Pure Gamification: stimulating energy saving behaviour through personalized gamification

Despite the increased attention for the environment reducing energy consumption has not yet become common behaviour. This study aims to research how to design for energy savings through personalized gamification for a green energy supplier. Personalization was done for the user types philanthropists, free spirits, and achievers as they resulted most present from the Hexad survey (n=274). An iterative tunnelling design process was conducted based on feedback of both stakeholders and customers using interviews (n=9) and focus groups (n=4 & n=6) resulting in two final designs. A dashboard allowing for motivation-based personalization and an energy editor representing a simulated household. Both were validated using a clickable along with interviews (n=13). We suggest that the Hexad scale is a suitable method to understand the main motivations of users. Furthermore, motivation-based design and designing for personal situation are effective personalization strategies and valuable alternatives for using a machine learning approach. Based on our results we propose an inside out framework explaining the motivations of individuals within an energy saving application based on the Hexad scale and a generalized framework explaining the correlations of motivations of all user types. In sum, our study can support researchers and practitioners in designing personalized gamification applications.