Applying Design Research for Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Experiences From a Gamification Process

This study examines how Design Science Research (DSR), operationalised through a five-phase framework adapted from Peffers et al. (2014), can guide a cross-disciplinary team of four researchers in developing a gamified tool for energy community investment decision-making. The central argument is that DSR's iterative cycle supports knowledge exchange among researchers from different disciplines, while the resulting artefact serves as an effective means of educating stakeholders about energy communities.

The game asked teams representing an energy community to allocate capital across three options over three rounds: expanding participation, biomass projects, and rooftop solar with storage. News headlines introduced uncertainty by affecting actual returns. The artefact was instantiated twice with players of similar profiles, once in an informal session and once with a 16-question post-game survey. Both instantiations confirmed stakeholder learning about energy communities and produced three distinct and persistent investment strategies: diversified, decentralised-focused, and centralised (biomass)-focused. These patterns indicate that the game elicited meaningful variation in decision-making rather than a single prescribed response.

The authors identify several limitations that shaped subsequent iterations. Team involvement was unevenly balanced across the research group, and the game offered limited flexibility. Player feedback recommended a stronger socio-technical perspective, greater uncertainty within the scenarios, and longer rounds to allow more deliberate decision-making. These findings suggest that the iterative structure of DSR is well suited to refining such tools, although the evidence rests on two small sessions and therefore offers preliminary rather than generalisable conclusions.