Persuasive Application for Discouraging Unhealthy Gaming Behaviour

This paper presents the design and two-stage preliminary evaluation of a persuasive application for discouraging unhealthy gaming behaviour following the user-centered design approach. As games are becoming more popular and attracting people of all ages, there is an increased risk in developing gaming disorder- a disorder where gaming activity becomes the predominant activity in a person's life. By investigating gaming disorder, addictive behaviour and ways to combat addiction, this paper presents a mobile application prototype, designed through user-centered design approach to help users with gaming disorder and prevent others from developing it. Via design and evaluation of the application prototype, this paper discusses which persuasive strategies were successful in discouraging unhealthy gaming behaviour. The results of our evaluation show mostly positive feedback, hence highlighting the need for such an application. The participants emphasized on having parental control and receiving suggestions from the application, which could potentially help in mitigating gaming disorder.