Saving is fun: designing a persuasive game for power conservation

EnergyLife is a mobile game application that aims at increasing energy awareness and saving in the household; it centers around a feedback system with detailed, historical and real time information that is based on wireless power sensors data. The challenge is to provide through feedback knowledge and motivation for sustainable saving. A three-month field test in eight households was organized for EnergyLife. The test involved the automatic collection of access data to the application, and the administration of satisfaction questionnaires, interviews, and usability tasks in the tested families. The paper describes the results of the test and the ensuing re-design strategy, centered on better tailoring the application to the players' actions. The lessons learned can be useful to other persuasive games, since a good fit to the actions of the user is a precondition of effectiveness of any persuasive application.