Energy Data Visualizations on Smartphones for Triggering Behavioral Change: Novel Vs. Conventional

TL;DR

This study evaluates how different visualization types on smartphones influence energy consumption awareness and behavioral change, finding that novel visualizations improve understanding despite slight preference for conventional charts.

Contribution

It introduces and compares novel energy data visualizations with conventional ones, demonstrating improved comprehension with innovative visual formats.

Findings

Participants understood novel visualizations 8% better.

Participants slightly preferred conventional charts.

Some visualizations may need modifications for better effectiveness.

Abstract

This paper conveys the importance of using suitable data visualizations for electrical energy consumption and the effect it carries on reducing said consumption. Data visualization tools construct an important pillar in energy micro-moments, i.e., the concept of providing the right information at the right time in the right way for a specific power consumer. Such behavioral change can be triggered with the help of good recommendations and suitable visualizations to convey the right message. A questionnaire is built as a mobile application to evaluate different groups of conventional and novel visualizations. Conventional charts are restricted to bar, line and stacked area charts, while novel visualizations contain heatmap, spiral and appliance-level stacked bar charts. Significant findings gathered from participants' responses indicate that they are slightly inclined towards conventional charts. However, their understanding of the novel charts is better by 8% when the analysis questions are investigated. Finally, a question is answered on whether a group of visualizations should be discarded completely, or some modifications can be applied.