Chosen the theme of gamification I had to formalise my thesis research question a so I had to find a reason to actually use such a tool. This required very little thought, have been a few years now that I’m interested in designing for sustainability. Convinced by the First Things First Manifesto and the theories of sustainable design of Viktor Papanek, already in my Bachelor’s Degree I realised projects focused on sustainability: it’s the case of Verde in Roma (and the parallel project Verde em Lisboa) communication design project aiming to promote and valorise parks and green spaces in the city, in order to incentivise people to improve and endorse them, saving them from the neglect they were undergoing in some cases.

Said that, I’ve been also suggested to read the book of David Berman, what if we did just good Do Good Design, very simple and short (it took me only a couple of tube commutes Elephant&Castle-West Hampstead to finish it), but still pretty inspiring. Starting precisely from the First Things First Manifesto he pushes designers to focus on good causes with their practice.

“What could become possible if designers used their power to influence choices and beliefs in a positive way?Imagine: what it we didn’t just go good design…we did good?”

David Berman

Furthermore, I thought that gamification could be combined with another extremely powerful tool, social media and the sharing culture around it.

So to summarise i created this sort of scheme in my mind:
Rationale: energy saving
Tools: gamification and social network sharing culture

From there I defined my research question:
How can we incentivise and change people behaviours in order to make them more responsible towards energy saving through gamification and the social network sharing culture?