Exploring the design of a data sculpture to visualise household consumption to encourage sustainable practices

Ushettige, Dushani 2025. Exploring the design of a data sculpture to visualise household consumption to encourage sustainable practices. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the design of an eco-feedback system, in the form of a data sculpture and a companion mobile app, that supports sustainable consumption practices within the complex social setting of the household. Three main questions guided my research project: (1) How do existing data visualisation mechanisms help to reduce household consumption, and what limitations exist? (2) How can the understanding of household consumption practices inform the design of physical data visualisation to encourage more sustainable practices? and (3) How can we design a data sculpture to represent consumption data in a household context in more engaging ways to encourage sustainable practices? To answer these questions, I utilised surveys, household interviews, and design workshops, which informed the iterative design and deployment of an eco-feedback system, Eco-Garden - a physical data sculpture and a companion mobile app to visualise household electricity consumption, gas consumption, and food waste data. Findings of this research highlight several insights. First, abstract metrics such as carbon emissions are often difficult for households to interpret and relate to daily practices. Second, sustainable action is mediated by the complex dynamics of a household engagement with eco-feedback systems is often short-lived. I identified ways to gain interest through intrinsic motivation, goal setting, aesthetic appeal, and contextual integration into household environments. Key contributions of this study are: (1) using a practice-based approach to eco-feedback design, shifting from individual behaviour change to contextual understanding of the dynamics of everyday routines and consumption practices; (2) offering empirical evidence on how a human-centred physical data visualisation can enhance engagement and interpretability; (3) documenting how family/household engagement with data sculptures can promote sustainability, collaborative discussions, and reflection; and (4) presenting design recommendations (interpretability, aesthetic integration, goal-setting, child-friendly design, privacy and abstraction, and household collaboration) to the future design of eco-feedback technologies for household environments.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Computer Science & Informatics
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 February 2026
Date of Acceptance:	9 February 2026
Last Modified:	18 Feb 2026 10:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184961

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