Family game for electricity use

This projects concern was how families with children could save energy by playing a game together. The project was on the intersection of design for sustainability, interaction design, game design and design for behaviour change. Flo is a game aiming to raise family awareness about electricity use. In the game, every family member receives a Flo Cube containing electricity, metaphorically represented as a liquid. With these Flo Cubes, they could use entertainment devices in the house such as the TV and the PC. They can set a weekly budget, and the goal is to have as much liquid remaining as possible at the end of the week. In this project, the interactions between parents and their children, while performing daily activities were researched, as well as their opinions on energy saving and playing games together. Using these insights, a product had to be designed that fits within the current activities at Philips and that brings together parents and their children in their attempts to reduce their energy consumption. The focus for this product was on something fun that parents and children could do together.

Tiny Lavrysen
C. Bakker, P. J. Stappers
master thesis, May 2010