All Work and All Play? A Framework to Design Game-based Information Systems

Abstract

Organizations have increasingly sought to develop and use game-based information systems to increase engagement among employees or customers. However, many game-based information systems have failed due to poor design. Game-based information systems’ design must align with an organization’s need or problem and users’ motives. To help designers create game-based information systems that align with an organization’s needs, we present the game-based system design framework (GSDF). Designers can use this framework to select game-based elements to support aesthetics, dynamics, and mechanics to encourage intrinsic or extrinsic motivation among users. We also create a game-based system design diagram (GSDD) and process in the spirit of UML diagrams for designers to communicate game-based information system designs. We explain how one can use the GSDF and GSDD and their value for practice and research.