Designing A Serious Game To Motivate Energy Savings In A Museum: Opportunities & Challenges

The ongoing global environmental crisis has led to the identification of energy-saving as a worldwide necessity. Public buildings hold great unexploited opportunities towards that end. Moreover, the occupants' behavior is an impactful factor that can potentially lead to significant energy-savings therein. Recognizing the engaging power of games towards that end, our research aim is to motivate human-driven energy conservation in an especially challenging organizational context: an art museum. Through a survey of our context, we recognized the energy-saving opportunities for employees and visitors therein. Consequently we designed and present an effective serious game that fits the special characteristics of a museum's exhibition area, as well as the users' requirements, thus providing a mutually engaging experience for personnel and visitors alike. We also present and discuss the results from the participation of museum visitors in the game, as well as the actual energy savings achieved. Furthermore, we discuss our collected insights while designing and applying the serious game, so that future game designers can get a head start in their own projects, by keeping the challenges that may lay ahead in mind.