Climate change has been a recurring issue for the past few years and carbon footprint is directly related to climate change. Carbon footprint is mainly caused by human activities that cause greenhouse gasses to trap heat in the atmosphere which accelerates the heating of the globe. This became a topic of interest for me since we are all living in an ecosystem in which all our individual actions have a cause-effect chain that is affecting our planet. I then thought to myself that it is important for us to understand how our small actions can have negative consequences on the planet.
I also researched how I could create something engaging that would get people to understand how their carbon footprint has consequences. Gamification is a successful tool used in app’s to get user’s to use the app frequently. I also learned that adding pet elements creates an emotional attachment between the user and the pet. I wanted to explore these two concepts further and came up with a research question to my creation:
How can gamification and the use of “living” animals be used to engage user’s to take positive actions toward climate change and experience their carbon footprint?
I created a prototype of an app called EcoFriend. It allows the user to choose a pet that they must take care of by completing tasks that can offset their carbon footprint such as using no plastic waste during the day or unplugging their devices for one day. This app allows them to see how their actions can have positive or negative effects on their Eco Friend and experience their carbon footprint through their Eco Friend.