Jonya Chen

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2017-43

May 10, 2017

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-43.pdf

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) software is the most rigorous and credible way to measure environmental impacts of products. However, few companies use LCA because existing software's user interfaces and data visualization are not intuitive and difficult to grasp without substantial LCA experience. In an effort to expand the LCA user base, we created an interface that would be useful for not only environmental assessment experts but also for everyday product designers and mechanical engineers who may be new to LCA. Though the iterative process of user studies and design prototyping, we were able to provide a more intuitive flow to the LCA process thereby allowing users to build quicker models. We also explored various methods of representing the results granting users more informative and engaging analysis. We hope that by accomplishing these goals, LCA software adoption will greatly increase resulting in industry’s ability to better produce greener products and reduce systematic impacts.

Advisors: Björn Hartmann

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BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Chen:EECS-2017-43,
    Author= {Chen, Jonya},
    Title= {User Interface and Data Visualization for Environmental Assessment},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2017},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-43.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2017-43},
    Abstract= {Life-cycle assessment (LCA) software is the most rigorous and credible way to measure environmental impacts of products. However, few companies use LCA because existing software's user interfaces and data visualization are not intuitive and difficult to grasp without substantial LCA experience. In an effort to expand the LCA user base, we created an interface that would be useful for not only environmental assessment experts but also for everyday product designers and mechanical engineers who may be new to LCA. Though the iterative process of user studies and design prototyping, we were able to provide a more intuitive flow to the LCA process thereby allowing users to build quicker models. We also explored various methods of representing the results granting users more informative and engaging analysis. We hope that by accomplishing these goals, LCA software adoption will greatly increase resulting in industry’s ability to better produce greener products and reduce systematic impacts.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Chen, Jonya 
%T User Interface and Data Visualization for Environmental Assessment
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2017
%8 May 10
%@ UCB/EECS-2017-43
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-43.html
%F Chen:EECS-2017-43