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Creating 'Cool' Mobile Technologies To Reduce Teen Energy Use

In this paper we present an overview and initial work from a research project creating ‘cool’ mobile technologies to educate and inform teenagers in order to reduce their energy use. Teenagers are already becoming consumers and will form the next generation of workers, homeowners, managers and policy makers; a longitudinal change in their habits could have huge impact. However, it is notoriously difficult to engage with teenagers and effect changes in their attitudes or actions. Teenagers are often most motivated by their peer group and what is currently ‘cool’ or ‘uncool’. The challenges of this work are not only the creation of persuasive mobile technologies to encourage teenagers to reduce their energy use, but to make these technologies sufficiently ‘cool’ that they are desirable and socially acceptable enough to support adoption and appropriation by teenagers. In addition to providing personalised and aggregate energy usage data and educational information in a meaningful way, the mobile technologies we are designing will allow for appropriation in ‘cool’ ways thereby fostering an active community of teenagers where it is cool to minimise energy use.