Gamification offers methods for influencing human behaviour that are not available with other approaches to behaviour-change interventions. Its widespread and successful use in business, education, and health care notwithstanding, it has so far not been extensively used for improving sustainability, nor have its underlying psychological principles been studied in depth. This dissertation investigates gamification with a special focus on the role of perspective taking and emotion. A gamified behaviour-change app was compared with a standard app and a webpage for its effect on participants’ sustainable behaviours. During the one month period the participants engaged with the intervention, they kept diaries about their experience with sustainability and the technology. Furthermore, the influence of dramatic elements was tested through an augmented reality approach. Gamification encourages longer engagement with the intervention, thereby influencing behaviour. Specifically, gamification increases knowledge about and willingness to invest effort into sustainable behaviours. Dramatic elements, using the power of narrative persuasion and immersion, are important aspects to consider in gamification. The theory of behavioural choice can fruitfully serve as a psychological model of how gamification affects behaviour. / Graduate

<div>Growing automobile dependency and usage continue to exacerbate traffic congestion, air pollution, and physical inactivity in metropolitan areas. Extensive efforts have been made to leverage advanced technology and related policies to influence short- (within-day and day-to-day) and long-term (mobility and lifestyle) travel decisions to address these issues from the system operator and individual traveler perspectives. However, most studies have yet to address system operator and individual traveler needs together; provide sufficient understanding of the impacts of such technologies on safety and health; and consider the impacts of distinctive regional and political characteristics on responses to different policies among population subgroups.</div><div>This dissertation seeks to facilitate the leveraging of information technologies and related policies to influence short- and long-term travel decisions by: (1) developing a framework for apps that integrate augmented reality, gamification, and social component to influence travel decisions that address multiple user- and system-level goals, (2) understanding the safety and health impacts of these apps, (3) developing strategies to influence residential location decision-making to foster sustainable post-relocation travel behavior, (4) investigating the impacts of economic and legal policies on travel decisions by considering distinctive regional and political characteristics.</div><div>This dissertation can provide insights to system operators for designing a new generation of apps to dynamically manage traffic in real-time, promote long-term mode shifts from single-occupancy driving to carpooling, public transit use, walking and cycling, and address individual traveler needs. The dissertation also presents app mechanisms for providing feedback to legislators and app developers for designing policies and apps geared towards safe usage and promoting the physical and mental health of its users. </div><div>In addition, by considering the impacts of distinctive regional and political characteristics on population subgroups in terms of their responses to information technologies and economic and legal policies, additional measures can be deployed to support and facilitate the implementation of such technologies and policies.</div><div><br></div>

Gamification has previously demonstrated successful results when it comes to increasing the user retention rate in many different sectors. Non-profit charity organisations have for the last 10 years had a retention rate that is below 50%. This thesis investigates the possibility of increasing the user retention rate in the non-profit charity application The Life You Can Save(TLYCS) by implementing gamification. The gamification mechanic that was chosen for implementation was achievements. To measure understandability the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire was used, the four satisfaction scores of the questionnaire were measured with a number between one and seven. Sven represented the highest number and one represented the lowest number. All four satisfaction scores had an average number that was higher than 6. Because of the previously proved successful results of gamification and a usable implementation of achievements in the mobile application TLYCS the possibility of an increased user retention rate is assessed to be high.

How can coaching services encourage user engagement? The objective of this thesis has been to conduct research with a service design approach of what changes can be made to a service to further engage and motivate users. The already existing service provided by Scania called Driver Coaching is used as a case study. The thesis contributes to research by exploring how coaching services can implement gamification aspects in its customer journey. Using said case study as an example, user studies were conducted and resulted in an extensive list of insights and user needs. A gamification framework called Octalysis was used to locate what aspects of the service that could be changed in order to increase user motivation. The user needs and the lacking core drives in the current Octalysis were connected during the ideation phase. Connecting the gamification theory with the service design case study, a design proposal took form. In this case study, the design proposal is a modular concept with five different components that can be implemented in the service on their own or all together. Even though this design proposal is specific to the case study, the process of using the gamification theory and methods could be applied to other cases.

Abstract Background:  Both the fitness and gamification industry are booming with no signs of slowing down in the near future. Gamified applications are entering the markets, attempting to induce gameful elements into tedious environments to enhance intrinsic motivation. The same goes for the gym sector, as market leaders, such as the Swedish gym chain Nordic Wellness, are increasingly implementing gamification elements into their business models.   Problem: The true effectiveness of gamification on intrinsic motivation remains underdeveloped. Literature highlights the necessity of adapting gamification design towards the end-user, by considering the different effects from the individual game elements and the context. However, the gym context has been completely neglected, even though gamification has become increasingly utilized in this sector.     Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the body of knowledge on how extrinsic mechanisms such as gamification can influence intrinsic motivation. This study utilizes the context of a gamified gym application for Nordic Wellness to determine the motivational potential of game elements. Thereby, the research team attempts to add to the body of literature by expanding on the effectiveness of gamification on intrinsic motivation, while also contributing through entering a currently undiscovered domain of gamification in the gym context.   Method: A qualitative approach with fifteen semi-structured interviews has been conducted on young Swedish adults attending the Swedish gym chain Nordic Wellness.   Results: The findings suggest Self-Determination Theory as a valid framework to examine the effects of gamification on intrinsic motivations. Through connecting the identified themes and theory, a framework is proposed for the evaluation on the effectiveness of game elements on intrinsic motivation. From evaluating the discussed game elements through this framework, recommendations are made for a gamified gym application that is argued to positively satisfy the psychological needs and therefore enhance the intrinsic motivations in a gym context.

Gamification as an educational tool has been explored extensively in traditional academic contexts such as universities and schools. There is however a lack of research on the usage of games for educational purposes in organizations, and even less research has evaluated games’ potential in creating organizational awareness. To understand if companies could benefit from gamification, this study looked at how employees’ professional backgrounds, social interaction and context during a game experience can influence employees’ awareness of the organization. In order to do that, a digital game that portrayed the supply chain process of an industrial company and focused on specific key aspects was built and tested with 17 employees in a large international organization. The results show that digital games can further both awareness of the organization by letting employees play and experience key aspects of the delivery process. The most noticeable increase in awareness were with the participants whose work is not directly involved in the supply chain.

While much attention in location-based game and wearable research is about their benefits as in-class education or is aimed at children, rather less research has been done about the combination of location-based games and wearables in private use. This paper investigates a game solution for the low history knowledge of German teenagers and focuses on the learning success of the combination of a proposed location-based mobile game and wearable, called ‘Geocation’ for educational purposes as well as the enjoyment of it. Two prototype sets, functional and appearance, about the location-relevant topic ‘King Ludwig II’ were created and tested with 36 teenagers in Munich. To analyze the learning success pre-and post-test surveys were conducted and applied to the strategy of gamification. The enjoyment of the combination of the location-based mobile game and wearable was evaluated by connecting it to the GameFlow theory and conducting post-test interviews. The study has shown that the connected wearable was not crucial for the player’s learning success; however, it contributed to the user’s motivation and enjoyment.

Gamification är ett relativt nytt fenomen som blir mer vedertaget i företagsvärlden. Kort beskrivet innebär det att spelmekanismer och spelelement implementeras i en icke-spelkontext, exempelvis inom ett informationssystem på ett företag. Detta görs för att stimulera motivation och engagemang från användarna och på så sätt bidra med nöjdare, mer tillfredsställda anställda och högre resultat. Trots att fenomenet blir allt vanligare på arbetsplatser saknas forskning om hur användarna upplever att arbeta på ett gamifierat sätt.    Vi har med denna studie undersökt användarnas egna upplevelser och jämfört dessa med hur arbetsledarna reflekterar över den påverkan gamification har på anställda. Detta har gjorts för att nyansera förståelsen för hur gamification påverkar användare inom en callcenterkontext. Vi undersöker även hur väl syftet är förankrat och förstått av användarna. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats där data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer där empirin sedan kodades efter teman vanliga inom området.   Resultatet visar på att det finns olika uppfattningar om vad gamifications syfte är, men den vanligaste uppfattning är att det syftar till att göra arbetet mer tillfredsställande. I frågan om hur användarna upplever att arbeta i ett gamifierat system kom vi fram till ett flertal teman där motivation, tillfredsställelse samt engagemang var mest förekommande upplevelserna. Vi fann även att upplevelser såsom stress, press och frustration var förekommande vilket inte diskuterats utförligt i tidigare litteratur inom gamification. Vi hittade även likheter och skillnader mellan användares och arbetsledares perspektiv gällande hur gamification upplevs av användare. De mer märkbara likheterna vi fann var upplevelser om tillfredsställelse och nöje samt ett ökat engagemang. Dock fann vi skillnader i hur användare och arbetsledare uppfattade motivationsfaktorer, upplevd motivation inom gamification samt huruvida användare upplevde stress.

Gamification is the use of elements and mechanics from the video-game industry in contexts which are not game-related. Gamification has, in the last decade, become a popular way to enhance a lot of contexts, such as medicine, business and education, by creating intrinsic motivation and engagement as well as changing behavior in the userbase. While a big part of the published science related to gamification is concerned with the question of “does gamification work?”, the question of what makes it work and why it works have gotten less attention. This study researches how to design a gamification experience in the context of education in the best possible way, including what the most common pitfalls are and how to avoid them, by studying the published literature on gamification in the context of education. The results of the study suggest that adhering to the self-determination theory (SDT) from the field of psychology is important in creating intrinsic motivation, and that a key part of gamification design may lie in choosing game elements which fulfil the three basic needs proposed by SDT: relatedness, competence and autonomy. A common pitfall in the design of gamification seems to be failure to fulfill these three needs. The study also shows that while gamification yields positive results for many people, a small but significant portion of the population does not gain any benefit from many gamification experiences. This suggests that an analysis of the future users of the gamification experience should be done prior to designing the gamification experience. Lastly, useful design principles are also found and discussed.

Serious games can be used for a vast amount of different purposes and they change the way we think, learn, and entertain ourselves. The focus of this paper will be more about learning or educational games and how the adaptation of content through personalized preferences can be of an importance for capturing the user’s interest and retaining their motivation. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the content adaptation of a serious game target group in order to maintain their motivation to achieve the learning outcome. The players of serious games usually have a goal or motivation prior to begin playing a game. Those goals may include the learning of a new language or increasing one's geography or math skills. By adapting the content of a serious game to the level of knowledge of a player or giving the player the opportunity to choose in what field they would like to increase their knowledge in, could be a factor to maintain the player motivation up until the goal of the player is achieved. In this paper, an adaptive educational game has been developed to examine whether a target group with personalized content will indicate a higher motivation to play the game than another group which will be playing the direct version of the game without any personalized content.