Improving Tertiary Students’ Mental Health via Gamified Extensible E-Commerce- Well-Being Minigames (Eco) Systems: A Preliminary Case Study

Abstract

Good mental health among tertiary students influences productivity and well-being. However, sometimes, due to lack of planning/time management and communication skills, students' stress, anxiety and depression (SAD) have increasingly worsened. This study integrates e-commerce-mental health/well-being mini-games with gamification as the connector, contextualized within goal-based scenarios and rule-based personalized recommendations for different market segments in a mobile app, Mindful Quest. Requirements Engineering, User Experience pragmatic-hedonistic qualities, Technology Acceptance Models, and the integrated drivers of online shopping model are applied as frameworks, design and assessment guides. Mini games include self-care activities and adventure/time management (analogically reflective), communication/caring activities (outward/societal outlook), and self-paced educational library (enrichment). Preliminary survey findings from purposive sampling indicate congruence is reflected in value (and price) consciousness, technological factors, and browsing enjoyment. Analogical to weights, the average for the importance of clarity (ease of use) is 89%, for mental health/well-being activities (usefulness) 88%, and productivity (the most important value) 91%. The most important strengths are gamification (47%) and enjoyment from mixed content (e.g. education/personal growth and entertainment; work and self-care; productivity and mental health/well-being goals; self-care and rewards) with gamification for 2some (17%). These findings contrast with two related literature which weigh hedonistic higher than pragmatic qualities, congruence as different from value consciousness, and demographics/society over individuality in decision making; highlighting age, income and gender as moderating factors. Due to Mindful Quests' object-orientation, it is possible to instantiate/adapt/abstract/link to external stacks/(eco) systems. Limitations are small sample size, purposive sampling and subjectivity in perceptions.