The realization of the smart grid depends critically on the successful engagement of consumers in adapting their energy consumption behavior to the intermittent generation of renewable energy. The engaged consumers participate in demand response programs in which they provide a shift of electricity consumption based on incentives provided. However, understanding the concept of load shifting and the decision when to shift consumption is quite complex for most consumers and it may interfere with daily practices leading to inconveniences. Therefore, there is a strong need for efficient decision-support systems to help consumers to shift or not to shift electricity consumption. This paper presents a conceptual framework aimed at system designers and developers of electricity load shifting applications. The framework is validated by implementation of a prototype that provides planning and decision support for consumers. The prototype provides insight into possible load shifting capability by providing feedback on the CO2 emission intensity of energy production, thus encouraging consumers to change behavior and consume energy in a more sustainable way.

Addressing human impact on the environment by focusing on shared everyday practices, rather than just individual behavior is an approach that shows promise. However, it can be challenging to put this approach into concrete use, especially in teams unfamiliar with the practice orientation. To support the practice approach, we introduce the Contextual Wheel of Practice (COWOP), a framework that can: 1) help researchers and designers to better understand practices, 2) design effective interventions, and 3) facilitate collaboration between team members from different disciplines, who may not be familiar with the practice orientation. We describe how COWOP was developed, and our experiences using COWOP in three different cases. We then position COWOP as part of the "turn to practice" in HCI, and discuss how it can be useful to HCI researchers and be applied in domains beyond sustainability, such as healthcare and privacy.

Developers often use electronic mailing lists when seeking assistance with a particular software application. The archives of these mailing lists provide a rich repository of problem-solving knowledge. Developers seeking a quick answer to a problem find these archives inconvenient, because they lack efficient searching mechanisms, and retain the structure of the original conversational threads which are rarely relevant to the knowledge seeker.