One size does not fit all: applying the transtheoretical model to energy feedback technology design

  • Authors:

  • Helen Ai He;Saul Greenberg;Elaine M. Huang

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada;University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada;University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Global warming, and the climate change it induces, is an urgent global issue. One remedy to this problem, and the focus of this paper, is to motivate sustainable energy usage behaviors by people. One approach is the development of technologies that provide real-time, continuous feedback of energy usage. However, there is one problem - most tech-nologies use a "one-size-fits-all" solution, providing the same feedback to differently motivated individuals at different stages of readiness, willingness and ableness to change. In this paper, we synthesize a wide range of motivational psychology literature to develop a motivational framework based on the Transtheoretical (aka Stages of Behavior Change) Model. For each stage, we state the mo-tivational goal(s), and recommendation(s) for how technol-ogies can reach these goals. Each goal and recommendation is supported by a rationale based on motivational literature. Each recommendation is supported by a simple textual example illustrating one way to apply the recommendation.