Gamified apps for sustainable consumption: A systematic review

Gamified apps for sustainable consumption: A systematic review

Gamified apps for sustainable consumption: A systematic review

By Georgina Guillén M., Daniel Fernández Galeote, Nevena Sicevic, Juho Hamari, and Jaco Quist

Abstract

“Mobile apps are ubiquitous, affecting our everyday practices because “there is always an appfor that”. In this vein, there have been a significant number of apps devised to support people’slifestyles to make them more sustainable. This study aims to draw an overview of gamifiedmobile apps for sustainable consumption. Following a systematic process, this study analyzes67 gamified apps’ sustainability approaches and gamification concepts. It was found that (1)sustainable consumption is generally presented as the efficient use of resources to impact theenvironment positively, rarely addressing societal impacts or economic gains from shiftingconsumption practices. Other findings include (2) a lack of diversity in gamificationcharacteristics, given theprevalence of direct communication with the user, the absence ofvirtual identities, and most apps targeting behavior change without attitude change. Apotentially problematic design choice is (3) the presence, in some cases, of external rewardsthat are often contradictory to the message of sustainable consumption as they lead to moreconsumption. Nonetheless, based on most apps embedding sustainable consumption activitiesin the gamification concept and having a large number of users, it is possible to conclude thatgamification has the potential to motivate shifts in their users’ lifestyles.”

Reference

Guillén, G. M., Galeote, D. F., Sicevic, N., Hamari, J., & Quist, J. (2022). Gamified apps for sustainable consumption: A systematic review. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/141236/Gamified_apps_for_sustainable.pdf?sequence=1

Keyword

Mobile apps, sustainable consumption, gamification, review, research