Gamification Design Elements to Enhance Adolescent Motivation in Diagnosing Depression

Abstract

Depression is a critical public health problem, mainly when it affects young people (adolescents). This condition is most challenging to detect in this group because they tend to think about other people’s negative assumptions. Adolescents with depressive symptoms refuse to seek professional help due to their stigma and their future if they were labeled as depressed teenagers. Depression is a severe mental issue that should be detected from an early stage so that the problem can be curbed and resolved immediately. Diagnosis should be carried out to assess mental health, followed by referral to professional help. This study aims to motivate adolescents to diagnose depression levels through gamification techniques. Fifty-three secondary students participated in a survey designed in this study to measure motivation enhancement factors. The result of this study was used to develop a depression diagnosis model. The proposed model applied a gamification design technique consisting of three main ideas: gamification elements, user types, and motivational elements. This model will serve as the foundation to develop a mobile application system that can benefit users, especially adolescents, in self-diagnosing depression.