Gamification research programme

E.ON

E.ON are one of the UK’s leading energy providers. One of the biggest challenges they face is encouraging homeowners to engage with them about energy efficiency and the environment.

The energy company approached us because they wanted to explore what possible role gamification could play in enticing homeowners into the environmental debate. We put together a research programme of user and industry analysis and focus groups.

We split the plan into three streams: first, we read up on E.ON’s business objectives, their own user research and available studies on gaming mechanics and methods (e.g. reward, competition, achievement, self-expression); next up, with the research fresh in our minds, we got our pen and paper out for a series of creative sketching sessions and workshops to generate a bunch of game ideas; finally, we presented the ideas to two focus groups (one group of men and one of women) and recorded their responses to the games.

From our research, we were able to identify which gaming techniques were most likely to engage people and create worthwhile debate. In general, there was a positive response to gamification from users and in some instances, they could see how it could be used to help them better understand energy usage.

We produced a detailed report of our findings with crazy amounts of stats and graphs. E.ON were happy with the outcome of the research programme and continue to explore how gamification can be used in their industry.