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Exploring gamified persuasive system design for energy saving

Martin Böckle (Department of Business Studies/IACS-Institute for Applied Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Stralsund and ESCP Business School, Berlin, Germany)
Jasminko Novak (Department of Business Studies/IACS-Institute for Applied Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Stralsund and European Institute for Participatory Media, Berlin, Germany)
Markus Bick (ESCP Business School, Berlin, Germany)

Journal of Enterprise Information Management

ISSN: 1741-0398

Article publication date: 13 June 2020

Issue publication date: 7 December 2020

648

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore user-centered design possibilities at the intersection of gamification and persuasive technology to foster energy saving behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

We performed a large-scale empirical study of 480 participants and analyzed how different HEXAD gamification user types perceive selected persuasive strategies embedded in an energy saving prototype. Furthermore, we investigated the role of existing energy saving behaviors (pro-environmental behavior scale–e.g. regularly turning the lights off) and their effect on the perceived persuasiveness of the proposed persuasive strategies, which may has an impact on the overall design process. Furthermore, we applied partial least squares path modeling and conducted a one-way and repeated measure ANOVA.

Findings

Results show that user types play an important role in the design of persuasive systems for energy saving. For instance, people with a high tendency toward the Socializer user type were motivated by almost all of the employed persuasive strategies, whereas Philanthropists and Players only to a limited number of strategies. Furthermore, our study reveals that existing behaviors like the individual level of energy conservation influences the perceived persuasiveness of certain strategies and therefore should be considered in the design of such applications.

Research limitations/implications

Using storyboards to obtain feedback about the perceived persuasiveness of employed strategies has limitations compared to the actual use of a functional prototype. However, to offset that limitation the mock-ups used in the storyboard reflected the actual designs for a real-world prototype.

Originality

This is the first study that explores how HEXAD gamification user types can be used to inform the design of persuasive applications for energy saving (RQ1). Furthermore, and in particular, this study draws on the challenges when using user types within gamified persuasive systems by highlighting the impact and the importance of considering existing energy saving behaviors (RQ2), which has not been addressed so far.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 72305 (enCOMPASS project).

Citation

Böckle, M., Novak, J. and Bick, M. (2020), "Exploring gamified persuasive system design for energy saving", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 1337-1356. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-02-2019-0032

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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