The folks with STATIC!, a project led by the Interactive Institute in Switzerland, have been working on some really cool stuff. Their research is focused on interactive design that not only brings brings up energy awareness, but makes people want to change their behaviors.

One of their projects, the Flower Lamp, was chosen as one of the best inventions of 2006 by Time Magazine.

Basically, when a lot of energy is being used in a house, the lamp closes. When less energy is being used, the light opens, so to make the lamp more beauty, there has to be a change in behavior by the consumer. I haven’t been able to figure out where the energy data is coming from though. Probably some separate mechanism that hooks into the power gauge in the garage.

There’s plenty of other STATIC! projects like the Power Aware Cord, Appearing Pattern Wallpaper, and the Energy Curtain. Some of their stuff seems more art than anything else, but still very cool.

It would be interesting to put a more data-centric spin to these STATIC! projects.

Hmm… I’ll have to think about this one.

Anyhow, the theme across all projects is certainly important as I progress — producing visualizations that increase awareness and motivate people to change their behavior, even if just by a little bit.

What makes a visualization good? It allows people to see what they never would have seen otherwise? It’s pretty? The visualization is interactive? Simple? Probably all of the above, and yeah, it’s probably common sense, but… why is there so much bad viz out there?

Perhaps people don’t have the skills to create effective visualization. I, myself, don’t yet possess the necessary skills to create great viz, so that’s definitely a limiting factor. Whether it’s in Flash, Processing, or whatever, honed skills is essential.

In my eyes, the more serious problem, is that some don’t have the eye or logic for good viz. It’s great when the user can interact with the data, but if the user interface sucks, then the viz fails. Viz can easily get very complicated as we build, add more features, and eventually forget what our primary goal was in the first place.

When the user has a viz tool she can use, then it’s at this point, the viz should show the user something they never expected (or confirms a suspicion — although I like the idea of surprise). From here, the user can decide what she wants to do, but it’s my hope that anything I create will make people aware of their surroundings and motivate change in a positive direction.

I feel like I’m rambling…

So yeah, um, effective visualization — expertise, simplicity, mind-blowing factor.