Designing serious games to engage children with energy saving in the home: potential learning outcomes and design considerations

The children of today will inherit a more complex domestic energy landscape than their parents. While children consume energy themselves and can meaningfully participate in energy saving, they are neglected by the current discourse on energy literacy. This research details the design, deployment, and evaluation of two serious game prototypes aiming to engage children between the ages of 6–11 years with energy savings in the home. Based on semi-formal interviews with 13 children and their parent(s), findings suggest serious games can positively influence children’s learning about household energy use. Parental involvement in gameplay or post-game discussions can respond to curiosities raised during the game, enhancing the learning potential of the game for children. Yet positive engagement in a game does not guarantee learning from it; children’s learning was hindered by a disconnection between game-world and home-world, and by simple usability factors. The design of serious games for children’s energy literacy should encourage—but not require- parental involvement, maximise scalability, customisation, and connection to context. The post-COVID landscape of re-organised family practices towards greater work and study from home presents many opportunities for designers in this space.