Design for sustainable behavior strategies: Impact of persuasive technology on energy usage

Abstract

Design for Sustainable Behavior (DfSB) is an emerging research area with the application to generate better design methods, to change consumer behavior, and to decrease environmental damage towards more sustainable action. Previous research has explored the product design for human behavior change of energy usage; however, little research has been done to link the interventions how people could change their act with DfSB theories. This research utilized smart/intelligent devices based on the theories of DfSB and persuasive technology to explore how behavioral decisions and social psychology match the preference and utility of public green low-carbon behavior by collecting interrelated data through eco-feedback. Furthermore, the participants could share and compare peer usage information and receive awards to encourage sustainable behaviors by using social network feedback about personal usage information. A questionnaire was also developed to measure the impact of sustainable behaviors on personal behavioral intention.This study contributes by filling in the gap of consumer behavior of energy consumption – an empirical data is collected. It was found only little effect of energy using behavior reduction could be achieved by providing energy using information. If the energy usage behavior reduction is significantly expected, a more aggressive sustainable development with behavioral intentions should be applied. This study also shows that the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and persuasive technologies can be integrated to achieve reliable results and to generate suggestions about product usage to engage DfSB.