Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Augmented Reality Game Promoting Environmental Action

Kyra Wang,Zeynep Duygu Tekler,Lynette Cheah,Lucienne Blessing,Dorien Herremans

doi:10.3390/su132413912

Kyra Wang, Zeynep Duygu Tekler + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413912

Copy DOI

Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Dec 16, 2021
Citations: 22	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Singapore University of Technology and Design

Abstract

While public awareness of climate change has grown over the years, many people still have misconceptions regarding effective individual environmental action. In this paper, we present a serious game called PEAR, developed using elements of geolocation and augmented reality (AR), aimed at increasing players’ awareness of climate change issues and propensity for effective sustainable behaviours. We conducted a study with participants who played the game, gauging their knowledge of and attitudes towards climate change issues before and after playing the game. Our results show that the game significantly improved participants’ knowledge on sustainability and climate-change-related issues, and that it also significantly improved their attitudes towards these topics, thus proving that serious games have the potential to impart knowledge and promote sustainable behaviours. Additionally, our results address the lack of empirical studies on the knowledge base of serious sustainability games by introducing methods of quantitatively analysing the effects of serious sustainability games while additionally providing more knowledge about the effectiveness of the specific design elements of our game.

Highlights

The climate crisis is becoming a greater threat everyday, as global temperatures march steadily towards unprecedented levels due to human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases
While public awareness of how dire the situation is has steadily increased over the years [4], surveys show that people have major misconceptions regarding individual environmental action, i.e., behaviours they must adopt to be effective at combating climate change [5], and that environmental concern amongst the public has been decreasing globally [6]
We have presented a novel mobile game using elements of geolocation and augmented reality (AR) and examined its efficacy in improving players’ knowledge and attitudes towards sustainability and climate change

Summary

Introduction

The climate crisis is becoming a greater threat everyday, as global temperatures march steadily towards unprecedented levels due to human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. While public awareness of how dire the situation is has steadily increased over the years [4], surveys show that people have major misconceptions regarding individual environmental action, i.e., behaviours they must adopt to be effective at combating climate change [5], and that environmental concern amongst the public has been decreasing globally [6]. A potential aid in correcting this lies in serious games, which have been shown to be able to educate and guide the behaviours of players [7]. With the ubiquitous adoption of mobile technologies equipped with advanced data collection and localisation capabilities [8], the mobile games industry has provided developers with opportunities to analyse and reach out to a larger audience than ever before

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion