Sound

After my application was finished I decided to add some sound to make it more interesting.  I added a "clicking" sound on the buttons and made the buttons get smaller when pressed so that users actually felt like they were pressing the buttons.  I added some background sound that includes nature and car sounds.  I thought this was kind of ironic and related to the purpose of my application well.  These days it's becoming less frequent that we only hear nature sounds with no cars in the background.

Data display

Originally I was going to have 4 pages which display data.  The first which shows you your percentage of water, electricity and gas usage, the second where you can build your house and see where you're using the most power,  the third showing a graph of how your usage has changed over time and the fourth, comparing you to your neighborhood.

Before creating the 4 pages I asked some users what they thought about these four pages.  The majority of responses I got were that:
- They liked how it showed you your energy usage in different categories, but that there should be more catergories than just water, gas and electricity.  They would be interested in seeing how cooking, water heating and space heating compared.
-  They thought that having the three completely different ways of displaying information wasn't consistent and was a bit too much information.
-  They liked the fact that you could drag and drop puzzle pieces to build your own house.  This added an element of interaction.
-  They liked how you could compare yourself to your neighbours to see how you were doing.

I took this into account and decided to keep the first page where you could see how your household energy usage was split up into categories.  I used the categories of water heating, space heating, cooking, refrigeration, electricity and other.  I decided to make it clearer that all these added up to show your whole households usage by making the pieces build up to make the shape of a house.  I really liked the look of this information therefore I decided to take out the "build your house" and other graph pages.

Having one page with the above information wasn't enough though.  I wanted to show the households monthly usage, weekly usage and daily usage.  Therefore I decided to make lots of layers.  You can click on the house to go deeper into the layers.  It will start with showing you your monthly usage and will break down into daily usage with each click.

With the "compare" page I kept the same idea but wanted to put the puzzle pieces of the neighbourhood inside a circle to represent the earth, as if it's comparing you to the world.

Design of homepage and menu page

When I first started designing my application the homepage looked like top image.  I had information about what EcoWorld does and four buttons (Sign in, Register, Charts and Facts) which sent you to other pages. When you clicked "Sign in" or "Register" a box would pop up in the top right corner allowing you to enter your info, then take you to the menu page (bottom image).

I asked some users whether they found the homepage easy to navigate and understand.  The response I got from the majority of people was that:
-The colours were too distracting and bright and didn't relate to what the website does
-There's too much writing on the homepage that they would probably never bother to read
-The register and sign in options need to be easier to access with less clicks
-Having four buttons in the menu was too much, and too confusing, there needs to be less.

I looked at some homepages of other popular websites to see how much information they displayed and how they had their sign in and register options.

I noticed that facebook and hotmail homepages only have a small amount of information, so that it's just enough to explain what the website does and so that users will bother to read it.  They both had the sign in option on the homepage so that users didn't have to click more than once to get to their homepage.  There is also very minimal colours.  They both have a main colour and one or two background colours.  The colours are also quite light, not bright and in your face.

 

 I tried to come up with some more colour schemes that included less colours and which were lighter.  I chose the top colour scheme of blue, green, white and black as they are colours which relate to energy consumption and a healthy planet.  I wanted the main two colours to be the top blue and green as I found these went really well together.  The minimal colours would be white and black.  For the menu buttons I tried having them all different colours, but I found them too contrasting therefore I used a gradient between the three (second colour scheme).

Above is the homepage and menu that I came up with, taking into consideration what my users said.  I put the sign in and register options on the homepage for less clicks, I put a couple of lines of text briefly explaining what my application does, but not too much so that people didn't want to read it.  I wanted to still have a link to a facts page though, as I want non-users to be able to view it and read about the effects of global warming.  I thought having another puzzle button would be too much, so I chose to have the graphic of the recycle earth as the button that links to the facts page.  And I had 3 buttons on the menu instead of 5.

I then asked users what they now thought of the navigation and layout of these pages.  The response I got from most people was that:
- They were a lot more likely to read the couple of lines of text than they were to read the original paragraph.
- The colour scheme is consistent, less distracting and relates to the topic.
-  It's a lot easier to log in or register, therefore they're more likely to do it
-  They liked the graphic of the recycle earth and at first didn't know it was a button but because of its hierarchy and design it made them want to click it.

Getting data

Problem:  How are users of my application going to get their energy usage data onto the application?  Users won't want to enter all their data all the time.  It would be time consuming and confusing to figure out.  They need an easy, effortless way of recording their data.


Solution:  For my application I need to be able to record all the individual information of how your energy usage is split up into water heating, space heating, cooking, refridgeration, lighting and other.  At the present time there isn't any technology that can do this.  Therefore I'm looking to the future, where your household power meters will have usb and memory card slots.  You can leave the cards in the meter or plug them in when you want to collect the data.  There will be a little light next to the slots.  When this light is red it means the data is transferring to the usb/memory card and when it is green it means it's finished transferring.  This will then allow you to plug the usb or memory card straight into your computer and the data will automatically transfer to the EcoWorld application.

Contributing businesses

Problem:
In my application businesses put forward their products as rewards for when the users earn enough points to buy them.  The problem with this is I'd have to think about why these businesses would want to put forward their products, as they wouldn't do it unless they get something out of it. The closest system to what I want to have is Flybuys so I researched how they and programs like GrabOne and Entertainment Books benefit the contributing businesses.

Research:

Flybuys: Is a system that allows businesses to put forward their products for members to earn.  They earn them by spending money at contributing businesses, where they receive a certain amount of points depending on how much they spent, which eventually add up to allow you to buy these products.  The reason the contributing businesses benefit from putting their products forward is mainly because of the advertising.  Customers have to spend money at these places in order to earn the points and their products are advertised so much that they create regular full paying customers and incourage others to become customers too.

GrabOne: GrabOne works by allowing you to create a one day feature.  You can then generate hundreds if not thousands of new customers who will be coming to experience your business, it's a great opportunity to show them everything you have to offer and encourage up sell.  It helps you to retain your new found customers and drive more business.  Users share your offer with everyone they know via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. This buzz will continue to attract new customers for months following your feature.  It also gives you exclusive exposure in front of hundreds of thousands of potential customers and allows you to chose your own costs and discounts.

Entertainment Book: This works by giving users two for one or 25% off offers.  Customers who are impressed by their experience at your restaurant will generate positive word-of-mouth advertising and will be likely to return again as regular full-paying customers.  Independent research shows that over 95% of visits by Entertainment members to businesses are first-time visits.  This research also shows that over 90% of customers have returned, or plan to return, to businesses found through the Book.  Participation in the Entertainment program has resulted in an increase in business of up to 30% and an average return on investment in excess of 10 to 1.

Reflection on research: I was really surprised that the main reason contributing businesses in all these loyalty programs purely gained from the advertising aspect of the programs.  The discounted offers exposed the businesses to potentail customers and the discount attracted members who were usually new customers.  When they used the offers and liked what they saw they spread the word, creating more full paying customers, and it was highly likely that they would also come back as full paying customers too.

Problem: The only difference with these programs and the one I'm designing is that members still have to pay something, they just recieve discounts or they had to spend money at the actual businesses to earn the points to recieve the rewards.  Whereas with my application members don't have to spend anything at the contributing businesses, they get points for saving their own energy.  The only benefit the contributing businesses get is the exposure from the advertising.  I don't think this will be enough of a gain for those businesses to want to contribute their products.

Solution: I tried to think about ways I could give contibuting businesses more benefit. One idea is to not have the points pay for the whole product but to instead give a discount on the product.  This would allow businesses to chose their own discounts and costs.  But instead this idea could lose the interest of users of my application.  They might not think a small discount is enough of a reward to go to the effort of uploading their data and saving energy.

Another idea is to get rid of businesses contributing products altogether and not have the reward as real products.  Instead have a virtual pet that you have to keep alive.  When you save lots of energy and lower your average consumption your pet is healthy and happy, but when you start to use too much energy your pet will get sick and be unhappy.  When you beat your neighbours averages you can upgrade your pet to make it happier and get more pets.  Other users will be able to see your pet and if it's unhappy users would be embarrassed that they aren't taking care of their pet.  I like this idea but I think it will change the user group of my application.  The majority of people that play virtual games like this, are teenagers or children.  A lot of adults might become uninterested in being involved in a virtual game.  Adults are the main payers of energy bills therefore this wouldn't be a sensible user group to lose.

After looking back at my origional design I thought about how I wanted my application to have a business category, where they can also compete against other businesses to get the lowest energy consumption.  This would mean that they too can earn points to buy goods for their businesses as well as contributing their products for other peoples rewards.  Therefore they are gaining from getting free products for their business, exposing themselves, inviting new customers and saving costs with energy saving.  I think this would be enough of a gain to convince businesses to contribute their products.

Planned project design

I'm going to create a computer application that allows users to input data of their homes, businesses, schools or universities energy usage.  It will show you what you're overusing, where you need to be more efficient, whether your usage is increasing or decreasing over time and will allow users to build their houses floor plan so that they can track their usage.  The data will be compared to other users, so they can compete against other houses, neighbourhoods, businesses and schools to try and be the most efficient.  Each month the charts will be reviewed and the winners and users that lower their average will be awarded with points.  These points will add up until you can buy items from contributing businesses. 

The user group that this is designed for is teenagers to adults.  The aesthetics of the application will be basic and modern, so that it is easy to navigate and will suit the preferences of the user group.   The puzzle pieces used for buttons and to show data etc, signifies how we're all working together to create a greener, healthier planet.

Concepts

One of the major problems I found with energy usage was people's unwillingness to switch things off when they leave the room.  Therefore a sensor that senses when you're using the appliance would work really well and not require you to change anything you're already doing.  But the problem with that is people need to be aware of whats going on and need to change what they're doing.  If everyone used this device for all appliances etc it would cut back on energy usuage but it doesn't teach people to change their habits.  It would have a screen to display how much money and energy they're saving but I don't think thats enough. Teaching people is one of the most important things this design needs to have.

Computers are the future, therefore this design works with that and is a computer application.  It would be for the usergroups, ranging from teenagers to adults.  Teenagers are going to be the next generation therefore need to be taught sooner rather than later and adults are the main group that pays energy bills therefore this is a good target market to work with.  This application teaches you about global warming and energy, it shows you you're household or businesses energy usage in different ways, allows you to compete against others, gives you points for good efficiency and allows you to use those points to buy everyday things. 

I think this concept would work the best to reduce peoples energy consumption as its working into the future, is a fun way of monitoring your energy, and it's proven that competition and rewards will convince people to change their behaviour.  The only problem is I will have to think of why companies would want to put items forward to be rewards for the users.  I will research into how flybuys companies are also rewarded.

This concept would be for the target market of children.  Its proven that you learn better when you're young so this would be a good group to teach early, so that they grow up with the knowledge of global warming and energy.  To make the learning interesting it would have to be a game.  This main aim of this game is to keep the earth alive by keeping your energy consumption down in a house that you can custom build.  This game would be a phone application. 

I think this is a good idea for teaching younger generations but as adults, teenagers and owners of houses are the biggest affenders it would be better to have them as a target market. 

Brainstorm

Energy Monitoring

After monitoring my personal energy consumption in my bedroom alone, it definately helped change my thoughts on it, and made me want to change my ways.  I definately think giving people the information of their own usage will be a big part of helping people change.  Without that information, people will be reluctant to.  Therefore this is definately something I will have to include when designing my device or application.