Creating Persuasive Technologies for Sustainability – Identifying Barriers Limiting Target Behavior

At an early stage of designing persuasive technologies there is the challenge of selecting a target behavior and examining variables that prevent it. Within our research we are forming sustainability related persuasive technologies in the context of domestic energy consumption. In this paper we present different types of barriers preventing people from the desired energy efficient behavior. In an explorative field study 48 participants received the task to selfmonitor their energy consumption behavior over one week. A qualitative analysis of daily statements revealed eight underlying categories of behavioral barriers. The most common observed barriers relate to Lack of Attention followed by Comfort. On the basis of these results, we formulated four guidelines for sustainability related persuasive technologies.