The brief involved developing several prototypes to bring the abstract idea of an electrical grid and watt hour to people’s physical understanding. Our goal is to make these concepts more tangible. We seek to answer the question: How can an electrical grid be experienced?
The brief involved developing several prototypes to bring the abstract idea of an electrical grid and watt hour to people’s physical understanding. Our goal is to make these concepts more tangible. We seek to answer the question: How can an electrical grid be experienced?
As digital devices become essential in our daily lives, we rely heavily on electricity to power them and keep us connected. However, many of us don't realize the environmental impact of this electricity use. Unlike tangible goods, electricity flows invisibly through wires, so we often don't think about where it comes from. But our reliance on electricity, especially for digital devices, contributes to CO2 emissions, harming the environment. Recognizing this connection between our digital habits and electricity consumption is important for addressing environmental concerns.
In the first step, we started researching about electrical grid and watt hour. An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. The grid consists of three main sections—electricity generation,
transmission and distribution.
We were really curious to see what people know about electrical grid or how they feel about electricity. So in the next step, we designed a survey and distributed it among 25 participants from inside and outside the university asking what emotions or thoughts come to their mind when they think about electricity. Some respondents conveyed feelings of fear, discomfort, dependency, vulnerability or even death. Conversely, others expressed excitement, joy, curiosity, warmth,
prosperity and evolution indicating a fascination with electricity. These varied responses show that our relationship with electricity is complex and touches on different aspects of our lives. Yet, there was one answer that made us pause: “I don’t usually think about it, it’s just there, doing its job…”
This response raised an important question for us: if people don’t realize how electricity works, how would they make informed choices to reduce their impact and create healthier planet for everyone? As long as we think all digital things are powered by magic instead of electricity, we may continue to consume energy without paying attention to its consequences.
Right from the start, we had many ideas inspired by other designers and our teachers'
lectures. I'll share just a few of them, grouped into two categories:
1) Showing what an electrical grid is:
Electrical grid board game
The game features a board resembling a real city, with houses on one side and various energy sources—like windmills, solar panels, nuclear, and coal plants—on the other. Player A illuminates red houses while Player B lights up blue ones. Taking turns, players draw resource cards, such as "Solar panel/ Three," allowing them to connect 3 cables from a solar panel. The objective is to link energy sources to
houses. The game ends when one player lights up all their houses and the player with the highest score wins.
1) Showing what an electrical grid is:
Electrical grid board game
The game features a board resembling a real city, with houses on one side and various energy sources—like windmills, solar panels, nuclear, and coal plants—on the other. Player A illuminates red houses while Player B lights up blue ones. Taking turns, players draw resource cards, such as "Solar panel/ Three," allowing them to connect 3 cables from a solar panel. The objective is to link energy sources to
houses. The game ends when one player lights up all their houses and the player with the highest score wins.
1) Showing what an electrical grid is:
Electrical grid board game
The game features a board resembling a real city, with houses on one side and various energy sources—like windmills, solar panels, nuclear, and coal plants—on the other. Player A illuminates red houses while Player B lights up blue ones. Taking turns, players draw resource cards, such as "Solar panel/ Three," allowing them to connect 3 cables from a solar panel. The objective is to link energy sources to
houses. The game ends when one player lights up all their houses and the player with the highest score wins.
The lamp interface
Different buttons, each representing a type of electricity source, are connected to a
lamp. By pressing each button, the brightness of the lamp would be different to show
for example in real life more of the electricity is generated by gas than wind.
2) Showing what a watt hour is:
We drew significant inspiration from the work of artist Rosalie Apituley, particularly her projects centered around the watt-hour concept. Her creativity sparked a design question for us: In what other ways can a Watt hour be experienced?
So, we designed a table listing various methods to perceive a watt-hour, such as through sound, speed, weight, time, rotation, and vibration. Each team member selected one of these methods to explore further.
2) Showing what a watt hour is:
We drew significant inspiration from the work of artist Rosalie Apituley, particularly her projects centered around the watt-hour concept. Her creativity sparked a design question for us: In what other ways can a Watt hour be experienced?
So, we designed a table listing various methods to perceive a watt-hour, such as through sound, speed, weight, time, rotation, and vibration. Each team member selected one of these methods to explore further.
2) Showing what a watt hour is:
We drew significant inspiration from the work of artist Rosalie Apituley, particularly her projects centered around the watt-hour concept. Her creativity sparked a design question for us: In what other ways can a Watt hour be experienced?
So, we designed a table listing various methods to perceive a watt-hour, such as through sound, speed, weight, time, rotation, and vibration. Each team member selected one of these methods to explore further.
We dedicated some extra time to brainstorming. This time, we wanted to come up with a physical interaction idea that would captivate and engage people more during their experience. My teammate, Beatriz, had this amazing idea of people transmitting electricity through their bodies. So, we did some research together to see if it’s possible and we found what we were looking for. A YouTube video named “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” gave us the idea of making a human circuit where people hold each other’s hands and by enclosing an electrical circuit, a song will be played.
Creating and crafting as a tool for research
Prototypes can really make a project come to live. What if we approached project development differently, starting with prototypes? Allowing users to engage with prototypes can offer valuable insights right from the start. Doing this in the early stages of a project allows for quick changes, making the design process faster. Whilst making prototypes was our main deliverable for the project, we also decided that they could function as useful research tools. We wanted to experiment with different interactions, to find out what could engage people and let them experience’ the electrical grid in a more interesting way. So, we started making our
best ideas…
1)The Hour Glass
Creating a simple hour glass only for testing our idea was quite easy. Using two small bottles and salt, we crafted the hourglass and marked specific watt-hour measurements on the bottles. However, upon presenting it alongside our other prototypes, we discovered this wasn’t as interesting and engaging as we had anticipated. So, we decided to abandon this concept and ceased further development on it.
The Hour Glass Prototype.
1)The Hour Glass
Creating a simple hour glass only for testing our idea was quite easy. Using two small bottles and salt, we crafted the hourglass and marked specific watt-hour measurements on the bottles. However, upon presenting it alongside our other prototypes, we discovered this wasn’t as interesting and engaging as we had anticipated. So, we decided to abandon this concept and ceased further development on it.
The Hour Glass Prototype.
1)The Hour Glass
Creating a simple hour glass only for testing our idea was quite easy. Using two small bottles and salt, we crafted the hourglass and marked specific watt-hour measurements on the bottles. However, upon presenting it alongside our other prototypes, we discovered this wasn’t as interesting and engaging as we had anticipated. So, we decided to abandon this concept and ceased further development on it.
The Hour Glass Prototype.
2)Energy demand and supply game
This prototype was more difficult to make as it required Arduino knowledge and skills. My teammate, Jos, had experienced in working with Arduinos. He generously shared his knowledge with Bea and I, guiding us through the process and empowering us to build it independently
2)Energy demand and supply game
This prototype was more difficult to make as it required Arduino knowledge and skills. My teammate, Jos, had experienced in working with Arduinos. He generously shared his knowledge with Bea and I, guiding us through the process and empowering us to build it independently
2)Energy demand and supply game
This prototype was more difficult to make as it required Arduino knowledge and skills. My teammate, Jos, had experienced in working with Arduinos. He generously shared his knowledge with Bea and I, guiding us through the process and empowering us to build it independently
In this concept, there's a crank handle that people can turn to generate energy, and the amount produced is displayed on a dial. However, the challenge mirrors real-life energy dynamics: there's constantly a demand for energy, and the supply must match it. So, the indicator randomly shifts back, making it tough to reach the green area and win.
Iterations
After testing this prototype with 10 participants, we came to understand that without making the produced energy “visible”, the concept was not fully comprehended, leading us to consider an iteration. Next time, we used light to visually represent the energy generated and the light drops when demand exceeds supply.
3)Human circuit
To develop this prototype, we searched online and we discovered that it could be created using an Arduino Nano, resistors, a speaker, and some coding. It worked by two people, each of them touching one of the two metal bars that had a miniscule current running through them. Then, if they held hands, the circuit would be completed and a song would play.
3)Human circuit
To develop this prototype, we searched online and we discovered that it could be created using an Arduino Nano, resistors, a speaker, and some coding. It worked by two people, each of them touching one of the two metal bars that had a miniscule current running through them. Then, if they held hands, the circuit would be completed and a song would play.
3)Human circuit
To develop this prototype, we searched online and we discovered that it could be created using an Arduino Nano, resistors, a speaker, and some coding. It worked by two people, each of them touching one of the two metal bars that had a miniscule current running through them. Then, if they held hands, the circuit would be completed and a song would play.
Testing
After testing this prototype with 10 participants, we came to understand that without making the produced energy “visible”, the concept was not fully comprehended, leading us to consider an iteration. Next time, we used light to visually represent the energy generated and the light drops when demand exceeds supply.
4) Balance Board
As we delved deeper into researching the electrical grid, we discovered that grid balancing and congestion management are crucial functions to guarantee a stable and reliable energy supply. Initially, we believed that only when demand exceeds supply do we encounter issues. However, through further investigation, we realized that an
oversupply of energy can also pose problems.
This led us to think about another prototype which we call “Balancing board”. The concept revolves around individuals standing on a board and attempting to maintain balance as a metaphor for emphasizing the importance of grid stability.
Following audience testing, we discovered that while they found it engaging, its connection to the electrical grid was unclear. Additionally, the metaphor of toasting bread failed to effectively convey the concept of electricity demand and supply. People were intrigued to witness the real-life consequences of an imbalanced grid.
Dynamo, museum of electricity
We called the whole exhibition “Dynamo” which consists of 3 stages:
1-Energy Generation: By turning a handle crank, People generate energy. This is visualized by LED light. As they generate more, the light goas up. However, this is not easy, because just like real-life energy consumption, the light intermittently fluctuates, necessitating continuous generation to meet demand.
2-Grid Balance: Here, people try to balance the supply and demand of electricity on a board. The goal is to keep the electricity indicator in green zone. To give a better understanding of this stage, I designed a poster to show people the consequences of imbalanced supply and demand scenarios.
3-Human circuit: The last step is distribution of the electricity into people’s homes. To relate this prototype more to the grid, we decided to design a house with three electrical points— a lamp, a washing machine, and a radio. When participants join hands, electricity flows from the generation point, activating the lamp, initiating the washing machine, and playing music on the radio. Only by completing each step, people can go to the next one and our exhibition is a multi-person experience. After all, one cannot distribute electricity without first generating it!
