In response to climate change, nations have been tasked with reducing energy consumption and lessening their carbon footprint through targeted actions. While digital technologies can support this goal, our understanding of energy practices in a private household context remains nascent. This challenge is amplified by the ‘invisible’ nature of users’ interaction with energy systems and the impact of unconscious habits. Our objective is to explore how touchpoints embedded in digital sustainability platforms shape energy-efficiency behaviours among users. Building on data from semi-structured interviews and a two-hour co-creation workshop with 25 energy experts in the ECO2 project, we first identify three user representations of relevance to such platforms: energy-unaware, living in denial, and energy-aware and active. Our findings suggest that ‘static’ user representations (based on user demographics and average consumption) are giving way to socio-cognitive representations that follow users’ journeys in energy efficiency. We then develop a set of design principles to promote sustainable energy behaviours through digital sustainability platforms across user-owned, social/external, brand-owned, and partner-owned touchpoints. An analysis of user feedback from the ECO2 project shows support for our design principles across users’ journeys. Of 62 respondents covering all three representations, 76% of them intended to “implement changes in terms of energy consumption and energy efficiency”.

为了应对气候变化，各国的任务是通过有针对性的行动减少能源消耗和碳足迹。虽然数字技术可以支持这一目标，但我们对私人家庭环境中能源实践的理解仍然处于初级阶段。用户与能源系统交互的“隐形”本质以及无意识习惯的影响加剧了这一挑战。我们的目标是探索数字可持续发展平台中嵌入的接触点如何塑造用户的能源效率行为。基于半结构化访谈和 ECO2 项目中 25 名能源专家举办的两小时共同创作研讨会的数据，我们首先确定了与此类平台相关的三种用户表征：能源意识缺失、生活在否认中和能源意识并且活跃。我们的研究结果表明，“静态”用户表征（基于用户人口统计和平均消费）正在让位于跟踪用户能源效率旅程的社会认知表征。然后，我们制定了一套设计原则，通过跨用户拥有、社交/外部、品牌拥有和合作伙伴拥有的接触点的数字可持续发展平台来促进可持续能源行为。对 ECO2 项目的用户反馈的分析显示了我们在用户旅程中的设计原则的支持。在涵盖所有三种代表的 62 名受访者中，76% 的人打算“在能源消耗和能源效率方面实施变革”。