Wtrack

A smart water monitoring device
The Wtrack device enables the user to see real time data of their personal water usage from showering

Unit. 2.2
Workshop Opentions Project
Iva Kostrencic
Cathrine Seidelin
Meng Li (Lemon)

Table of content
Introduction 3

Water is the new gold
The Wisdom Project
Scope and aim for this project

3
3
3

Literature review

The perception ofwater over time

4

Water usage in the United Kingdom The water crisis

4
5
5

Discovery phase 6

Our own usage Questionnaires Interviews Developing personas

Defining phase

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8
8
9

10

Key insigt 10

Developing phase

10

Future workshop Ideation and prototyping Feedback from Intel Feedback from users (children)

10
12
13
13

Delivery phase

15

Defining the concept

Redefining phase A drastic turn

15

16

Ideation and user feedback Final concept: Wtrack Service ecology Prototyping and testing

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16
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20

Conclusion

22

References

23

Appendix

25

Introduction
Water is the new oil
Through this collaborative project with Intel we engaged a subject that aims to explore water usage in the domestic environment to understand the capability of the water sensor technology and how sensors can stimulate people’s awareness about their water usage. We live in era where clean water is still unavailable to millions of people as sharp geographic, socio-cultural and economic inequalities persist, not only between rural and urban areas but also in towns and cities where people living in low-income, informal or illegal settlements usually have less access to improved sources of drinking-water than other residents
(WHO, 2014). Due to rapid industrialization, climate change, population growth, demographic changes and urbanization by the 2025 two-thirds of the global population will live in countries where water will be a scarce commodity
(Wachman, 2007). According to these sources water will be as precious as oil is today in 15 years time . Therefore, ’The lack of the most important form of liquid in the world is therefore a fundamental issue and one that the technology sector can play a major role in addressing’ (Wachman, 2007).

The Wisdom project
The WISDOM project is a project initiated and funded by the EU. The project aims
“at achieving a step change in water and energy savings via the integration of innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks to optimize water distribution networks and to enable change in consumer behaviour through innovative demand management and adaptive pricing schemes”
(Wisdom-project, 2015). On a general level the WISDOM project aims to create smart solution on both a domestic, corporate and city level (Duce et al., 2014).
As a part of the WISDOM project, a consortium of global corporations was formed in order to take action and develop smart ideas that could potentially solve the current problems regarding water. Intel was one of these selected partners .

Scope and aim for this project
Based on a brief from Intel, we were challenged to come up with possible technological solutions that can help them to reach the goals of the WISDOM project. We were asked to take a service design approach, in order to develop sustainable services. The total length of the project was six weeks, running from 27th of April to the 8th of June 2015.
Unit 2.2 | Intel: The Wisdom Project

3

Literature review
The perception of water over time
In order to understand the problem of water consumption profoundly, we decided to dip into the history of perception of the water over time. Through researching the history we discovered that since Roman Empire people have been keen on baths, although bathing was seen as social activity and not