Investigating the Relationship Between User Ratings and Gamification – A Review of mHealth Apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store

Gamification of mHealth apps is regarded as a promising approach to counteract decreasing long-term motivation of mHealth app users. Although gamification has received tremendous attention from researchers interested in mHealth apps, little is known about the extent to which gamification is used in real world mHealth apps today and whether the implementation of gamification actually pays off for app developers by, for example, positively influencing user ratings. Within this research, we investigate the implementation of game mechanics for 1,000 apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as well as the potential relationship between the degree of gamification of mHealth apps and their user ratings. While our results highlight a high degree of adoption of gamification for both app stores, they also indicate a positive relationship between the degree of gamification of an mHealth app and user ratings for the Apple App Store only

Conceptualizing Narratives in Gamified Information Systems

Converging hedonic and utilitarian elements under the label of gamification has become an important phenomenon in information systems over the last decade. Yet, academic discourse on narratives in gamified IS remains scarce. To advance scholarly engagement, this study recontextualizes the concept of narratives for gamified IS. Based on the theoretical lens of hedonic and utilitarian consumption, we conducted a hermeneutic literature review in which we engaged with existing conceptualizations of narratives in a total of 84 studies across various disciplines. Results include a basic conceptualization of narratives complemented by six claims that may shape our way of thinking about narratives in gamified IS. Our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of narratives in gamified IS that goes beyond that of traditional game elements. It may serve as a cornerstone for further discourse on narratives and how to meaningfully design them in gamified IS

Benefits of Augmented Reality in Educational Environments - A Systematic Literature Review

By augmenting the real world with virtual information, Augmented Reality (AR) provides new possibilities for education. Although AR is frequently applied in educational environments, the value of AR applications in these environments is not yet investigated in its entirety. Additionally, educators face different directions of AR applications, which may differ regarding their potential benefits. To help overcome these challenges, we conduct a systematic literature review to synthesize a set of 25 publications. We identify 14 different benefits and cluster these into six different groups. We use the Five Directions of AR in educational environments by Yuen et al. [1] to further detail possible benefits for different directions of AR applications. Our findings indicate that specific directions of AR applications are more likely to lead to certain benefits such as increased motivation. Future research is needed to investigate the causality between benefits and directions of AR in more detail

Special Issue Editorial: Adaptive and Intelligent Gamification Design

This editorial provides an overview of the three accepted papers for the AIS THCI special issue on adaptive and intelligent gamification designs. The first paper examines conversational agents and how one can use gamification to make the design more engaging. The second study focuses on mobile fitness apps and analyzes the role that personality plays in apps and game designs. Finally, the third paper examines gamification in a virtual laboratory environment. Aligned with current work, we present future research directions that involve generative AI, the metaverse, and a shift in gamification research and practice in the future

Users’ Game Design Element Preferences in Health Behavior Change Support Systems for Physical Activity: A Best-Worst-Scaling Approach

Over the last decades, physical inactivity has become one of the leading health risk factors in modern societies. To incentivize people to be more physically active, gamified health behavior change support systems (HBCSSs) are a promising approach. These systems often make use of gamification to keep their users engaged over a sustained period of time. However, despite its popularity, gamification often fails due to insufficient designs, which neglect users’ needs. Building on extant research that investigated users’ preferences in other gamification contexts, we conduct a survey among 447 potential users of HBCSSs for physical activity, using a best-worst-scaling approach. Our results indicate that users generally prefer the game design elements progress, goals, points, and levels, which is partially different from past research on preferred game design elements in other contexts. Thus, our research contributes to the understanding of contextual differences in users’ gamification preferences

State of Play: A Citation Network Analysis of Healthcare Gamification Studies

Researchers and practitioners alike increasingly recognize gamification as a potential tool to evoke desired behaviours in patients, healthcare professionals, and healthy end-users aiming to live a healthier lifestyle. Thus, the number of scientific publications in healthcare gamification is rapidly increasing and due to the interdisciplinary nature of the research field, knowledge about this topic is being scattered over many research communities. Building on a large number of articles on healthcare gamification and utilizing citation network analysis, this study sheds fur-ther light on the extant knowledge on healthcare gamification. Based on our approach, we were able to (1) evaluate essential articles and authors covering the topic, (2) analyse the recent de-velopment of research on healthcare gamification, and (3) identify past research foci and knowledge gaps in our knowledge on healthcare gamification. By doing so, we call for further research on healthcare gamification and provide researchers with potential avenues for future research projects

Adaptive and Personalized Gamification Designs: Call for Action and Future Research

Gamification refers to the use of game-like elements in non-entertainment contexts to make activities more engaging and enjoyable to improve utilitarian outcomes. The gamification literature and the use of gamification in practice suggest that gamification can be a useful tool to support behavioral and psychological changes. Recent developments show that there is potential for new waves of gamification research. Therefore, we conducted a workshop at the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 2021 to discuss the future of gamification with interested scholars. The discussion with 25 gamification experts led to a research agenda that supports the need for adaptive and personalized gamification designs. Together with the experts, we identify three clusters for future research: 1) the personalization of gamification concepts, 2) theories and concepts for gamified human-computer interaction, and 3) the “dark side” of gamification (e.g., addiction). We also address what the gamification concept means. Aligned with the three clusters, we provide valuable starting points for future research inquiries to help researchers better understand the nature of gamification. We also discuss the capabilities and limits of gamification

Beyond Data Markets: Opportunities and Challenges for Distributed Ledger Technology in Genomics

During the past decade, distributed ledger technology (DLT) has found its way into application areas outside finance, such as supply chain management, the Internet of Things, or health care. To this end, this novel technology phenomenon has recently also caught the attention of researchers and practitioners in genomics. Although various DLT-based data markets for genome data already exist or are in development, the potential of DLT in this context is far from exhausted, whereas the possible risks related to the application of DLT in genomics are not yet sufficiently known. In this work, we investigate the potential opportunities and challenges for the application of DLT in the field of genomics. Thus, we make an important contribution to the safe and socially acceptable use of DLT in this unique and highly relevant use context

The Role of Gamification in Health Behavior Change: A Review of Theory-driven Studies

Gamification is increasingly being recognized as a tool to support a change in individuals’ health behaviors. However, how and under which circumstances gamification is able to support health behavior change is still largely unexplored. This study follows the call for more theory-driven research on gamification by investigating the role of gamification in health behavior change theories (HBCTs). In order to do so, we conducted a systematic review of extant literature and identified 25 studies that explore the role of gamification in the process of health behavior change to some extent. We found large discrepancies in how the authors of these studies conceptualized the role of gamification in their theory-driven health interventions. To further strengthen theory-driven research on gamification in health and well-being, we additionally propose concrete research questions. These may guide future researchers to identify valuable avenues for further explaining and predicting the influences of gamification on health behavior change

On the Convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology: A Scoping Review and Future Research Agenda

Developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) currently lead to lively debates in academia and practice. AI processes data to perform tasks that were previously thought possible only for humans. DLT has the potential to create consensus over data among a group of participants in uncertain environments. In recent research, both technologies are used in similar and even the same systems. Examples include the design of secure distributed ledgers or the creation of allied learning systems distributed across multiple nodes. This can lead to technological convergence, which in the past, has paved the way for major innovations in information technology. Previous work highlights several potential benefits of the convergence of AI and DLT but only provides a limited theoretical framework to describe upcoming real-world integration cases of both technologies. We aim to contribute by conducting a systematic literature review on previous work and providing rigorously derived future research opportunities. This work helps researchers active in AI or DLT to overcome current limitations in their field, and practitioners to develop systems along with the convergence of both technologies