Design for alternative ways of doing – explorations in the context of thermal comfort

Journal article, 2017

Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. To address seemingly non-negotiable resource-reliant behaviours where feedback is ineffective, we explored the possibility of enabling alternative ways of doing through design solutions and investigated how people engage with them. Focusing on residents’ need for thermal comfort, a technology probe with alternative tools for staying warm was assembled. How people engaged with these tools was then evaluated in-situ with 18 households. In follow-up interviews, most of the participants who used the tools with some regularity reported that they had increased their awareness, developed new heating strategies and/or carried out some kind of action concerning the heating system. The findings suggest that offering new ways of interacting with a system, such as a heating system, can lead to people changing the ways in which they fulfil everyday needs.