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Makahiki: An Extensible Open-Source Platform for Energy Challenges

Makahiki: An Extensible Open-Source Platform for Energy Challenges. George Lee Collaborative Software Development Laboratory Information and Computer Sciences University of Hawaii. Energy Competitions. What is an energy competition? Groups try to reduce energy usage as much as possible

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Makahiki: An Extensible Open-Source Platform for Energy Challenges

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  1. Makahiki: An Extensible Open-Source Platform for Energy Challenges George Lee Collaborative Software Development Laboratory Information and Computer Sciences University of Hawaii

  2. Energy Competitions What is an energy competition? • Groups try to reduce energy usage as much as possible • Can involve participation in events Why have competitions? • Save money on energy costs • Opportunity to educate people about saving energy Colleges have done this for over 20 years

  3. Dorm Energy Competitions Hodge, Chelsea, Dorm Energy Competitions, Presented at the Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Conference, November 2010 Over 160 colleges in the US planned to have one in 2010-2011 academic year Reduce energy use during the competition by 9% on average

  4. Harvard Green Cup

  5. Bowdoin

  6. Energy Challenge • Competitions focus on energy reduction • Energy literacy and sustained behavior change • Platform for creating energy challenges and researching behavior change

  7. Makahiki Energy competitions • Supports near-real time energy feedback • Event and activity tracking • Personalized feedback Energy challenge • Pedagogical approach • Social network integration • A serious game

  8. Serious Games • Zyda, Michael, From Visual Stimulation to Virtual Reality to Games, IEEE Computer, September 2005 • Definition: “a mental contest, played with a computer in accordance with specific rules that uses entertainment to further government or corporate training, education, health, public policy, and strategic communication objectives.”

  9. Serious Games as Motivation McGonigal, Jane, Reality is Broken, Penguin Press, January, 2011 Created several “Augmented Reality Games” that involve real world tasks Games provide a sense of accomplishment that rewards effort

  10. Serious Games and Productivity • Reeves, Byron, Total Engagement, Harvard Business School Press, 2009 • People spend hours on online games • How can we keep people in the workplace engaged? • Harnessing techniques from games can make businesses more competitive

  11. Serious Games and Learning • Murphy, Curtiss, Why Games Work and the Science of Learning, http://www. goodgamesbydesign.com/Files/WhyGamesWork_TheScienceOfLearning_ CMurphy_2011.pdf • Examined how the Navy used a game to train recruits • Saw a 50-80% increase in individual performance after 1 hour of playing

  12. “Smart Grid” Game Want to educate users on how to be “green” • Present tasks that help them be more aware • Declare commitments • Hold events like movie nights Reward users in the form of points A “Serious Game” based around energy literacy

  13. Integration with WattDepot WattDepotSensors WattDepotServer WattDepotCloud Cache Dorm Meters Makahiki

  14. Near Real-Time Feedback • Peterson et al, Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(1):16–33, 2007. • Experiment at Oberlin College in 2005 • Users with near real-time feedback outperformed those with “low-resolution” feedback

  15. Go Low

  16. Evaluating Makahiki • Evaluation of the alpha version • Three phases of evaluation: • Mockup Evaluation • In-lab Evaluation • Beta evaluation • Actual competition in October 2011

  17. Goals of the evaluation • How can we provide a system that supports researchers interested in users participating in an energy competition? • How can we effectively test the website and the overall design of the competition?

  18. Mockup Evaluation • Created mockups using Balsamiq Mockups • Brought in friends and family to go through scenarios • Scenarios: • Initial set up • Getting points • Viewing energy use • Viewing prizes

  19. Mockup Landing Page

  20. Landing Page

  21. Mockup Get Nutz Page

  22. Get Nutz Page

  23. Mockup Evaluation Results • Major changes: • Energy Goal Voting removed • Simplification of the “Get Nutz” page • Altruistic raffle prizes • Points were a significant motivator • On the right track

  24. Discount Usability Engineering • Nielsen, Jakob, Guerrilla HCI: Using discount usability engineering to penetrate the intimidation barrier. Cost-justifying Usability, pages 245–272, 1994. • Think aloud protocol, no need to capture video • Scenarios?

  25. Hutchworld • Cheng et al, Hutchworld: Lessons learned. Virtual Worlds, 1834/2000:12–23, 2000. • Developed by Microsoft to help cancer patients • Three dimensional interface • 5 minute test period before the evaluation starts

  26. Onboarding • Users are unlikely to know how the system works beforehand • System has to guide the user and expose them to the various mechanics • The quest bar: • List of things users could do on the site • If completed, the quest does not appear • Not worth any points

  27. Onboarding Evaluation • Representative users • Procedure: • Think aloud protocol • Captured computer screen using software • Let the subject use the site for 45 minutes • Post-evaluation questions • $10 bonus and Gift Certificate quests • Two rounds of onboarding evaluations

  28. April 2011 Results • 5 first-year students from the Hale Lehua tower • Issues found: • Many users missed the quest bar • Rejected admin notifications were missed • Individuals frequently guessed at answers • Initial confusion on Go Low and Get Nutz • Positive feedback: • Found it addictive and would recommend it • One wished they could participate

  29. July 2011 Results • 5 first-year students from the Hale Lehua tower • Many improvements: • Time through setup improved • More questions answered correctly • More quests attempted and completed • Issues: • Quests were not set up properly • Timing of rejection notification

  30. Beta Evaluation • Evaluate the game over a period of time • Evaluation of logging system • Beta evaluation: • Brought in friends and family • Held a 1 week mini competition • Surveyed individuals after the competition • Also analyzed database and logs.

  31. Beta Evaluation Results • 4 teams with 5 subjects each • 18 of the subjects logged in at least once • Results: • Averaged 915 points • Completed 16.2 activities • Issues: • Must detect Internet Explorer • Restrict the Daily Energy Goal Game’s points

  32. 2011 Kukui Cup • 418 people logged in over the course of the competition • 850 hours were spent on the site • 42 individuals completed the round 3 survey • 25 found the system easy to use • Understood how to play the game

  33. 2011 Kukui Cup Survey Results

  34. 2011 Kukui Cup Survey Results

  35. 2011 Kukui Cup Survey Results

  36. Contributions Makahiki is an open source framework for energy competitions Makahiki acts as a platform for researchers who are interested in user behavior during energy competitions To evaluate the system, we created a methodology for testing Serious Games.

  37. Questions? • Kukui Cup Website: http://sites.google.com/site/kukuicup • Makahiki project website: • http://github.com/csdl/makahiki/

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