Date of Defense

4-19-2018

Date of Graduation

4-2018

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Cynthia Pietras

Second Advisor

Thomas Ferragut

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss two mobile application (app) designs for promoting environmental sustainability using principles of behavior analysis and gamification. The paper includes a brief literature review of behavior analysis and gamification and discusses the similarities between the two fields. For example, four basic contingencies and schedules of reinforcements identified by behavior analysis can be found in gamification projects. To help design the sustainability apps, a gamification approach called Octalysis Framework, developed by Yu-kai Chou, is used. The first mobile app is a gamified app called Earth Heroes and second mobile app is a serious game called Similar Life. Earth Heroes is designed to educate and motivate users to change real-world behaviors to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle whereas Similar Life is designed to let the users explore the possibilities and experience the predicted consequences of climate change through the game itself. In Earth Heroes, a few design and features are discussed such as a progression system, rewards, avatar with game stats and title, knowledge base, offline/power-saving mode, and leaderboards.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted

Download

Share

COinS