Socio-technical Systems That Foster and Support Mindfulness Can Benefit from End-User Control Mechanisms

Human beings often make decisions without fully realizing the factors that influence their choices. A woman buys the same type of car that most of her neighbors drive. A man at a salad bar loads up on the croutons that are in the front row of items instead of olives that are in the middle row. While these mindless decisions aren’t always deleterious, they may not be what a person most desires or what is best for them. Deciding mindfully, however, may provide a person the opportunity to be fully aware of their choices and select the best outcome based on their needs. Socio-technical systems can be designed to support mindful decision making, and these systems can benefit from the incorporation of end-user controls. End-user controls can provide users with opportunities to analyze new information and create new categories, two useful techniques in fostering mindful behaviors and decisions. This paper discusses how end-user controls that support mindful decision making will be added to EMPIRE, a socio-technical system designed to help consumers reduce their electricity consumption.