HEEP Week 6: More Changes

We have started to select our best applications and refine them. The applications we have selected are the negawatts generated by HEEP rebates, top appliance comparator, power generation by source, and oil consumption. During our weekly meeting, it was mentioned that some of our applications were not user-friendly enough. Some of our applications did not include enough explanation for a consumer to understand how to interpret the data presented. This presents a problem because while the information is useful, if someone cannot understand how to interpret the data it is not useful to them.

The mock-up for the negawatt application shows the amount of negawatts generated by HEEP rebates. When creating the mock-up for the application, not enough detail was used, which made it difficult for others to understand what the purpose of the application was. Originally, the mock-up showed a pie chart without any explanation of what it represented. While this was not intended to be the final version of application, it made it difficult to understand how the application worked and what information was displayed. We refined the application by using a more descriptive pie chart and including a negawatt definition. Also, we added the amount of negawatts generated per dollar at the bottom of the application, so consumers can see what kind of return HEEP is generating for money spent. Shown below are both the original and revised mock-ups for the negawatt generation display.

Original mock-up:



Revised mock-up:



The top appliance comparator shows a comparison of the top 5 energy star models for an appliance and how they compare with respect to electricity consumption of an average non-energy star appliance. It displays how much per year a consumer would save if they bought an energy star model vs. a non-energy star model. Originally, we displayed the cost as a savings, but we found out that people are more likely to act if we put the savings in terms of money lost. So, instead of phrasing the savings as "you would save", we changed it to "you will spend an extra". This is a marketing trick that has been found to encourage people to act. The revised mock-up is shown below.



The power generation by sources application was revised to show how the projection of energy consumption will decrease due to the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative. The application shows what percentage of the energy being consumed will be produced by each source. The scaling has been adjusted to be linear, so a more detailed graph is shown. Also, the barrels of oil consumed has been adjusted, so it shows the total number of barrels consumed in a year rather than a comparison to a base year. This has made both graphs more readable.

Overall, I feel that with each iteration our applications are improving. In the beginning, we were making assumptions that people would have some previous knowledge about energy concepts. Through our revisions, our applications have become more user-friendly. The information needed by a consumer for the applications to be useful is presented with the application. We hope this will allow users to see the value of our applications and use them as intended.