My goal in this presentation is to explore what it takes for a building's occupants to have a seamless experience interacting with the building’s actual real-time data in a way that it is informative yet enjoyable. My personal goal was to push interface design in architecture, and ultimately to create an occupant kiosk or mobile app to interact with energy data and provide feedback to those who use and visit the structure.

1. building dashboards
building interfaces
ARCH 482 | WINTER 2011 | SUSAN OLDHAM

2. Goals
Overall goal
• A person will have a seamless experience
interacting with the building’s actual real-time data
in a way that it is informative yet enjoyable.
Personal project goal
• To help with interface/design
• To create an occupant kiosk [OK] or mobile
device app [OM] to interact with energy data and
provide feedback
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

3. What makes up a building?
• Space
• Size, scale, volume of air in an atrium room
• Texture, Color, Feeling
• Floors, walls, ceilings, artwork, furniture,
• Intention & People
• Is the building for living, for education, for business?
• Data
• Information is everywhere
...a living space...
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

4. How does one interact with a building?
• The Senses
• Seeing the building
• Smelling the building
• The people, the plants, the food, the surfaces
• Hearing the building
• The people, the escalator/elevator, a door close
• Feeling the building
• Walking through, pushing a elevator button, airflow
• The Results
• Information gathering
• Emotional response
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

5. Why consider emotion in a building?
• Every building engages us somehow, bad or good
• Suzzalo Library vs Odegaard Library
• Paul Allen Atrium [CSE] vs Electrical Engineering Building [EE]
• Experience Music Project vs Columbia Tower
“Architecture is a art when one
consciously or unconsciously
creates aesthetic emotion in the
atmosphere and when this
environment produces well being.”
—Luis Barragan
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

6. What kind of data is in a building?
• Environmental Status
• Heating & cooling—outside and inside temperature
• Lighting—artificial and natural lighting conditions
• Status of lights, doors, windows, elevators, etc
• People
• Quantity, who, what, where, why
• As soon as we walk into a building we can generate statistics
• Computers & Internet
• We have access to data all over the world
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

7. How can we interact with real-time or
collected data?
• Indirectly
• The temperature rises slightly as each person enters
• The lighting shifts differently depending on number of
people
• Directly
• Through devices or sensors building knows where people
are in the building
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8. Why interact with collected data?
• Think about something
• Interactive art; cultural & political statements
• Learn about something
• Interpretive displays; interactive games; urgent messages
• Affect what’s happening in the building
• Smart buildings
• Learn about what’s happening in the building—actions
• Wayfinding & environmental concerns
• Connect with others in the building
• Social media
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

9. Bank of America Market Mirrors
Second Story http://www.vimeo.com/9717462
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

10. What are the pitfalls?
• Dependency on data
• Mistakes and misconceptions have more impact in one’s
environment than on a screen
• Incomplete data could lock in or out people erroneously
• Resources
• Problems due to power outages; lack of financial resources
• Privacy issues
• Big Brother—having data collected without consent by
unknown entity
• Criminals could tap into systems and use data improperly and
cause financial loss, identity theft, stalking, etc
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11. User eXperience [UX] methods
• Evaluation of current needs—interview users, client, experts
• Content inventory—what info needs to be displayed, used?
• User profiles and personas—who will use the product and why?
• Design requirements—what elements do you need in product?
• Storytelling and scenarios—what do you expect to happen?
• User flows—how does the user move through each action?
• Wireframes and prototypes—block out the elements and build
• Design patterns—create consistency through your product
• Design heuristics, user surveys—evaluate your results
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

12. UX user experience resources—
books and websites
• boxesandarrows.com
• smashingmagazine.com
• uxmag.com
• nngroup.com
• The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett
• Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton
• Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

13. Energy Education and Creation
Affect your carbon footprint scenario
• A large screen with real‐time statistics about electricity usage,
indoor and outdoor temperature, heating and cooling, elevator
status provides instant feedback on the building activity.
• Each time the nearby elevator dings you can see how that
elevator’s last trip’s impact looks like in numbers—it shows how
many plants need to exist to to offset the CO2 released into the
atmosphere by the elevator usage.
• Generate enough electricity to offset your carbon footprint that
day by walking on a treadmill or a stationary bicycle in the
lobby that is physically integrated into the electrical grid.
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

14. Energy Education and Creation
Affect your carbon footprint scenario
• A large screen with real‐time statistics about electricity usage,
indoor and outdoor temperature, heating and cooling, elevator
status provides instant feedback on the building activity.
• Each time the nearby elevator dings you can see how that
elevator’s last trip’s impact looks like in numbers—it shows how
many plants need to exist to to offset the CO2 released into the
atmosphere by the elevator usage.
• Generate enough electricity to offset your carbon footprint that
day by walking on a treadmill or a stationary bicycle in the
lobby that is physically integrated into the electrical grid.
B U I L D I N G I N T E R FAC E S | A R C H 4 8 2

15. Q+A
thanks!
ARCH 482 | WINTER 2011 | SUSAN OLDHAM