International audienceDomestic microgeneration is the onsite generation of low-and zero-carbon heat and electricity by private households to meet their own needs. In this paper we explore how an everyday household routine – that of doing laundry – can be augmented by digital technologies to help households with photovoltaic solar energy generation to make better use of self-generated energy. This paper presents an 8-month in-the-wild study that involved 18 UK households in longitudinal energy data collection, prototype deployment and participatory data analysis. Through a series of technology interventions mixing energy feedback, proactive suggestions and direct control the study uncovered opportunities, potential rewards and barriers for families to shift energy consuming household activities and highlights how digital technology can act as mediator between household laundry routines and energy demand-shifting behaviors. Finally, the study provides insights into how a "smart" energy-aware washing machine shapes organization of domestic life and how people "communicate" with their washing machine

As we navigate physical (e.g., supermarket) and digital (e.g., social media) systems, we generate personal data about our behavior. Researchers and designers increasingly rely on this data and appeal to several approaches to collect it. One of these is data donation, which encourages people to voluntarily transfer their (personal) data collected by external parties to a specific cause. One of the central pillars of data donation is informed consent, meaning people should be adequately informed about what and how their data will be used. However, can we be adequately informed when it comes to donating our data when many times we don’t even know it is being collected and, even more so, what exactly is being collected? In this paper, we investigate how to foster (personal) data literacy and increase donors’ understanding of their data. We introduce a Research through Design approach where we define a data donation journey in the context of speech records, data collected by Google Assistant. Based on the data donation experiences of 22 donors, we propose a data donation framework that understands and approaches data donation as an encompassing process with mutual benefit for donors and researchers. Our framework supports a donation process that dynamically and iteratively engages donors in exploring and understanding their data and invites them to (re)evaluate and (re)assess their participation. Through this process, donors increase their data literacy and are empowered to give meaningfully informed consent.

Ubiquitous wearable and mobile technologies generate vast amounts of data from sensors and self-logging applications. This data creates opportunities to better understand people’s behavior and inform research on intimate topics such as menstruation. However, in design and HCI research, reconstructing the context in which data was collected and understanding the lived experience behind the data often requires the active participation of people. In this paper, we augment the concept of data donation beyond data collection to explore the possibilities of actively engaging data donors in the (intimate) interpretation of their data. Specifically, we define and implement a menstrual logs data donation journey. We received data sets from 35 donors over five weeks, 13 of whom participated in reconstructing the context of their data. We translate our experience into a conceptualization of designerly data donation around the data, data donors, and data receivers, which we discuss along with its implications.

Electric vehicles are an increasingly attractive option for households to reduce carbon emissions, especially when they are powered by renewable energy. In this paper we report the results of an 18-month field trial investigating the desirability and feasibility of powering electric vehicles (EVs) with domestic solar electricity. Based on extensive collection of data from 7 households including over 75,000 miles of daily EV use, home electricity consumption and generation, and in-depth interviews with householders we develop a detailed understanding of what drives EV decisions in households, quantify to what extent our participating households currently power their EVs with solar electricity, and investigate how feasible the vision of "self-sustaining electric mobility" is. We use this understanding to draw implications for future research into supporting emerging practices of EV drivers.