Making Waves: Empowering Users to Sustainable Water Use

Abstract

Sustainable water use is an emerging issue for both industry and consumers, as water scarcity is becoming one of the great challenges of our time, In this regard, Consumption Feedback (CF) is a commonly used approach to provide consumers with information on individual consumption data; however, CF has primarily been applied in the context of energy consumption. Regarding water usage, CF holds significant potential to raise awareness and to help identify saving opportunities. To understand users’ existing practices and challenges in water consumption monitoring and saving behaviors, we conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with private households in a living lab. With this contribution we present preliminary results of the study on participants’ water consumption practices and present initial prototypical design drafts for a dashboard based on these results, which should address the identified practices and challenges. Finally, based on the results we conclude with design considerations for the visualization of water consumption data.