet in her dorm applies automatic lights. Thus, when someone goes inside, the lights will automatically be turned on and viceversa. When her friends are ready, she goes cycling outside for 25 km. What a super girl!

After coming back from cycling, she takes bath again. This time she shampoos her hair and uses hairdryer to blow hair. Similar to what Shiddiq does,  she goes party with her friends once she is ready. She does some activites in the common room as well for student union purpose, where projectors, microphone, and some other equipment are used. 19PM she goes back to her room and turns on the light. She doesn't turn off the humidifier when she goes out, so the room is pretty humid. Sometimes she also forgets to turn off the PC, she loves to watch movies on PC like Shiddiq. She uses microwave to cook instant noodles and rice.

Similar to Shiddiq, Anggita washes her clothes by using two washing machines to separate her clothes' color, separate between bright color and dark color clothes. She uses dryer afterwards. She sleeps quite late at night, turning on the room light more. The electricity price in South Korea is quite cheap, normally she spends merely 3,000 won (aprox. 3 USD) monthly, 10 times cheaper than what Shiddiq spends in Japan. She says energy conservation is not an issue in South Korea, since the country uses nuclear energy which is plentiful and clean. Yet the electricity bill is cheap.

Electricity consumption summary:

1. 1 Room light
2. 1 Notebook PC
3. 1 Toilet light
4. 1 Refrigerator
5. 1 Mobile phone battery charger
6. 1 Kitchen light
7. 1 Microwave
8. 2 Washing machines
9. 1 Dryer
10. 1 Hairdryer
11. Hot water in the kitchen and toilet uses electricity
12. 1 Projector, microphone
13. 1 Humidifier

Breakdown: forget to turn off PC

Anggita sometimes left the PC on when going out and going to bed. She needs reminder to turn off the PC.

Opportunity: reminder to turn off PC

Application could have feature to remind user for turning off electrical appliance that is not required to on, in some particular conditions. 

3. Ramadhani

Ramadhani (Rama) is a 24 years old engineer working in Power Utility Company in Palembang, Indonesia. He knows a lot about electricity bills and energy stuffs since he works on this field. Recently Indonesia has changed their electricity bill system into pre-payment system, which makes the electricity consumers aware of their consumption and naturally turns them to use less energy on daily live. Below is my observation on Rama's electricity consumption habits during weekend, days with his highest electricity consumption.

Electricity consumption habit on Saturday

Palembang has hot temperature relatively stable whole year, higher than even Jakarta. This makes Rama turns his air conditioner whole night when he goes to bed. He turns off the air conditioner and changes to fan at 5AM, when he performs his Fajr prayer. Like other participants, he has refrigerator in his rented house which is turned on 24H. After he wakes up, he turns the TV on to watch news and soccer highlights. 

Rama plays game on XBOX whole day on lazy Saturday. He uses electric kettle to make hot milk or hot coffee to accompany him playing XBOX. He sometimes forget to turn off the fan whenever he feels comfortable. He washes clothes once in a week using one washing machine and dry them outside the house. 

Rama spends 100,000 rupiah (aprox. 10 USD) monthly for electricity consumption. In his opinion, using less electricity is important as long as it becomes habit of the consumers. In utility perspective, reducing electricity in a sudden manner could harm the generator in utility. Thus an activity like earth hour where all people turn off electricity in 1 hour is not a good idea. It would make operational cost higher. It is preferable to perform earth hour not only 1 hour but within longer 8 hour, so it could also maintain the utility operational cost.

Electricity consumption summary:

1. 1 Room light
2. 1 XBOX
3. 1 Toilet light
4. 1 Refrigerator
5. 1 Mobile phone battery charger
6. 1 Kitchen light
7. 1 Television
8. 1 Washing Machine
9. 1 Electric kettle
10. 1 Fan
11. 1 Air conditioner

Breakdown: pre-payment system

Pre-payment system in Indonesia is indeed an effective way to reduce electricity usage of the consumers. 

Opportunity: electricity bill planning

Application could have feature to let user plan their electricity bill beforehand, and maintain the user's electricity consumption through auto-generated behavior recommendation.

Write a list of needs/goals/tasks inspired by what you observed (at least 15). If you brainstormed with others, please include their names in your submission.

1. Each participant doesn't aware of the importance on world's energy conservation. They need some reading on energy emission, why renewable energy is being implemented nowadays.
2. Anggita sometimes forgot to turn off her PC when going outside or going to bed. She needs a way to remind her turning off electrical appliances which are not needed at one time.
3. Shiddiq's friend doesn't care with energy conservation. Shiddiq must have a way to share his efficient electricity consumption habit to his friends.
4. Each participant uses two washing machines instead of one. There should be a way to generate recommendation to suggest user how to do an energy conservation in practical manner.
5. Each participant doesn't aware which electrical appliances cost more and which are less. There should be a way to breakdown the electricity bill, into electrical cost per appliance.
6. Breakdown electricity bill might require partnership with utility industry and complex installation of some equipment / sensors. There should be a simpler way, through a simple application to breakdown the electricity consumption without involving utility industry.
7. Since energy conservation is a quite serious / boring issue, there should be a way to make it fun / gamify the issue.
8. This is a bit complex, but there should be a way to automate the electrical appliances. Thus there is no way for user to forget appliances that must be shutdown or turned off.
9. There should be a way to visualize electricity consumption on each appliance, so user will aware on which appliance consumes a lot of energy.
10. There should be a motivation to decrease electricity consumption. This could also be encouraged through social competition with friends.
11. User could install their own renewable energy source, i.e. solar plants, so no more dependency on paying electricity bills. This is costly at the beginning though.
12. Pre-payment electricity bill would be an effective way to reduce electricity consumption of the consumers. This could be happened by installing the electricity meter which enables this feature.
13. Installing electricity meter might be difficult since only utility company could do this. An alternative way is to suggest user to plan their electricity bill in web / mobile application.
14. There should be feature to give user a kind of behavior recommendation to keep the electricity bill as per planned.
15. There should be a tool so that user could schedule their daily electricity consumption i.e. use washing machine Tuesday 15:00-17:00, watch TV everyday 7:00-8:00, etc.