Speculative smart energy system for a future home, including a home battery, electric car charger, and mobile application.

A home battery named ‘Terry, a management tool named Tracey, and a car charger named Troy were designed for this project. These designs were prototyped and digitally connected with other design projects within a speculative future home. The prototypes explored the energy-human relationship and interacted with users in both passive and active ways.

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Prior to this project, I was focused on very practical design; this project inspired me to look beyond and see how speculative design can create value by questioning our current design norms. This helped me understand how design could be used to draw attention to systems or change user behavior in subtle ways. This project marked my transition from a “sustainable designer,” who was focused on energy and material usage, to an “ethical designer,” who is focused on understanding systems, values, and supporting users in making healthy choices. These activities also helped me learn and explore how to work with IoT technology. This also began my exploration into how data is used in systems and the implications of the insights that we can draw from it based on context.