Gamified design method

The method of service design with gamification is described in this section. After analyzing the results of user research, design process is started with defining user scenarios, UX goals, and skill atom. These designing concepts are considered to be the background supports. As an essential part in the designing process, gamification aims to emerge potential game design elements which are called affordances in this thesis into the visual and interaction design.

3.4.1 Human-Centered Design (HCD)

The role of Human-Centered Design (HCD) is defined as “the process that ensures that the designs match the needs and capabilities of the people for whom they are intended” (Norman, 1990, p.9). HCD emphasizes the understanding of people and their needs and desires. The process of interactive design process is presented in Figure 8.

Figure 8. The Iterative Cycle of Human-Centered Design (Norman, 1990, p.222)

The step of observation focuses on target user group. It aims to get connection to the user and consider their interests and motivations into designing. In this thesis, the understanding of users is based on the initial user research.

In the step of idea generation, to illustrate the potential gamified solution, scenario as an analysis tool in HCD is used to specify the context of use. A scenario presents the action sequence of the user and events occur in the interaction process, which are included in the usage context. Scenarios are considered to direct attention to the usage scenes and provide thinking from the users’ perspective. (Rosson & Carroll, 2002)

In addition, to understand and describe the user experience requirements, UX goals are defined in this thesis to guide the design. The goals are the designer’s intention of experiences perceived by end-users. The operationalized UX goals are defined as experiential requirements for the design. (Väätäjä et.al., 2015)

The prototyping in this thesis is an attempt of gamifying the mobile public feedback service. To present the game design elements better, high-fidelity prototype is built with high level of details and functionality. The participants can interact with the prototype on mobile device. The usability and visual aesthetics of user interface are considered into the prototyping.

The step of testing is described in Section 3.5.

3.4.2 Skill atom for gameful design

Cook (2007) describes the player’s process of interacting with game as the acquisition of new skills (see Figure 9). A skill refers to a behavior of manipulating the world. The players are driven consciously or subconsciously to learn new skills. On the one hand, “play is instinctual.” People tend to purse some meaningful stimulation when they are in a dull or depressed situation. On the other hand, the rewards from the process of learning and understanding skills and knowledge bring the enjoyable experience. Cook (2007) claims that games can serve the positive emotion of players. In addition, players are considered to prefer the skills with higher perceived value.

Figure 9. The player follows clues to the acquisition of a new skill (Cook, 2007)

Based on the player model, the process of gaining a new skill via gaming can be described as an “atomic feedback loop called a skill atom”. The loop is comprised with four elements of player action, stimulation, feedback, and modeling. The skill atom can be described as: based on the player’s action, the game performs ongoing stimulation with different forms of feedback to indicate situation changes. The modeling refers to the final step that the player perceives the feedback and expresses psychological changes. The whole process is considered to be looped before the player grasp this skill. (Cook, 2007) Deterding (2015) amended a more structured skill atom (see Figure 10) for feedback loop of user identify, goal, actions, and motivation between the user and the gamified system. The feedback loop is organized around a certain challenge (or skill). The intention of

users is considered to be motivated and directed by their psychological needs. For achieving the goal, the user attempts certain actions upon the objects. There are some rules refer to the specification that the user needs to obey when doing actions. To response the actions from the user, the system should give feedback that informs the user the changing system states.

Figure 10. Schematic of a skill atom (Deterding, 2015, p.314)

3.4.3 Gamification affordances

The gamified systems build up from multiple game elements that help the user to achieve planned tasks with aimed actions. Based on the literature review in Section 2.3.2, the potential gamification used in the services would be described empirically within the elements summarized in Table 6, which is mainly adapted from gamification affordances studied in the empirical research papers by Majuri et.al (2018), and game components proposed by Yee (2006).

Components Elements

Achievement Progress (Levels, points, scores, badges, certificates) Challenge (Missions, tasks, goals, quests)

Status (Leaderboard, rankings)

Social Socializing (Casual social networking features)

Cooperation (Teamwork, assistance, group achievements) Competition (Peer-comparison)

Interaction (Peer-rating, collective voting, domination)

Immersion Customization (Avatars, characters, virtual identity)

Discovery (Storytelling, game rounds, virtual world exploration, adventure) Role-playing (Dialogues, roles, storyline, character history)

Virtual support (Virtual currency, pets)

The use of gamification is expected to support both pragmatic and hedonic aspects of the system. The main objectives of implementing gamification can be described below: - Pragmatic quality:

- The gameful design element should help the user to do the tasks in a more effective and efficient way. (Usefulness and Ease of use)

- Hedonic quality:

- The gameful design elements can support to create a pleasure using experience. (Enjoyment)

- The gamified system can be used in a playful game environment. (Playfulness)