MCHA

In 2010, Kollision was commissioned by the Alexandra Institute to develop an implement an idea of an interactive prototype for the MCHA-project. The MCHA-project, or Minimum Configuration - Home Automation, was aimed at developing an energy management unit for home use based on user-driven innovation. The prototype was to be tested in a number of homes, letting users configure and monitor the household's individual energy devices.

As a starting point, Kollision developed a catalogue of ideas and concepts for control and visualization of energy consumption in a household. Based on these concepts we, in collaboration with the Alexandra Institute, facilitated a workshop aimed at evaluating and qualifying the concepts. The result was that 25 concepts were narrowed down to two, which were subsequently coupled and developed into a working prototype.

The aim of the prototypical ​​application was to create a vivid picture of household energy consumption, allowing the residents to become familiar with the ‘DNA’ of each individual appliance and its electricity consumption. The graphical user interface resembles a work of art, instead of a complex monitoring device, making the task of monitoring your consumption more subtle, intuitive, explorative and rewarding. The application runs on a touch-screen and provides the residents the opportunity to configure their personal "image" of the electrical appliances, grouping them in different categories represented by colours. In this way monitoring becomes both personal and artistic, while allowing users to access more detailed information about each appliance, simply by pressing the appropriate colour and compare usage over years, weeks, days and hours.