Mario Soap Kart

Mario Soap Kart is an installation for public bathrooms with the goal of motivating users to wash their hands longer and properly with soap.

The installation was developed for the course Interaction Design as part of the MSc Design & Innovation programme at the Technical University of Denmark. The assignment was to use gamification to change user behaviour in public space, and the problem chosen by our group was that many people are little aware of their own hand washing behaviour and wash their hands improperly for different reasons. This increases the risk of spreading bacteria and diseases.

Developing the game included brainstorming, storyboards, paper prototypes, field observations, questionnaires, sensor measurements, and short user interviews. The result was a game that is inspired by the Nintendo console game Mario Kart 64 with the goal that the user washes her hands with soap for at least 20 seconds to finish the race and therefore win the game. The working Mario Soap Kart prototype, that we built using mechanical sensors, Arduino and Processong, was installed for several weeks at a public toilet at DTUSkylab to collect data and feedback. Quantitative testing showed a significant increase in the amount of people who washed their hands with soap and for at least 20 seconds. 

For more details and data, download our final report here.