Gamifying Everyday Activities using Mobile Sensing

Author(s):  
Zachary Fitz-Walter ◽  
Dian Tjondronegoro ◽  
Peta Wyeth

The addition of game design elements to non-game contexts has become known as gamification. Previous research has suggested that framing tedious and non-motivating tasks as game-like can make them enjoyable and motivating (e.g., de Oliveira, et al., 2010; Fujiki, et al., 2007; Chiu, et al., 2009). Smartphone applications lend themselves to being gamified as the underlying mobile technology has the ability to sense user activities and their surrounding environment. These sensed activities can be used to implement and enforce game-like rules based around many physical activities (e.g., exercise, travel, or eating). If researchers wish to investigate this area, they first need an existing gamified application to study. However if an appropriate application does not exist then the researcher may need to create their own gamified prototype to study. Unfortunately, there is little previous research that details or explains the design and integration of game elements to non-game mobile applications. This chapter explores this gap and shares a framework that was used to add videogame-like achievements to an orientation mobile application developed for new university students. The framework proved useful and initial results are discussed from two studies. However, further development of the framework is needed, including further consideration of what makes an effective gamified experience.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Epstein ◽  
Adam Zemski ◽  
Joanne Enticott ◽  
Christopher Barton

UNSTRUCTURED Introduction Games, when used as interventional tools, can influence behavior change by incentivizing, reinforcing, educating, providing feedback loops, prompting, persuading or providing meaning, fun and community. However, not all game elements will appeal to consumers equally, and different elements might work for different people and in different contexts. Methods A realist review was conducted to inform program theory in the development of tabletop games for health behavior change. Context, mechanisms used to change behavior and outcomes of included studies were reviewed through a realist lens. Results 31 articles met eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Several design methods were identified that enhanced efficacy of games to change behavior. These included design by local teams, pilot testing, clearly defined targets of behavior change, conscious attention to all aspects of game design including game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, and the elicitation of emotions. Delivery with other mediums, leveraging behavioral insights, prior training for delivery and repeated play were also important. Some design elements that were found to reduce efficacy included limited re-playability or lack of ‘fun’ for immersive engagement. Discussion Game design needs to consider all aspects of the context and the mechanisms to achieve the desired behavior change outcomes. Careful design thinking should include consideration of the game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, emotions and contexts of the game and the players. People who know the players and the contexts well should design the games or have significant input. Testing in real-world settings is likely to lead to better outcomes. Careful selection and purposeful design of the behavior change mechanisms at play is essential. Fun and enjoyment of the player should be considered, as without engagement there will be no desired intervention effect.


Author(s):  
Andy Keenan

The growth in popularity of gamification (using game design elements in non-game contexts) has created significant debate within the scholarly video game community. Game scholars argue that adding game elements to a non-gaming application does not capture the “spirit” of a game. This poster examines this debate.La croissance de la popularité de la ludification (l’utilisation d’éléments de conception de jeux dans des contextes autres que le jeu) est l’objet de débats importants dans la communauté des chercheurs en jeux vidéo. Ces chercheurs affirment que l’ajout d’éléments du jeu à une application non dédiée au jeu ne capture pas l’esprit d’un jeu. Cette affiche examine ce débat.


Author(s):  
Andreas Lieberoth ◽  
Max Møller ◽  
Andreea Catalina Marin

Gamification started trending as a term around 2010 and enjoyed a rise to mainstream prominence over the following years. The trend extols the use of game elements and game thinking to support behavior and experiences in non-game contexts but has been hotly debated and is currently facing a serious limitation of evidence. This chapter critically examines the field. Combining theoretical perspectives from game design and psychology with marketing examples, the chapter develops a continuum from deep to shallow gamification as an interpretative framework where game qualities and engagement potentials are seen as a function of design richness and integration with the behavior context. The chapter strongly underscores the need for methodologically consistent data collection before conclusions can be drawn about the economic and psychological efficacy of individual design elements and the gamification fad as a whole.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (43) ◽  
pp. 12-36
Author(s):  
Güven ÇATAK ◽  
Server Zafer MASALCI ◽  
Seray ŞENYER

Virtual reality has great potential for immersive experiences that is not available in other mediums. Thus, it has a significant place in the entertainment and the game industry. However, creating a well-designed immersive experience can be extremely complicated due to the replacement of human perception from the real-world to an isolated virtual world. Understanding the essentials of virtual reality (VR) experiences and game design principles is necessary for designing an immersive VR game. Although there are many differences in design elements of VR games according to the experience that is wanted to be given to the player, many games also have common elements. In the line of this view, a guideline is aimed to be framed for VR game designers in the current study. For this purpose design pillars of VR experiences and game design principles were reviewed, and five VR games were analyzed. Games are highly plastic mediums that can be adapted to any environment and technology. Many game types have a close relationship in terms of game elements and design. However, the implementation of game elements from other mediums to the VR medium is challenging. Therefore, game design principles should be well-comprehended and implemented to the VR medium by considering the existed technology. Virtual reality takes the player and put him in a new virtual world. In this world, everything should be designed to be easily perceivable by the player. Thus, the human perception was reviewed as one of the design pillars. Virtual reality also offers an interactive experience that allows the user to affect the world. Like in traditional video games, players can interact and navigate in the virtual world. Therefore, interaction and navigation were reviewed as two other design pillars. Based on the reviewed design pillars, five VR games were analyzed. Then, a VR game design guideline is proposed based on common game design elements in those games


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Buckley ◽  
Tabea DeWille ◽  
Chris Exton ◽  
Geraldine Exton ◽  
Liam Murray

Gamification is the use of game design elements in nongame contexts and has been shown to be effective in motivating behavior change. By seeing game elements as “motivational affordances,” and formalizing the relationship between these elements and motivational affordances, it is the position of this article that gamification can be effectively applied to improve software systems across many different application domains. The research reported here aims to formalize the relationship between game elements and motivation, toward making gamification’s use more systematic. The focus is on the development of a framework linking commonly occurring game elements with the components of a psychological motivational model known as the self-determination theory, coupled with a proposed framework of commonly occurring game elements. The goal is to inform system designers who would like to leverage gamification of the game elements they would need to employ as motivational affordances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6679
Author(s):  
Terence Govender ◽  
Joan Arnedo-Moreno

Considerable changes have occurred in language learning with the introduction of gameful approaches in the classroom and the increase in the popularity of language applications like Duolingo. A review of existing studies on such approaches to language learning shows that gamification tends to be the most popular approach. However, this popularity has been achieved at the expense of other gameful approaches, such as the use of digital games. To gain a clearer picture of the developments and gaps in the digital game-based learning research, this paper examines and categorizes observations about game elements used in published papers (n = 114) where serious and digital games were tested in language education settings. Game element analysis reveals that (1) the most frequently occurring elements in digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) are feedback, theme, points, narrative, and levels; (2) even though there was significant variance in the number of elements observed in DGBLL, both the bespoke and off-the-shelf games show similar high-frequency elements; (3) DGBLL has been applied to vocabulary acquisition and retention in many cases, but lacks implementation and testing in input and output language skills; (4) although there is some consensus on the most frequent elements, the design patterns of common elements according to age group and target language skill show considerable variance; (5) more research is needed on less common design elements that have shown promise in encouraging language acquisition. The synthesis of information from the collected papers contributes to knowledge regarding DGBLL application design and will help formulate guidelines and detect efficacy patterns as the field continues to grow.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Behl ◽  
Vijay Pereira

The use of game design elements (often called gamification) by firms to engage the customers has attracted attention in recent times. These game elements contribute to shaping up customer’s motivation and loyalty. Gamification is explored from the lens of both empirical as well as an experimental methodological standpoint. There still lacks substantial evidence that explains how and which types of rewards help to understand the customer's motivation. The study addresses this gap by designing an experimental study of 2x2 to address how gamified mobile apps used for making payments can help capture customer’s loyalty by offering them rewards. Data is collected from 385 customers who have been using mobile apps to make payments in the past. The data were tested to check if gamification positively helps the user hedonic and utilitarian motivation, which then positively impacts their loyalty. The study is also moderated by type of rewards (direct cash rewards v/s indirect third party partnered rewards) on the relationship of gamification and customer loyalty mediated through motivation. The results confirm that mobile payment apps' cash rewards are more useful, especially when the degree of uncertainty in the game element is high (scratch card). Additionally, they contribute to a higher degree of utilitarian benefits to the customers. The results contribute to the extension of the self-determination theory and stimulus organism response framework as well.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aikaterini-Georgia Mavroeidi ◽  
Angeliki Kitsiou ◽  
Christos Kalloniatis ◽  
Stefanos Gritzalis

Gamification, the use of game design elements in applications that are not games, has been developed to provide attractive environments and maintain user interest in several domains. In domains such as education, marketing and health, where gamification techniques are applied, user engagement in applications has increased. In these applications the protection of users’ privacy is an important aspect to consider, due to the applications obtaining a record of the personal information of their users. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify if applications where gamification is applied do respect users’ privacy. For the accomplishment of this aim, two main steps have been implemented. Since the main principle of gamification is the existence of game elements, the first step was to identify the set of game elements recorded in the literature that are commonly applied in various applications. Afterwards, an examination of the relationship between these elements and privacy requirements was implemented in order to identify which elements conflict with the privacy requirements leading to potential privacy violations and which elements do not. Α conceptual model according to the results of this examination was designed, which presents how elements conflict with requirements. Based on the results, there are indeed game elements which can lead to privacy violations. The results of this work provide valuable guidance to software developers, especially during the design stages of gamified applications since it helps them to consider the protection of users’ privacy in parallel from the early stages of the application development onwards.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1575-1613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Brom ◽  
Tereza Stárková ◽  
Edita Bromová ◽  
Filip Děchtěrenko

Despite the increased interest in gamification approaches, there is a lack of comparative studies that shed light on the applicability of these approaches in educational contexts. In this explorative study, with an experimental design, university learners ( N = 98) studied a complex process (i.e., how to brew beer) in a 2-hour-long computerized simulation. In the experimental condition, the simulation featured the following game design elements: game goals, increased freedom of choice, points, virtual currency, and praise (i.e., a gamified simulation). These elements were absent in the simulation versions used in the two control conditions. No differences in learning outcomes and intrinsic motivation variables between the gamified simulation and its nongamified versions were observed. The gamified simulation was perceived to be significantly easier than the nongamified versions ([Formula: see text] = 0.10; d = 0.74, 0.42). Of the game elements used in this study, the participants perceived most positively a clear, game-like goal. The findings are consistent with self-determination theory, cognitive-affective theory of learning from media, and cognitive load theory. The findings also support the emerging notion that caution should be applied when using gamification approaches in educational contexts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimosthenis Kotsopoulos ◽  
Cleopatra Bardaki ◽  
Stavros Lounis ◽  
Katerina Pramatari

Gamification can be used to effect positive behavioral change in various fields, including energy conservation. This paper reports on a survey we conducted to formulate a holistic view of users’ profiles and preferences in an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled gamified mobile application that provides personalized energy-saving recommendation tips to employees, towards conserving energy and adopting a more green behavior at the workplace. The collected insight dictates that a gamified app promoting energy saving at the workplace may become a daily habit for its users if it at least includes three game design elements: progression, levels and points. Additionally, we complement existing design guidelines about the requirements of each HEXAD gamification user type (Philanthropist, Socializer, Free Spirit, Achiever, Disruptor, Player) in game elements, specifically for energy efficiency applications. Thus, we apply and validate the HEXAD gamification user typology in a new context – multicultural workplaces – as well as domain – energy-saving. Moreover, the collected insight inspired us to devise a modular, rule-based mechanism for formulating personalized energy-saving recommendation tips tailored to the users’ profiles and game design choices. This research may assist researchers, as well as practitioners, in designing personalized gamified behavioral interventions, especially towards energy conservation in workplaces.


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