Portfolio / AWARE@Home

Simple, attractive interface for tool that allows Americans to monitor utility consumption patterns

Project type: User interface design, wireframing, user interviews
Tools: Paper prototypes, C++
Date: Spring 2005
Timeline: One semester
Teammates: Bryce Carter and Tenisha Austin
Awards: Winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's P3 Award for sustainable design
Sponsor: University of Michigan College of Engineering

Aware User Interface

P3 represents the three components of sustainability: People, prosperity and the planet.

My three person team designed the user interface for a flexible information system that allowed consumers to understand the environmental ramifications of their home utility usage. The interface is accessible through a web browser and provided realtime monitoring information for a household's consumption of electricity, water and natural gas wirelessly through inexpensive utility monitoring tools. Our team was one of several interdisciplinary engineering student design teams that contributed to this challenge over an eight month period. The project scope included database design, wireless data transfer, and the collection and organization of data for the services being monitored.