We are happy to announce the release of the recording of the seminar:
Use of Data Sculpture to Encourage Sustainable Practices by Visualising Household Consumption
Event held on: 10 Feb 2026, 2-3pm GMT
Online (Teams)
Speaker: Dushani Perera
Chair: Andrew Manches
Watch the recording on YouTube or Media Hopper
Abstract:
Household consumption significantly impacts climate change. Although interventions that make households aware of their consumption exist, tailoring the design to each home's needs remains challenging. To address this, I applied a Human Centred Design approach utilising surveys, household interviews, and design workshops, which informed the iterative design and deployment of an eco-feedback system, Eco-Garden - a physical data sculpture and a companion mobile app to visualise household electricity consumption, gas consumption, and food waste data, aiming to promote sustainable practices. Eco-Garden serves as both an aesthetic piece for visitors and a functional tool for household members to understand their resource consumption. Findings of this research highlight several insights. First, abstract metrics such as carbon emissions are often difficult for households to interpret and relate to daily practices. Second, sustainable action is mediated by the complex dynamics of a household engagement with eco-feedback systems is often short-lived. I identified ways to gain interest through intrinsic motivation, goal-setting, aesthetic appeal, child-friendly design, and contextual integration into household environments. Our Insights contribute to developing data sculptures for households that can facilitate meaningful interactions with consumption data.
Bio:
Dushani Perera is a qualitative researcher focusing on the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Social Sciences with a particular interest in Sustainability, Information Visualisation, and Data Physicalization domains. She works as a Research Associate in the Grasping Data project, exploring ways to physicalize children's personal data. Dushani's PhD research in HCI at Cardiff University, UK, is focused on exploring the design of data physicalizations to visualise household consumption data to encourage sustainable practices at homes. Previously, she worked as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Colombo School of Computing in Sri Lanka, where she earned her degree in Bachelor of Honours in Software Engineering.