Validation of a gamification design guide: Does a gamification booklet help UX designers to be more creative?

Abstract

Gamification is a recent concept describing a game - inspired interface design technique aimed at driving user engagement and motivation in non-game systems. Although not a new idea the gamification concept is currently very popular, since it promises happy consumers and more productive companies full of hard-working and loyal employees. Faced with constant failure and poor game design, we have tested the effectiveness of a guide initially described in Marache-Francisco and Brangier [7]. It introduces the design process based on user-centered design and also provides a tool box (gamification principles, decision trees to guide designers’ choices, a grid detailing design elements by category) and examples of application. To validate this guide, 29 designers, divided into two groups (with/without guide), were given the task of gamifying a standard computer system. The results show that using the guide fostered fluidity (number of elements), flexibility (number of elements per strategy), originality (new ideas) and development (number of secondary ideas). We then discuss the contributions and limits of this research followed by suggestions for other areas of research.