=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2382/ICT4S2019_paper_8
|storemode=property
|title=Gaming at Work to Save Energy - Learnings from Workers Playing a Cooperative Game
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2382/ICT4S2019_paper_8.pdf
|volume=Vol-2382
|authors=Yi Luo,Anders Lundström,Robert Comber,Cristian Bogdan
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ict4s/LuoLCB19
}}
==Gaming at Work to Save Energy - Learnings from Workers Playing a Cooperative Game==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2382/ICT4S2019_paper_8.pdf
Gaming at work to save energy – Learnings from workers
playing a cooperative game
Yi Lou, Anders Lundström, Cristian Bogdan
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, SWEDEN
[yiluo, andelund, cristi]@kth.se
ABSTRACT consumption of buildings [4, 5]. One cause for this gap is
Workplaces constitute a substantial part of the world’s that energy estimations fail to account for occupant behavior,
energy consumption. In this paper we study how a potentially highlighting the potential for occupants to lower
cooperative game, EnerSpace, could be used to increase their consumption. Therefore, increasing occupant
energy awareness and support energy conservation. In the awareness of energy consumption and persuasive design
study, after a one-week baseline period, 8 workers played becomes an interesting option to promote behavioral change.
EnerSpace for one week. They competed in two teams that
each powered a spaceship with their energy saving on a To increase energy awareness and promote behavioral
resource exploitation trip to Mars. Each worker also had an change through persuasion, researchers have introduced
avatar in the spaceship that reported personal consumption gamification and social networks into eco-visualizations in
data using face recognition. The participant efforts and order to engage users through competition and interpersonal
abilities to conserve energy affected the speed of the relations [6-8]. Studies have also focused on providing
spaceship and the living condition of their avatars. The energy education [9] and gamified energy feedback [10, 11].
results show that workers decreased their overall energy Overall, these studies have focused on using either individual
consumption, especially on the weekend. Based on our and cooperative approaches to energy conservation (e.g.
results we discuss 1) designing for energy conservation when [12]). Researchers have also designed gamified missions,
absent from the workplace, 2) how using the coffee room competitions and cooperation to motivate energy
created energy conservation narratives but hampered local conservation [13, 14]. For instance, Power Agent was a
experimentation and learning, 3) team formation to support persuasive game designed to encourage energy conservation
energy conservation and team spirit, and 4) challenges of a family by team competition [14]. However, while many
concerning games centered on baseline comparison for of these attempts have demonstrated short-term positive
energy conservation. effects the long-lasting effects are questionable as people
tend to disengage over time [15].
Author Keywords
Persuasive technology; gamification; visualization; energy In this paper we turn our attention towards workplaces by
consumption; energy awareness; behaviour change. exploring and evaluating how a cooperative game could
support energy conservation. We do this by presenting the
ACM Classification Keywords design, implementation and evaluation of a cooperative
H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): game designed to motivate workers to reduce electricity
Miscellaneous. consumption in a commercial office setting.
1. INTRODUCTION 2. BACKGROUND
The rapid growth of energy consumption has raised
increasing concerns over the last decades. According to the 2.1 Theoretical Model of Behavioural Change
International Energy Agency there has been a dramatic In order to design for behaviour change, it is important to
increase in primary energy use (49%) and CO2 emission understand how occupants’ current behaviour is shaped and
(43%) from 1984 to 2004 [1]. Moreover, energy influenced. A well-known behavioral theories is the Theory
consumption is estimated to keep rising due to economic and of Reasoned Action [6]. They believed that individuals’
population growth [1]. The U.S. Energy Information intention to perform a certain behaviour led to the actual
Administration has reported that the building sector behaviour and the behavioural intention was determined by
consumes 20% of the worldwide energy [2]. It has similarly the attitude towards behaviour and subjective norm.
been found that around 40% of energy was consumed by Subjective norm is the social pressure that individuals
buildings in Europe in 2015 [3]. Those numbers proved the perceive for a certain behaviour and it is decided by
urgency to cut down energy consumption and increase individuals’ normative belief and motivation to comply.
energy efficiency in buildings, which calls for the attention The Theory of Planned behaviour extended this model by
of both organizations and individuals. adding perceived behavioral control [16]. A perceived
Several studies have shown that there is a gap between behavioural control means how much an individual has
estimated energy consumption and the actual energy control over a specific behaviour. The Theory of Planned
behaviour has been shown to explain 46-61% of the variance education by asking users to run a sustainable city [9]. The
in occupants’ intention in performing pro-environmental results showed that the experimental group who played the
behaviour [17]. The findings highlight that in order to game had better knowledge about the impact of their
understand the occupants and design for persuasion, it is consumption behaviour than the control group [9].
beneficial to take occupants’ attitudes, subjective norms and
Regarding providing gamified feedback, Energy Chicken is
perceived behavioural control into consideration.
a game that relates the energy consumption of each device in
According to the Theory of Planned behaviour, social factors the office environment to an object in a virtual farm [26]. The
play a crucial role in influencing occupants’ behaviour. size and condition of the chicken in the virtual farm was
Social comparison serves as a trigger for motivating influenced by the users’ energy consumption. In a 12-week
sustainable behaviour. Also, comparisons with others who evaluation with 49 occupants after collecting the
are slightly better can have a positive effect on performance consumption baseline for 4 weeks, an energy reductions of
[18]. What this suggests is the importance to ensure that there 13% was achieved [26].
is always a chance for each side to win in a competition. The
Another game called Coralog visualized energy consumption
facility also plays an important role in promoting an energy
as the health status of a coral reef, whose size and colour
conservation culture by organizing relevant events and
changed [7]. While users were motivated to change
workshops, which was proved to be related to the energy-
behaviour using Coralog, they also expressed wishes to see
saving behaviour of occupants in the building [19].
the data of daily energy consumption besides the more
Moreover, another study revealed that public recognition of
abstract representation of the coral reef. This highlights the
energy-saving behaviour led to a higher decrease in energy
importance to keep a balance between abstract and factual
consumption than solely self-monitoring behaviour [20].
representation in persuasive system.
Cost reduction has also been reported to be a motivation to
In addition to providing energy consumption feedback on an
save energy at offices [19], but the actual effects depended
individual level, researchers have introduced social network,
on the personal sensitivity to price [21]. In addition,
competition and cooperation on a group level in order to
psychologist Richard Katzev and his team found that
achieve better user engagement through interpersonal
commitment to conserve resources is more influential for
relationships and the sense of belongingness [7, 9, 13, 14,
occupants’ behaviour than monetary incentives [10]. This
27]. Art project Nuage Vert was a city-scale light installation
might suggest that intrinsic motivation is stronger than
in Helsinki that lasted for a week [12]. The artist illuminated
extrinsic motivation. However, a survey with 229 students
vapour emission with a lime-hued laser animation that
on campus showed that the majority of participants agreed
visualized the real-time electricity consumption of citizens in
on the importance of energy conservation, but they reported
Helsinki. This collective visualization invoked a sense of
that they lack clear motivations [19]. Contextual factors,
community and contribution. Boork and her colleagues
such as perceived behavioural control, have been found to
introduced a collective prototype called Super Graph that
partly explain this low level of motivations [19]. In an office
employees in the office crafted together [28]. The Super
building, the energy consumption is mainly influenced by
Graph was hung in the lunchroom and moved vertically
energy planning and management, which results in
according to the collective energy consumption. This served
occupants’ low sense of control and insufficient engagement
as a symbol that represented the employees’ efforts and
in energy conservation.
created the sense that every employee was a part of
2.2 Persuasive Technology something bigger. Climate Race is a persuasive game that
Persuasive technology aims at using technology to achieve was co-designed by workers in the office, whose team goal
behaviour change without coercion [22]. BJ. Fogg has was to reach 1000000 points collected by energy saving and
introduced his behaviour model that stressed three elements by completing missions [8]. While Climate Race achieved
of persuasive technology: motivation, ability and trigger the change of workers’ motivation, it also revealed a
[23]. Motivation is the reason why a person shows a certain provoking finding that workers preferred explicitly
behaviour. Ability indicates whether the person has the requesting feedback over immediate notifications. This
required ability to complete a behaviour. A trigger can be a finding is especially crucial for how to provide feedback in a
reminder, deadline or other elements that cause the person to non-intrusive way.
perform a behaviour. Those three elements are of necessity
3. METHODS
to achieve the persuasion of a certain behaviour. A study that
followed this model claims achievement of the energy saving 3.1 Participants and Procedure
goal [24], which suggests that taking those three elements In the study, 8 engineers (6 males and 2 females) working at
into consideration could be beneficial. a corporate research center volunteered to participated in a
two-week-long study with a one-week baseline period
Many studies have worked on applying gamification to eco- followed by a one-week cooperative gaming period with our
visualization in order to provide energy education and game EnerSpace. The age distribution was four between 31-
feedback on energy consumption [7, 11, 25, 26]. One study
introduced a game called EnerCities to promote energy
Figure 1. The main interface of EnerSpace: competition between two spaceships, team red and blue. The dotted lines show the
route towards the next planet to exploit, on the line there is a text showing the distance left for each spaceship. In the upper
right corner there is a ranking list.
40 years old, two between 41-50 years old, one between 20- how the participants self-rated (5-point Likert) the
30 years old and one above 51-year-old. All participants EnerSpace impact on energy awareness.
signed an informed consent.
We analyzed and compared the quantitative hourly
At the beginning of the study we installed an energy meter in consumption data between the baseline and the game period.
each workers office and collected a one-week hourly average In this process, we divided the consumption data into three
energy consumption (Wh) baseline. Data logging was categories according to the participants personal logs:
designed to collect 5-6 points per minute. All the devices working hours (7:00-19:00), non-working weekday hours
around each personal workspace were connected and in the (19:00-7:00), and weekends (not working). Six of the
control of the participant. This included desk lights (not participants logged their exact time of arrival and departure
ceiling/room armature), computer, monitor and other while two provided a timetable of their daily routine. Due to
peripherals such as smartphone chargers. Prior to the study instable data logging of the energy meters, in particular
each worker also completed a pre-questionnaire about their during the night when we sometimes had hourly dropouts,
energy awareness. average hourly consumption was calculated using only hours
with constant data.
After the baseline period, the workers competed in two teams
(red and blue team) using EnerSpace for 7 days. The teams 4. GAMIFIED VISUALIZATION: ENERSPACE
were formed randomly by the researchers. During the study 4.1 The Design of EnerSpace
we did not prompt for team meetings, everything that The design of EnerSpace went through the stages of field
happened in the study was on the participants own initiative. study, defining personas and scenarios, design iteration and
At the end of the study, each worker completed a post- developing a working high-fidelity prototype. The field
evaluation questionnaire about their energy awareness and study included an observation of energy consumption
user engagement and a 20-min interview concerning their behavior in a corporate research building and an interview
experiences with EnerSpace. During the study, participants with 15 workers who work in the building. The findings from
also logged the time when they came to and left the desk. the field study suggested that they had low energy awareness,
3.2 Data Analysis knowledge and engagement in energy conservation.
This study collected qualitative data from the interview and Although the workers generally considered themselves
quantitative data from the questionnaires as well as the motivated for energy conservation, they did not actively
experiment. As for qualitative data, we performed a thematic monitor or take actions to save energy.
content analysis for analyzing the transcripts from the The coffee room was selected as the setting for the game as
interview [29]. In this process we generated codes from the it is the commonplace where co-workers have a break and
transcripts, defined themes and interpreted the results. As for chat. Assuming this would be a natural setting for teams to
the questionnaires, we compared the pre- and post- discuss and follow their efforts.
questionnaire to assess whether the cooperative game
increased the energy awareness of occupants and looked at On the basis of the field study, 8 ideas were generated and a
brainstorming was conducted together with 2 UX designers
Figure 2. Individual page (a,) animation where the avatar talks about the estimated time of arrival. (b) a postcard sent by the
avatar when arriving to Mars. (c) The heating system is turned off due to over-consumption. (d) The team is ready for a for a
space jump since they have saved energy for 5 consecutive days.
to converge the ideas to a competition between departments chosen to remove the need for login and make the experience
in a space trip context. more ubiquitous. On the individual view, the participant’s
consumption data is visualized as the living condition of an
4.2 Gamification Mechanics
The narrative of Enerspace is that two spaceships are sent to avatar and also displayed on a control panel on the interface.
the Universe for a resource exploitation to cope with the Each user has an avatar on the spaceship who serves as a
resource shortage on Earth (see Figure 1). Users are divided concierge to introduce the user’s personal consumption data.
into two teams (team red and blue) and each team owns a In this animation, the avatar first greets, then talks about the
spaceship whose color corresponds to its team color. The user’s personal consumption data and the estimated time of
spaceships are powered by the energy that the team members arrival to the destination (see Figure 2(a)). The consumption
save in the office by comparing the team’s current hourly data shown on the control panel include an average hourly
average consumption (Wh) the baseline period on working consumption (Wh), a percentage of saving compared to the
hours and non-working hours respectively. This was user’s baseline and a ranking within the team. When the
visualized in the gamified by the speed of the spaceship and spaceship arrives at a destination, the avatar will send a
rotation of the flame behind it. The more the team members postcard or souvenir to the user as a reward (see Figure 2(b)).
saved, the faster the spaceships moved and the flame rotated. Gamified Feedback
If the energy consumption exceeds the baseline, both The energy consumption of the whole team influences the
elements stopped. A dotted line shows the route of a living condition of their avatars. When the consumption of a
spaceship with a number indicating the distance. The dotted team exceeds the baseline, there are three levels of power
line of the leading spaceship is presented slightly clearer than failures inside the spaceship that move from running out of
the other in order to show the ranking in a subtle way. When coffee to shutting down the heating system (see Figure 2(c)).
arriving at a planet they can start exploiting recourses. The Increasing Gamification Engagement
amount of collected resources is shown on a ranking list at Special events are triggered when specific conditions occur
the top-right corner of the interface (Figure 1). When the to increase gamification engagement. When a team keeps
resources on a planet are depleted, the spaceships continue saving energy for 5 consecutive days, the spaceship
to the next destination. accumulates enough energy for a space jump that shortens
Besides the main view, an individual view was shown when the distance to the destination (see Figure 2(d)). Other events
a participant’s face was recognized. Face recognition was
may also occur in order to award the leading team and motivated for energy conservation. All participants took
encourage the other team. actions to save energy either intentionally or by habit.
Situation-based Saving Tips
Turning off the lights was mentioned by all participants as
The avatar gives situation-based saving tips occasionally. an action to save energy, while only 25% of the participants
For instance, the avatar suggests “I heard the weather in turned off the computer or made it sleep when not in use.
[town] is great. Why not turn off the lights if it is bright Post-questionnaire
outside?”. Those tips provide users with approaches to Results about energy awareness showed that 25% of the
increase energy efficiency. The content is based on current participants knew the amount of their energy consumption
situations including but not limited to weather and place. while 25% of the participants had a general idea of the
4.3 Implementation
amount. Also, 75% of the participants thought they were
The EnerSpace was set up with a 1080p monitor and a more aware of their energy consumption after the game. All
Logitech C920 HD Pro Webcam in the coffee room in the participants thought it was fun to play the game and reported
building. The energy consumption of each participant was being engaged with EnerSpace. They were interested in
measured using a FIBARO Wall Plug. The data was knowing how the competition and space trip goes and 87.5%
collected by a VeraPlus Advanced Home Controller via Z- of them stated that they thought of the game in their spare
wave protocol and then sent to a server. The software of time. 60% of the participants felt more motivated by the
EnerSpace was developed in Python Flask, HTML5 and game while 50% of them thought they saved more energy
JavaScript. The animation and 3D model in EnerSpace were due to it. When asked whether they thought that they saved
made in Cinema 4D, Adobe Fuse CC, Adobe Mixamo and more energy during the game, the responses were neutral,
which was followed up for how the participants viewed their
Adobe Premiere CC.
energy conservation during the game in the interview. As
5. RESULTS many as 75% of participants were interested to keep playing
5.1 Consumption Data the game. In summary, besides a positive experience,
Participants’ baseline average hourly consumption (Wh) EnerSpace appears to have helped to increase the
varied from 16.99 Wh to 58.45 Wh (M = 34.33, SD = 15.17). participants’ awareness and knowledge towards energy to
The average hourly consumption decreased by 21% during some degree.
the game (M = 27.26, SD = 9.14). 5.3 Post-experiment interviews
In the analysis the hourly data was categorized as working Impact of EnerSpace
hours, non-working hours in a workday and weekends. When The results about the impact of EnerSpace was in-line with
comparing the average hourly consumption between, before the post-questionnaire. All the participants thought they
and during the game for these three time periods gained a better understanding of their consumption after
respectively, all the participants consumed less while playing playing the EnerSpace. Although the company has had a goal
the game except for the non-working hours in a workday (see to reduce energy use for a long time, they generally felt more
Figure 3). For the non-working hours in a workday, the motivation and engagement as an individual because of the
average hourly consumption increased by 48% during the game. Some participants reported that they sometimes
gameplay week (M = 7.32, SD = 8.08) than before (M = 4.96, thought about the game before they left the office and that it
SD = 6.29). Conversely, results indicated a large decrease of reminded them to shut down the computer and turn off the
81% in energy consumption during the game (M = 1.73, SD lights. However, even though they were motivated for saving
= 2.15) than before (M = 9.18, SD = 13.93) during the energy, they mentioned that some of their regular work tasks
weekend. Even though both periods are off-duty hours for (e.g. running simulations) took time to run and that they had
the participants, the different results might suggest a to keep those simulations running during the day. Therefore,
different behaviour pattern for the weekend and non-working they tried to save on the occasions that they could, but were
hours in a workday. Besides, the average hourly
consumption during working hours was reduced by 23%
during the gameplay week (M = 56.80, SD = 21.29) than
before (M = 74.13, SD = 36.57). These results showed a
general tendency of reduction in energy consumption during
the gameplay week with different degrees of decrease for the
three periods of time.
5.2 Questionnaire results
Pre-questionnaire
The results indicated that 87.5% of the participants did not
know how much energy they consumed and the rest only had
Figure 3. The line chart shows how the average hourly
a general idea of the amount. All the participants showed
consumption changed after the game.
interest in energy consumption data and 87.5% of them felt
aware that some energy had to be consumed in order to do some participants who preferred to know how much money
their job. they saved.
Gamification Mechanics Another complaint was that the participants did not know
As for the mechanics, all the participants agreed that it was how much their personal baseline was and how the personal
fun to play and the competition motivated them to save saving was calculated, indicating that a more detailed
energy to different extents. Some participants felt motivated explanation might have been needed. Also, some participants
by the sense of competing with another team, while others wanted a clearer representation of the connection between
were mostly attracted by the comparison between their their energy conservation and game, since they wondered
current consumption and the corresponding baseline. how their saving influenced the speed of the spaceship.
Knowing their consumption data and how much they saved
provided sufficient motivation for them. These participants Regarding the in-team ranking, some participants that were
appeared to consider energy saving as a competition with ranked low found themselves thinking about what they did
themselves although the competition still added some wrong compared to other teammates. This indicated that the
additional value. in-team ranking could serve as a reminder for those who
over-consume energy.
As for the cooperation, participants who were sitting
Coffee room as the context
physically close to each other typically liked the idea of
All the participants liked the idea of using the coffee room as
competing as a team because of the sense of community. This
the context for EnerSpace. In addition to creating a local
made them have in-team discussions around energy
narrative for energy conservation, it also raised awareness to
conservation and created a social pressure. However, one
other workers in the building. The participants were
participant mentioned a shortcoming in the study that they
frequently asked about what was going on and mentioned
did not experience a process of making up a team, which
that it created a discourse around energy conservation.
resulted in a weaker sense of cooperation and belongingness
Another reason that was mentioned was that it created a
during the week, physical proximity was also mentioned to
positive “interruption” for work. Note that this was taking
be an issue for a sense of team.
place typically in the coffee room during breaks and did not
Gamified Data Visualization interfere much with their work.
As for the game elements, most participants liked how the
movement and position of the spaceship represented their Nevertheless, some participants wanted the game both in the
energy conservation, since it was easy to see what changes coffee room and in their office. The advantage mentioned
their behaviour brought. Having a personal avatar that was that it would allow checking their consumption more
introduced the progress of the space trip was perceived as fun frequently and understand the real-time effects of their
and made the game more interactive. Although all behavior in their office context. Also, the coffee room could
participants cared mostly about the consumption data, they be hard to reach for some participants who spend most of the
would prefer to have both the data and the avatar, which felt time on meetings or in the laboratory.
more interesting and engaging than solely factual data. Suggested Improvements
According to one participant this was because it made it more In addition to the suggestions mentioned above, other desired
into a game rather than facts on a screen. As for the saving features were proposed by the participants. One future
advice that the avatar provided, some participants felt improvement was to expand the scale of the game and
persuaded by it and thought “why not?”. Also, some included more equipments into the game, such as the heating
participants reported a sense of proudness when receiving a system. Since the heating system is one of the main
compliment and postcard from the avatar. contributors of energy consumption, some participants
thought they would be more motivated for saving a larger
When talking about the consumption data displayed on the
amount of energy. Another possible improvement mentioned
control panel (see Figure 2(a)), all participants thought it
was to add the game to a desktop or mobile platform, making
gave them an idea of how much they consumed and saved.
play possible in a wider context.
However, some participants found that only one number of
their current consumption was not enough and it was hard for 6. DISCUSSION
them to get a general idea of their consumption from it. All Combining the results from the data analysis, interview and
participants wished to add a line chart of how the energy questionnaire, results indicate that EnerSpace could help
consumption changed over time, from which they could be increase energy awareness and support short-term behavioral
aware of how their consumption changed at a different time change. Although long lasting effects are unknown, a
period of a day and compare the consumption between knowledge acquisition on energy consumption is still an
weeks. Additionally, some participants wished to know how important first step to enable behavioral change.
much each device consumes and their total consumption
According to the results, the participants achieved a total
instead of an hourly average consumption. A monetary
decrease of 21% with 23% decrease during working hours
indicator was suggested to provide a stronger motivation for
and 81% on weekend. Those results indicate a positive effect
of EnerSpace on energy conservation. However, the energy appears crucial to carefully consider the physical proximity
consumption in the non-working hour in a workday of people in the team and the formation process of teams in
increased by 48% during the game. One possible reason was order to promote cooperation and discussions around energy
that the experiment period was too short. Another reason conservations at workplaces.
according to the interviews might be due to a limited ability
Regarding the setup context, having it in the coffee room,
to change. Although they were aware that keeping the
this was perceived as positive as it naturally created a center
computer on when absent from the workplace was a waste,
point and it prompted discussions and comparisons for the
in this context they had to keep some simulations and
workers at the department. Furthermore, the workers
experiments running. However, if they were leaving for a
emphasized that its central and obvious location caused
longer time, such as over the weekend, they would consider
curiosity from other groups and departments at the company
turning everything off. This reasoning might explain the
and in this way, it created a larger discourse on energy
substantial decrease of energy consumption over the
conversation at the company. On the downside, it was
weekends compare to non-working hour on workdays. This
difficult for the workers to experiment in real-time with their
hints towards a potential to design for the ability to save
office environment and therefore it was difficult and tedious
energy when absent, rather than when present, in
to explore and understand how they could improve their
professional settings where workers may have a limited
energy efficiency and position in the game. Therefore, a
personal space (ability) for energy conservation at work.
reasonable suggestion put forward by some workers was to
This leads us to a suggestion of remedies to the problem of extend the game to their smartphones to allow for personal
participants being unable to save much energy on non- experimentation and improvements. Extending it to a
working hours on workdays. The main reason mentioned personal medium, in addition to personal performance
was that participants had simulations running – this was feedback, could potentially also be used in many ways to
beneficial from a work efficiency perspective – after leaving improve the competition through notifications about
the office so that they would be completed in the morning. advances, ranking, and events.
Regardless of the simulation took a few hours or all night,
Another aspect of how the mechanics worked that was
the computer was on all night. A potential remedy would be
questioned by the workers was how their personal baseline
to investigate if contexts such as this might make better use
was calculated, what it was in comparison to others, and if
of automatic shutdown of computers and peripherals on idle
the competition was fair. This could be particularly
or after completed simulations.
interesting information for low performers who struggled in
Results from the interview data analysis reveal three the game, as this might have been due to good performance
influential motives that drove the participants to energy during the baseline week causing them to chase a difficult
conservation, two group level motives and one individual. goal during the game week. This has caused us to wonder
On the group level, the main motive was the competition, how baseline-based competition could be setup in a fair way
where the participants strived to act more energy efficient to and how the baseline should evolve over a longer period of
get an advantage. Another motive was social pressure and time. For instance, should it be static (fixed on the baseline),
the responsibility of belonging to a team, which motivated to or recalculated daily, weekly or monthly. The choice would
contribute and also created a sense of guilt for poor most definitely affect long term game dynamics and tactics
performers. Although creating negative feelings may have and the question is what way would be the most energy
implications for the game experience and overall motivation, efficiency promoting approach. Our setup used a static
no participants reported lower engagement due to these baseline, but with a changing baseline performing good one
aversive feelings. This rather caused them to reflect on what day in the game might lead to low game performance the
they did wrong and what could be improved. This could consecutive day. This approach would require well designed
suggest that aversive feedback does not harm the fun of and graspable game mechanics so energy conservation
gamification as long as the participants have the ability to performance does not appear as random, which might disturb
change. This implication is in line with the findings of study learning and have negative long-term effects due to faulty
BinCam [30] and study Power Ballads [31], which both mental models. Another issue that was highlighted was the
indicate that evoking aversive feelings, such as guilt, does difficulty to assess what of their equipment in the office
not necessarily deter user engagement. On the individual side, contributed mostly to energy use, suggesting de-aggregated
some instead focused on competing with themselves. energy feedback.
Managing to save more energy than before created a sense of
In EnerSpace, data was visualized using both abstract and
achievement that satisfied and motivated.
factual approaches inspired by Coralog [7]. As suggested by
Although some participants reported that they checked the the Coralog, this study improved the abstract gamified
game together and discussed it with teammates, this visualization by displaying an animated avatar and combined
happened mainly between colleagues whose workplace was a factual and abstract visualization by adding accurate factual
physically close. For the others there was less team spirit and data to the animation such as the current energy consumption
a low sense of belongingness to the team. Therefore, it and saving. All participants liked this combination and
considered it better than displaying solely factual data, participants reported an engaging and fun experience with
similar to previous studies [32]. On the other hand, many EnerSpace in the coffee room, which created a local and
participants asked in the post-interview for historical charts, extended narrative around energy conservation at the
de-aggregated data, and personal baseline data, so some workplace. However, as the central placement was
degree of tension between abstract data factual data was disconnected from their office environment it hampered
captured in the study. This might suggest that factual data is learning and experimentation locally in the office.
needed for creating trust and learning of consumption, but Furthermore, the formation and composition of the teams
perhaps this could be hidden but accessible for the curious might need to better account for the location of the workers
user to not stand in the way for the overall game experience. and social connections to enhance the discourse on energy
conservation and team spirit. Regarding game mechanics,
The interest to keep playing the game was high after the
some workers struggled grasping the baseline comparison
study although that would require that the game was
and questioned its fairness, which poses challenges for how
expanded with new complexities and additions, for instance
to design fair and graspable baseline-centered games for
by adding a heating system to manage in the game and
energy conservation.
scaling up the game. Another interesting idea would be that
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