DoItRight: An Arabic Gamified Mobile Application to Raise Awareness about the Effect of Littering among Children

Abstract

Littering contributes significantly to environmental pollution. Previous studies have noted that children are more likely to litter than adults. This target age group can be easily reached through mobile applications and games. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of a gamified application in raising awareness on the effect of littering in the environment. We developed a gamified app, called DoItRight to promote an environment friendly behavior and improve the littering behavior of children. The DoItRight app is in Arabic language and targets children between 5 and 13 years old. It is a gamified application that enables kids to learn the importance of picking up litters and dropping it in trash cans. The app was evaluated using the System Usability Scale (SUS) standardized instrument which was administered on the target audience. The results of the evaluation showed that the DoItRight app has an SUS score of 93.25 which represents an A+ grade and a percentile range of 96 to 100. This indicates that the DoItRight app is technically usable and can potentially serve the purpose of increasing kids’ awareness about the downsides of littering on the environment.