A location-based multiplayer mobile game to encourage pro-environmental behaviours
Pedro Centieiro, Teresa Romão, António Eduardo Dias · 2011
This paper explores the use of persuasive technology concepts to induce behaviour changes towards a better environmental consciousness, through mobile phones and public displays. More specifically, the paper reports the design, development and evaluation of Gaea, a location-based multiplayer mobile game, which prompts people to recycle virtual objects within a specified spatial context. Initial user tests were conducted to evaluate Gaea's persuasive ability during a small-scale event. Later on, Gaea's usability, and primarily its gameplay, were evaluated more extensively, in the context of an open day event at our University campus attended by 7000 high school students. The results obtained from the user tests were very positive, and may give a considerable contribution to the future development of persuasive applications, regardless the area of study.