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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method that allows the decollating of formerly monolithic services into separate modules. To provide a semantically equivalent decomposed model, structure and dependencies need to be defined. This fine‐grained image of the service allows an easier configuration and optimisation of single service modules and the service portfolio as a whole.

As an initial point of the work the authors conducted an extensive literature review, transferring insights from other domains that already make use of modularisation, such as industrial engineering and software engineering. The method developed on that basis was evaluated consecutively in use cases conducted with three companies.

As research in the fields of industrial and software engineering has shown, modularisation is a suitable approach for handling complexity. In this paper approaches and concepts of modularisation in industrial and software engineering were identified, adapted, and transferred into the field of service engineering, resulting in a method to modularise services. Additionally, potential positive effects of modularisation were compiled.

The process of modularising in general requires three aspects: an architecture to describe the system's structure; interfaces to describe the interaction of modules; and standards for testing a module's conformity to the design rules. The method presented contributes primarily to the architecture. Further research efforts need to be conducted regarding aspects of interfaces and standards.

Nowadays, service providers are facing growing competition, which requires greater economical efficiency. Furthermore, customers increasingly demand individualised services, which can only be offered by applying the concepts of mass customisation. Both challenges can be met with the application of the concept of modularisation.

While service modularisation is increasingly discussed for the service domain, only little work has been done on presenting a method for a structured description. The provision of a method for describing the architecture of services and service portfolios can be used as the basis for further research regarding optimisation and configuration of service offers.

Due to their unique characteristics in terms of information type, quantity and exchange, social media are regarded as a challenging information resource that makes credibility evaluation a more complicated behavior. This study aims to investigate the role of media literacy in the credibility evaluation of social media information among students as a major community of user groups.

The study tried to explore whether or not the three popular platforms of WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram with their unique features, show a significant difference in the credibility evaluation among a sample of 150 students at the Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. By administrating two validated measures related to the two main variables, data gathered were analyzed through the partial least-squares (PLS) method using the software SmartPLS.

Convergent and discriminant validities, as well as model fit indices, showed the reliability of the conceptual model at the 99% confidence level. Moreover, path analysis demonstrated that media literacy could affect all components of the credibility evaluation, except for currency evaluation. Overall, media literacy had less impact on evaluating information sources and information credibility compared to information presentation. Further analysis showed no significant difference in credibility evaluation with respect to the application used.

There appears a crucial need for the students to be skilled more in evaluating content and source without which their decision-making might be negatively affected.