Persuasive Affordance Design in "Mindful Meerkats" - Can an app change behaviour and then the world?

Abstract

Sustainable Development is in desperate need of under-standing human behaviour. Most issues that are considered vital require being tackled from the ground up. However, other fields have to be pulled in to make sense of behavioural patterns. These are Persuasive Technology, Human-Computer-Interaction, Design and Motivational Psychology. Grounding the argumentation on these schools of thought, this work argues that a smartphone game provides a wide range of capacities that can inspire individuals to make changes in their lives that multiply and become behavioural patterns that in turn have considerable impacts with regards to many of Sustainable Development’s core issues such as Climate Change, economic, ecological and financial crises. With an approach that focuses on personal wellbeing, play-fulness and intrinsic motivation, individuals shall be excited for an in-game narrative that incentivises them to fulfil real-life challenges that will kick off positive, beneficial feedback.