The role of product and system interfaces in designing zero emission buildings

An increasing number of studies show that the design of a product interface will have a strong impact on how the user will interact with the product. During the lifetime of a building, a significant part of the energy consumption will be related to the use of the building and its integrated, energy consuming products. Thus, in the pursuit of zero emission buildings, is it important to consider how interfaces affect the behavior of the dwellers or tenants. This article describes and discusses a study of three different types of buildings, to find out if it is possible to draw guidelines for how interfaces should be designed for future buildings. This paper suggests a perspective anchored in real users´ behavior and a human oriented industrial design approach. A crucial aspect is to ensure that the energy consuming products have good mental models, which are designed to communicate to the user, on the user´s premises.