Designing a Game for Learning About Recycling

Sammanfattning: As the world is getting more crowded, at the same time as people increase their consumption, there is a need for us taking control of our resource consumption and changing our behaviors into more sustainable ones. First of all, our consumption needs to decrease in order to prevent use of resources and prevent the production of waste. Secondly, there is a need for reusing and recycling materials already in the system, where the latter is a subject this study is going to focus on. In order to increase knowledge of recycling, exploration of new methods of spreading information and awareness is of interest. This study explores the spreading of information with a game-based learning approach, targeting young adults. A quantitative pre-study was conducted to investigate their recycling behavior, to get an understanding of what prevents and promotes recycling. Based on the findings from the pre-study, along with findings from previous research, a game was developed with the aim of meeting these preventing and promoting factors. The game explores how a digital game can be used to spread information of recycling along with a motivation to recycle. It was followed by a qualitative user study, to evaluate the game and explore users’ experience of learning through a game. According to the results, a game-based learning approach showed to be appreciated amongst the participants in general. They showed appreciation towards this type of learning and thought it was an entertaining alternative of learning. Crucial game elements for learning were detected along with further improvements. The game-play contributed to a knowledge increase, and after playing the game, participants saw potential in it being a motivational tool, but mostly, they saw it as a tool for motivating learning.