research-article

UpStream: motivating water conservation with low-cost water flow sensing and persuasive displays

Authors:

Stacey Kuznetsov,

Eric PaulosAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1851 - 1860

https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753604

Published: 10 April 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Water is our most precious and most rapidly declining natural resource. We explore pervasive technology as an approach for promoting water conservation in public and private spaces. We hope to motivate immediate reduction in water use as well as higher-order behaviors (seeking new information, etc) through unobtrusive low-cost water flow sensing and several persuasive displays. Early prototypes were installed at public faucets and a private (shared) shower, logging water usage first without and then with ambient displays. This pilot study led to design iterations, culminating in long-term deployment of sensors in four private showers over the course of three weeks. Sensors first logged baseline water usage without visualization. Then, two display styles, ambient and numeric, were deployed in random order, each showing individual and average water consumption. Quantitative data along with participants' feedback contrast the effectiveness of numeric displays against abstract visualization in this very important domain of water conservation and public health.

Supplementary Material

MOV File (p1851.mov)

Download
18.63 MB

References

[1]

Andrés del Valle, A.C., Opalach, A. "The Persuasive Mirror: computerized persuasion for healthy living." ACM SIGCHI, 2005.

[2]

Arroyo, E., Bonanni, L., Selker, T. "Waterbot: Exploring Feedback and Persuasive Techniques at the Sink." ACM SIGCHI, 2005.

Digital Library

[3]

Beckmann, C., Consolvo, S., Lamarca, A., "Some Assembly Required: Supporting End-User Sensor Installation in Domestic Ubiquitous Computing Environments", Ubiquitous Computing, 2004.

[4]

Bonanni, L., Arroyo, E., Lee, C., and Selker, T. 2005. "Smart sinks: real-world opportunities for context-aware interaction." 1232--1235, ACM SIGCHI, 2005

Digital Library

[5]

Consolvo, S. McDonald, D.W., Toscos, T., Chen, M.Y., Froehlich, J., Harrison, B., Klasnja, P., LaMarca, A., LeGrand, L., Libby, R., Smith, I., Landay, J.A. "Activity Sensing in the Wild: A Field Trial of UbiFit Garden."ACM SIGCHI, 2008.

Digital Library

[6]

Consolvo, S., Roessler, P., Shelton, B.E. " The CareNet Display: Lessons Learned from an In Home Evaluation of an Ambient Display." UbiComp. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2004. 1--17.

[7]

Chen, J., Kam A., Zhang, J., Liu, N. and Shue, L. "Bathroom Actvitity Monitoring Based on Sound", Proceedings of the Internatonal Conference on Pervasive Computing, 47--61, 2005.

Digital Library

[8]

Chetty, M., Tran, D., Grinter, R.E. "Getting to Green: Understanding Resource Consumption in the Home." UbiComp'08. ACM, 2008.

Digital Library

[9]

Darby, S., Bertoldi, P., Ricci, A, & de. Almeida A. "Making It Obvious: Designing Feedback into Energy Consumption." Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Household Appliances and Lighting, 685--696. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 2001.

[10]

Fogarty, J., Au, C., Hudson, S.E. "Sensing from the Basement: A Feasibility Study of Unobtrusive and Low-Cost Home Activity Recognition." ACM UIST, 2006.

Digital Library

[11]

Food Standards Agency. "Traffic light labeling." http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/trafficlights/ Accessed January 7, 2010.

[12]

Froehlich, J., Dillahunt, T., Klasnja, P., Mankoff, J., Consolvo, S., Harrison, B., Landay, J.A. "UbiGreen: Investigating a Mobile Tool for Tracking and Supporting Green Transportation Habits." CHI 2009.

Digital Library

[13]

Froehlich, J. Larson, E., Campbell, T., Haggerty, C., Fogarty, J., and Patel, S. "HydroSense: Infrastructure-Mediated Single-Point Sensing of Whole-Home Water Activity" Proceedings of UbiComp 2009.

Digital Library

[14]

Galloway, D.L., Jones, D.R., and Ingebritsen, S.E. "Land subsidence in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey." Circular 1182, p. 177, 1999.

[15]

Gustafsson, A., Gyllensward, M. "The Power-Aware Cord: Energy Awareness through Ambient Information Display." CHI. Portland: ACM, 2005.

Digital Library

[16]

Kappel, K., Grechenig, T. "From Feedback to Awareness: An Ambient Water Consumption Display." Poster: Ubicomp 2008.

[17]

Kappel, K., Grechenig, T. "show me: Water Consumption at a Glance to Promote Water Conservation in the Shower." Persuasive '09. ACM, 2009.

Digital Library

[18]

Larson, Stephen S. Intille Kent. "Designing and Evaluating Supportive Technology for Homes." Proc. IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, 2002.

[19]

Lin, J.J., Mamykina, L., Lindtner, S., Delajoux, G., Strub, H.B. "Fish'n'Steps: Encouraging Physical Activity with an Interactive Computer Game ." UbiComp. Spinger Berlin / Heidelberg, 2006. 261--278.

Digital Library

[20]

Mankoff, J., Dey, A.K., Hsieh, G., Kientz, J., Lederer, S., Ames, M. "Heuristic Evaluation of Ambient Displays." CHI. Ft. Lauderdale: ACM, 2003.

Digital Library

[21]

Matthews, T., Rattenbury, T., Carter, S. "Defining, Designing, and Evaluating Peripheral Displays: An Analysis Using Activity Theory." In Human-Computer Interaction, 22 (1) pp. 221--261, 2007.

Digital Library

[22]

McCrickard, D.S., Chewar, C.M., Somervell, J.P. & Ndiwalana, A. "A model for notification systems evaluation -- Assessing user goals for multitasking activity". ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 10 (4). 312--338, 2003.

Digital Library

[23]

Morris, M., Lundell, M., Dishman, E. "Catalyzing social interaction with ubiquitous computing: a needs assessment of elders coping with cognitive decline." CHI '04. ACM, 2004.

Digital Library

[24]

Nassim, J., J. Forlizzi, A. Hurst, and J. Zimmerman. "Breakaway: An Ambient Display Designed to Change Human Behavior." CHI 2005. ACM SIGCHI, 2005.

Digital Library

[25]

Pousman, Z., Stasko, J. "A taxonomy of ambient information systems: four patterns of design." Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces, ACM, 2006.

Digital Library

[26]

Riva, G. "Ambient Intelligence in Health Care." CyberPsychology & Behavior. DOI, 2003.

[27]

Rodriguez, M., Favela, J., Preciado, A., Vizcaino, A. "Agent-based ambient intelligence for healthcare." AI Communications. IOS Press, 2005. 1--16.

Digital Library

[28]

Shami, N.S., Leshed, G. & Klein, D. "Context of use evaluation of peripheral displays." In Proceedings of the IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human Computer Interaction (INTERACT), 579--587, Springer, 2005.

Digital Library

[29]

Strengers, Y. "Smart Metering Demand Management Programs: Challenging the Comfort and Cleanliness Habitus of Households." OZCHI: Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Designing for Habitus and Habitat, 2008.

Digital Library

[30]

United Nations Human Development Report. "UN Development Report 2008 Update". http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/. Accessed September 4, 2009

[31]

U.S Geological Survey. "Ground-Water Depletion Across the Nation". Fact Sheet 103--03. 2003.

[32]

"Water Is Our Most Precious Natural Resource", United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNIS/SGSM/100, 17 March 2009.

[33]

World Health Organization. "Health through safe drinking water and basic sanitation". http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/mdg1/en/index.html. Accessed April 10, 2009.

Cited By

da Silva ESchneider DMiceli CCorreia A(2025)Encouraging Sustainable Choices Through Socially Engaged Persuasive Recycling Initiatives: A Participatory Action Design Research StudyInformatics10.3390/informatics1201000512:1(5)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics12010005
Ensafjoo MBakogeorge ANguyen CVerni AAssadoullaev FFung VMcFarlane DDietz PChevalier FMazalek A(2024)Hydrone: Bringing Interactivity to Small Water FeaturesCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3665463.3678785(64-70)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3665463.3678785
Lee MJun JLee SLee S(2024)Understanding the Initial Journey of UX Designers Toward Sustainable Interaction Design: A Focus on Digital Infrastructure Energy ReductionProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661598(3079-3096)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661598
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

UpStream: motivating water conservation with low-cost water flow sensing and persuasive displays
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods
      1. User centered design

Recommendations

With a little help from a friend: a shower calendar to save water
CHI EA '11: CHI '11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

This design case presents and discusses the Shower Calendar, a "persuasive" concept for reducing the con-sumption of water for showering. It starts from a dis-cussion of different types of feedback employed by earlier design cases. Based on this, we ...
Promoting Social Connectedness through Human Activity-Based Ambient Displays
ITAP '16: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Interactive Technology and Ageing Populations

Existing research in ambient assisted living (AAL) confirms the success of context aware applications in conveying feelings of connectedness and creating a sense of co-presence. Awareness of an elder's activities could trigger emotional responses and ...
IdleStripes shirt - wearable display of sedentary time
PerDis '20: Proceedings of the 9TH ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays

Prior work on clothing with integrated displays has typically presented catwalk-style garments, with light output from hundreds of LEDs. In contrast, we present the IdleStripes shirt, a garment for normal daily office wear, that encourages the wearer to ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2010

2690 pages

ISBN:9781605589299

DOI:10.1145/1753326

General Chair:
Elizabeth Mynatt
Georgia Institute of Technology
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Scott Hudson
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Keith Edwards
Georgia Tech
,
Tom Rodden
University of Nottingham

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 10 April 2010

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

CHI '10

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI '10: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 10 - 15, 2010

Georgia, Atlanta, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025

Sponsor:
sigchi

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

85
Total Citations
View Citations
2,039
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)53
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2

Reflects downloads up to 18 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

da Silva ESchneider DMiceli CCorreia A(2025)Encouraging Sustainable Choices Through Socially Engaged Persuasive Recycling Initiatives: A Participatory Action Design Research StudyInformatics10.3390/informatics1201000512:1(5)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics12010005
Ensafjoo MBakogeorge ANguyen CVerni AAssadoullaev FFung VMcFarlane DDietz PChevalier FMazalek A(2024)Hydrone: Bringing Interactivity to Small Water FeaturesCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3665463.3678785(64-70)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3665463.3678785
Lee MJun JLee SLee S(2024)Understanding the Initial Journey of UX Designers Toward Sustainable Interaction Design: A Focus on Digital Infrastructure Energy ReductionProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661598(3079-3096)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661598
Bukhari AHosseinimotlagh SKim H(2024)OpenSense: An Open-World Sensing Framework for Incremental Learning and Dynamic Sensor Scheduling on Embedded Edge DevicesIEEE Internet of Things Journal10.1109/JIOT.2024.338501611:15(25880-25894)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2024.3385016
Manfreda AErjavec J(2023)Nudging Towards Sustainable Public TransportationHandbook of Research on Promoting Sustainable Public Transportation Strategies in Urban Environments10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006(120-140)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006
Yang XSayono JZhang Y(2023)CubeSense++: Smart Environment Sensing with Interaction-Powered Corner Reflector MechanismsProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606744(1-12)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3586183.3606744
Rodgers SVella KPloderer BBrereton M(2023)Nature Fictions: Designing for a Sustainable Future through Nature RelationsProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3595981(1566-1580)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563657.3595981
Grönewald LWeiblen JLaschke MChristoforakos LHassenzahl M(2023)Sustainability by Design. How to Encourage Users to Choose Energy-Saving Programs and Settings when Washing LaundryProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581150(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581150
Rodgers SPloderer BVella KBrereton M(2022)Phenology Probes: Exploring Human-Nature Relations for Designing Sustainable FuturesProceedings of the 34th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3572921.3572936(216-228)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3572921.3572936
Bouzekri ERivière G(2022)Choosing a Questionnaire Measuring Connectedness to Nature for Human–Computer Interaction User StudiesProceedings of the 33rd Conference on l'Interaction Humain-Machine10.1145/3500866.3516380(1-13)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3500866.3516380
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten