Mobile serious game proposal for environmental awareness of children

Design of a Serious Game for Children to Raise Awareness on Plastic Pollution and Promoting Pro-Environmental Behaviors

“…The player takes the character of a heroine that has to clean the environment shooting at waste with the correct gun, depending if it is biodegradable, non-biodegradable or recyclable. The mobile game Protecting the earth [30] also focuses on waste management, including topics as recycling, reuse and garbage reduction: the game is indeed divided in three stages, each one proposing different challenges to the player. Trash treasure [31] is another mobile game to teach kids about domestic waste classification, recycling and reuse, also explaining the difference between combustible and incombustible waste and the concept of energization.…”

“…The use of a character to communicate with children is fundamental in many games, however attractive characters can take different forms. Fernando et al [29] are inspired by comic art, Kim and Lee [30] suggest that user friendly characters are fundamental to attract users to topics that are usually not interesting for them (as can be plastic pollution for children) and design a series of non-human avatars, focusing on their personality. Conversely, Nunes et al [30] point out that similar demographic characteristics, including ethnicity, increase the possibility to identify with characters.…”

“…Fernando et al [29] are inspired by comic art, Kim and Lee [30] suggest that user friendly characters are fundamental to attract users to topics that are usually not interesting for them (as can be plastic pollution for children) and design a series of non-human avatars, focusing on their personality. Conversely, Nunes et al [30] point out that similar demographic characteristics, including ethnicity, increase the possibility to identify with characters. The character in Contact from the future, Alex (Figure 1) was designed as a child of the same age as the players, to help them sympathize -based also on the scientific observation that at that age, some empathic processes have already been developed [39,40] -with a peer that does not have the luck of enjoying nature as they can.…”

“…A second test of the prototype application was performed aiming at a quantitative evaluation. The test was performed with 7 users (4 females, aged between [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The test investigated the overall application considering aesthetic and functional aspects, information provided and users' engagement, overall satisfaction regarding the experience with the application and the avatar.…”

LAVI: Laboratório de Ambientes Virtuais Interativos

“…Também, tem atuado na concepção de um memorial digital dos doadores de corpos da Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA). As produções deste projeto estão listadas em http://lavi.ic.ufmt.br/davi/pt/ O projeto F desenvolveu três serious games 3D disponibilizados na Play Store: 1) Hospital Mirim [7] -Brinquedo Terapêutico Digital Interativo com propósito de simular procedimentos médicos cotidianos como, por exemplo, punção venosa que simula coleta de sangue e aplicação de medicamento; 2) Protegendo a Terra [6] -aborda o tema "Reciclagem, Reutilização e Redução de lixo". O game foi desenvolvido a fim de encorajar as crianças na preservação do meio ambiente, como uma forma de reduzir os impactos ambientais causados pela falta de conscientização dos cidadãos em seus contextos diários; 3) ABCDiabetes [14] prepara o público infantil/juvenil diagnosticado com Diabetes Tipo 1, sobre cuidados com a saúde durante o tratamento como, por exemplo, a melhor escolha dos alimentos e sua relação com o nível de glicose no organismo.…”