Emotional design for pro-environmental life: Visual appeal and user interactivity influence sustainable consumption intention with moderating effect of positive emotion

As the public pursues sustainable consumption patterns, pro-environmental mobile applications are being developed to promote green lifestyles. Ant Forest has attracted a large number of users to participate due to its gamified interactive design. The objectives of this study are to understand the process by which visual appeal and user interactivity in pro-environmental mobile applications influence the user's sustainable consumption intention and to analyse the moderating effect of the user's positive emotion on this process. The researchers constructed a theoretical framework based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory in this study and used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) for quantitative analysis with an online questionnaire survey of 586 Ant Forest users. Findings for this study include: 1) Visual appeal shows a large positive effect on the perceived usefulness of Ant Forest; 2) Ant Forest's perceived usefulness shows a significant positive effect on the user's sustainable consumption intention; 3) Ant Forest's perceived usefulness fully mediates the relationship between visual appeal and the user's sustainable consumption intention; 4) Positive emotion moderates the relationship between perceived usefulness and sustainable consumption intention. This study improves the application of the S-O-R theory in emotional design research, while emphasising the importance of optimising the visual appeal of design elements and guiding users' positive emotions in the development of pro-environmental mobile applications. The findings of this study highlight the importance of incorporating positive emotions into visual design for designers and developers of pro-environmental applications, further clarifying the focus of emotional design.