Letters
The mighty end-user
I enjoyed the guest article stressing that if end-users are not included the decision-making process from the beginning, many installations of new technologies will fail (The Psychology of Choices, IAEEL 2/94). Sometimes the consequences might even be dangerous: I am familiar with an office project in the Netherlands where the occupants were unhappy with the occupancy sensors. The reason was that if the occupants left earlier one day, everyone could see from some distance that their room was dark before the end of normal office hours.Someone may see this as a positive side-effect of the occupancy sensors since they actually keep the employees at work. However, the counter strategy of one employee was to leave a short burning candle in the room. The flow of hot air above the candle was enough to trigger the infrared-sensitive sensor for a while until the candle had burnt down.
Wim Sliepenbeek
ETAP, Malle, The Netherlands