Energy efficiency has always been a central concern for shipbuilding and shipping. In the past, mainly economic considerations motivated the search for low power requirements for a ship. Today, environmental concerns and compliance with legal regulations to reduce emissions are coming to the foreground in at least equal measure. These demand a consistent strategy of energy efficiency as well as a significant reduction of emissions not only in the construction but especially in the operation of ships.

In the MariData project, we are developing a future-oriented energy management and decision support system based on rational methods. However, the actual benefit of any human-technology system is an interplay of technical potential and user behaviour. To this end, MariData prototypes of the front end are being developed in the sense of user-centred design. We lay a strong focus on factors such as user acceptance and trust and evaluations through user studies.