Designing Leaderboards for Gamification: Perceived Differences Based on User Ranking, Application Domain, and Personality Traits

Leaderboards, a common gamification technique, are used to enhance engagement through social comparisons. Prior research has demonstrated the overall utility of leaderboards but has not examined their effectiveness when individuals are ranked at particular levels or when the technique is applied in different application domains, such as social networking, fitness, or productivity. In this paper, we present a survey study investigating how preferences for leaderboards change based on individual differences (personality traits), ranking, social scoping, and application domains. Our results show that a respondent's position on the leaderboard had important effects on their perception of the leaderboard and the surrounding app, and that participants rated leaderboards most favorably in fitness apps and least favorably in social networking contexts. More extraverted people reported more positive experiences with leaderboards despite their ranking or the application domain. We present design implications for creating leaderboards targeted at different domains and for different audiences

A Framework for Introducing and Sustaining Play at Work

This paper presents a framework for introducing and sustaining play at work, focusing on its impact on creativity, problem solving, team performance, psychological safety, and organizational change. The author explores the concept of playfulness in a work setting and its potential to foster divergent thinking. Drawing on a real-life scenario involving a team of high school students participating in a Destination Imagination challenge, the paper highlights the role of play and risk-taking in problem-solving processes. The study emphasizes the importance of creating an environment that encourages play and experimentation while maintaining a sense of safety and support. The findings suggest incorporating play into work environments can enhance creativity, team collaboration, and innovative problem-solving approaches. This framework offers valuable insights for individuals and organizations seeking to cultivate a culture of play in various domains, including work, education, and social movements

Study on the Use of Serious Games in Business Education

With rapid advance of information technology (IT), computer-based gaming has flourished for decades. Gaming becomes a part of modern culture, especially among emerging digital generations. In addition to the entertaining purpose, attempts are made to use games for serious purpose, such as education and training. With the genuine characteristics that bring enjoyment, engagement, and context, games are considered good tools for business education and training that support or even may substitute the traditional learning methods. However, there is a dearth of research with regards to the comprehensive view of how people can learn business topics through serious games and transfer the value of business games to the work practices. To fill the gap, this dissertation research focuses on the use of serious games in business education and training. In Study I, the two main elements of serious games, namely seriousness and playfulness, and how these elements play roles in game-based learning process, are investigated. From two SEM (Structural Equation Model) analyses of quantitative data from 190 MBA students who have experienced business simulation games, seriousness and playfulness are shown to explain significant parts of the game-based learning process with several antecedents. In addition, Study II investigates the potentially transferrable values of business simulation games to the business practices based on the qualitative data from 43 business professionals who have experienced various business simulation games in their Professional MBA program. The result of analyzing the business professionals’ arguments in Toulmin’s framework, various values of serious games in business practice are found. Overall, this dissertation research contributes in providing fundamental insights for future studies regarding the use of serious games in business education and training context. Also, the findings from the research provide implications to the practitioners who consider using serious games in business

Persuasive Gaming in Context

The rapid developments in new communication technologies have facilitated the popularization of digital games, which has translated into an exponential growth of the game industry in recent decades. The ubiquitous presence of digital games has resulted in an expansion of the applications of these games from mere entertainment purposes to a great variety of serious purposes. In this edited volume, we narrow the scope of attention by focusing on what game theorist Ian Bogost has called 'persuasive games', that is, gaming practices that combine the dissemination of information with attempts to engage players in particular attitudes and behaviors.This volume offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming, that is, on the process of these particular games being played by players. The purpose is to better understand when and how digital games can be used for persuasion by further exploring persuasive games and some other kinds of persuasive playful interaction as well. The book critically integrates what has been accomplished in separate research traditions to offer a multidisciplinary approach to understanding persuasive gaming that is closely linked to developments in the industry by including the exploration of relevant case studies

Explore the relations between personality and gamification

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Successful gamification motivates users to engage in systems using game-like experiences. However, a one-size-fits-all approach to gamification is often unsuccessful; prior studies suggest that personality serves as a key differentiator in the effectiveness of the approach. To advance the understanding of personality differences and their influence on users’ behavior and motivation in gamification, this dissertation is comprised of three studies that: 1) explore the relationships among individuals’ personality traits and preferences for different gamification features through an online survey; 2) investigate how people with different personality traits respond to the motivational affordances in a gamified application over a period of time through a diary study; and 3) reveal how individuals respond differentially to different kinds of leaderboard experiences based on their leaderboard rankings, the application domain, and the individuals’ personality traits through their responses to 9 dynamic leaderboards. The results from the first study show that extraversion and emotional stability are the two primary personality traits that differentiate users’ preferences for gamification. Among the 10 types of motivational affordances, extraverts are more likely to be motivated by Points, Levels, and Leaderboards. However, the results from the second (diary) study indicate that, after the first week, extraverts’ preferences for Points decreased. The motivation effects of Points and Leaderboards changed over the course of using the gamified application. The results from the third study confirm the findings from the first two studies about extraversion and revealed that ranking and domain differences are also effective factors in users’ experiences of Leaderboards in gamification. Design guidelines for gamification are presented based on the results of each of the three studies. Based on a synthesis of the results from these three studies, this dissertation proposes a conceptual model for gamification design. The model describes not only the impact of personality traits, domain differences, and users’ experience over time, but also illustrates the importance of considering individual differences, application context, and the potential significance of user persistence in gamification design. This research contributes to the HCI and gamification communities by uncovering factors that will affect the way that people respond to gamification systems, considered holistically

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities