The Human-Technology Interface: How to Make or Break Tech

Presenters:
Moderator: Dr. Alan Meier, Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

David Bend, East Coast Energy Partnerships, Nest
Dr. Jennifer Englert, Sr. Cognitive Engineer, Work Practice and Technology Team, PARC
Justin Secor, User Experience Engineer, Opower

Energy technologies are developed to reduce energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, and generate more renewable energy. Many of these solutions fail to meet expectations due to the unexpected ways human behavior interfaces with these technologies. Users may not (or cannot) always consider energy efficiency when making choices, whether it’s utilizing programmable thermostats or opting for energy-efficient transit. To maximize the impact of a technology, developers must consider and understand the user experience and incorporate an understanding of human behavior in their solutions at early stages of development.

A multi-disciplinary panel discusses the technology-human behavior interface: What can we do differently to increase the impact of new and existing technologies? What elements are we overlooking? And finally, how can we tailor both technology itself, and the technology interfaces we develop, to change behavior to save energy – or reduce the need to even have conscious behavior be part of the equation?