Exploring Aesthetic Visualization for Promoting Consumer Energy Conservation

Consumer awareness of energy use and their act in energy conservation are inextricably linked because the former enables informed decision-making and motivates behaviour change. Various feedback techniques have been developed to increase consumer knowledge and problems with traditional methods such as pragmatic charts are the lack of engagingness and integrity with the context. As an alternative, we explore the effectiveness and utility of using aesthetic visualization as feedback for consumer energy use, as we believe its more attractive display will increase aesthetic interest and better fit with the environment. In our two-staged study, we first investigate its effectiveness in comprehension and then further explore its ability in supporting decision-making and understanding within a simulated gaming context. We conclude that aesthetic visualization is a promising approach due to its advantage of engaging people with visually interesting display while maintaining comprehensibility, supporting at-a-glance awareness and enabling informed decision-making.