Abstract This paper explores household preferences for visualizing consumption data and investigates the potential of data physicalizations to enhance user engagement and promote sustainable practices within households. We conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen households, utilizing a combination of images and low-fidelity prototypes to gain insights into participants’ preferences, ideas and feedback on visualizing consumption information. We requested participants to discuss an object in their home that symbolizes sustainability. The results revealed different emotional responses, from empathy to repulsion, triggered by different visual representations. Our findings also identified certain physical objects and locations within the household that play a role in fostering family collaboration towards sustainable practices. Participants preferred having a physical representation of their consumption data within their homes over a screen-based display. In light of these findings, we open space to consider designing physicalizations that encourage collaboration, enhance user engagement and motivate households to reduce their consumption.

Although household consumption contributes to climate change, it can be challenging to comprehend the consequences and effects from a personal perspective. In this paper, we explore the design of physical data visualisations to promote sustainable practices within households. We conducted 15 household design workshops involving household members to explore physical designs and envision the potential use of physical artefacts in the home to promote sustainability behaviours using five low to medium-fidelity prototypes. The findings from these workshops highlight the need to balance aesthetics, abstraction, and the presentation of actionable information in the design of physical artefacts. Based on our findings, we identify key design considerations for future design: (1) including all household members in the design process to reflect the collective goals and values of the home, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement, (2) considering child-friendly design in physical artefacts to promote awareness, education, engagement, and sustainable values in children, (3) and considering nature-based visuals to reduce the mental burden of information overload.

Understanding household practices, beliefs, relationships among the members, and their preferences are often overlooked in the design of home-based interventions aiming to reduce consumption. We conducted a survey in the United Kingdom (22 responses) and a follow-up interview with 13 households to inform the design of interventions for reducing household consumption by: 1) understanding household consumption practices, and 2) identifying the concerns and challenges for household engagement with sustainability practices. Our findings highlight how the perspectives, understanding, and motives for consumption reduction actively shape household practices and their attempts to curtail consumption. Existing non-negotiable practices led to additional household consumption and we found different strategies households use to reach a shared-decision on food and energy use. Based on our findings, we provide opportunities for motivating and fostering engagement with sustainable practices at home.