The Role of User Interface for Home Area Networks

Ishak Kang577 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA ishak@dotui.comP: 415-513-5003Twitter: @kanghamBlog: blog.dotui.com

empowering self-control™

Benefits of the a smart grid?• Operational efficiency– AMI/MDM

• Reliability of service– Centralization vs. Micro-grids

• Atmospheric carbon reduction– Transition to renewable generation

• Cost-savings?– Not immediate, but long-term

Smart Grid as a Four Party Marketplace• Who is the 1st party?– Utility– Telco/MSO– Vendor– Consumer

• New role for 4th party?– Security– Ease of use– Support– Apps

Who’s HAN is it anyway?• Is it the “edge of the smart grid?”• Who’s paying for it? Financing?• What is the opportunity cost?• Value proposition?– Convenience– Functionality– Savings?

We are Predictably IrrationalContext is King• Theory of Affordances (the action possibilities of

which a person is aware)

• Choice Architecture (frame the options)

• Jevon’s Paradox (resource is squandered if cheap)

• Spimes (killer app: Google your shoes)

Standardized User Interfaces Everywhere

• We interact with UI daily• Key to safety, efficiency, and

behavior change• Universal is best

References for Further Discussion• Four Party Market Model

– Envisioned by Doc Searls, Berkman Fellow at Harvard, director of ProjectVRM (vendor relationship management)

• Predictably Irrational– Title of 2008 book by Dan Ariely, Behavioral Economics professor at Duke

• Choice Architecture– Coined in Nudge, a 2008 book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein,

professors at U. of Chicago

• Theory of Affordances– Title of 1977 article by Psychologist James J. Gibson, later expanded as

Cognitive Design by Donald Norman, professor at Northwestern U.

• Spimes– Coined by Bruce Sterling in his 2007 book, Shaping Things