Gamification strategies to improve the motivation and performance in accessibility information collection

Abstract

The high cost of dispatching professionals to physically audit locations limits the coverage of accessibility maps. Vision-based techniques and crowdsourcing using streetscape imagery are beneficial as they do not entail physical visits by people to actual locations. However, they exhibit limitations such as outdated photos and occlusions. In-the-field crowdsourcing enables physical collection of accessibility information at a low cost. The effectiveness of this technique is contingent on people with free time and high motivation to visit actual locations. In this paper, we introduce a crowdsourcing platform for constructing accessibility maps that support people with diverse free times and motivations. A combination of field auditing and field sensing, coupled with including and excluding gamification is explored. Game types are determined based on the characteristics of field auditing and field sensing. The experimental results confirm that gamification improves the motivation levels and performance of participants in certain aspects of crowdsourced field auditing and crowdsourced field sensing. Furthermore, the results indicate that item collection games have a greater impact on the motivation for taking unusual roads to collect accessibility information than continuous walking games.