Face-the-Waste - Learning about Food Waste through a Serious Game

Consumer food waste in industrialised countries is becoming an increasing concern as its impact on greenhouse emissions is comparable to that of the aviation industry. In recent years we have accordingly seen a growing interest in HCI to support users getting into more sustainable consumption practices. As part of this movement, we present in this paper a serious game called Face-the-Waste that is meant to increase users food literacy and educate them about the impact and development of food waste. Our serious game comes in the form of a public installation that uses provocative design to engage the users. They had to answer multiple choice questions and if they answered wrongly real food would be disposed into a bin in front of the users eyes. The aim with this was to create a strong emotional response and increase the level of reflection on the topic. In our evaluation we not only found that the users often voiced very strong emotional reactions but also engaged and discussed the question and their content. Furthermore, we demonstrated that such provocations can add a new layer for the design of serious games.