MOBILE GAMIFICATIONJonathan R. Engelsma, Ph.D.GVSU School of Computing

TOPICS

• About GVSU CIS / MASL

•Motivation

• Gamification and the Power of Play

• Social Persuasion

• Lessons from the Field

PADNOS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

• PCEC consists of:

• School of Computing

• School of Engineering

• 1530 students total

• Undergraduate and Graduate degree programs.

CIS UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS• ABET Accredited

• Undergraduate Programs:

• Computer Science

• Information Systems

• 550 Students

• ~ 40 CS graduates annually

• ~ 40-50 IS graduates annually

CIS GRADUATE PROGRAMS

• Graduate Programs

• Computer Information Systems

•Medical & Bio-Informatics

• ~ 80 students total

• ~30 MS graduates annually

MOBILE APPS & SERVICES LAB • A multidisciplinary/collaborative

initiative hosted by the GVSU School of Computing

• Provides an environment that facilitates learning and discovery in the area of mobile technology.

• Emphasis on collaboration and “application research”.

More Info: http://masl.cis.gvsu.edu

MOTIVATION

“THE DEVICE FORMALLY KNOWN AS THE CELL PHONE”

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT...

Source: http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/how-many-apps-in-each-app-store/

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT...

Attracting and sustaining user engagement is becoming increasingly difficult endeavor!

Gamification is one technique being used to encourage sustained engagement.

GAMIFICATION AND THE POWER OF PLAY

“ACCIDENTAL” POWER OF PLAY

• Case in Point: Ian Bogost’s “Cow Clicker” Game

• partly satire

• partly a theory of today’s social games

• partly an earnest example of a social game

Source: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/all/1

Buy more cows with “mooney”

GAMIFICATION

gamification: definition: the use of game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems

(It’s really just a buzzword created by clever marketers to get corporate types to pay $$ to attend summits and

conferences!)

GAME MECHANICS: BADGES

• Badging: an idea that FourSquare lifted from the Boy Scouts.

• Represent progress/accomplishment

• often used in lieu of leveling.

LEVELS

• Levels indicate progress. They inform the user (and his/her friends) know where they stand.

• Usually not linear.

• Used by airlines and credit card issuers for years!

LEADERBOARDS

• Used to help users make a quick visual comparison and hopefully motivate them to engage.

• Earlier versions actually disincentivized users!

POINTS

Twitter users liketo increase their

number of followers as it is an indicator of their

influence.

POINTS

Facebook like and comment counters

are examples of point systems as

well, and they exist to encourage engagement.

POINTS

Simple scalar value behind eBay user names is a key

motivator - do lots of transactions and make sure they are

permanent!

QUESTS / CHALLENGES

• Provide specific directions for something (hopefully interesting and awarding) that users can do within the app experience.

SOCIAL PERSUASION

SOCIAL PERSUASION An interesting “social phishing” experiment:

Source: From:  Tom  Jaga+c  and  Nathan  Johnson  and  Markus  Jakobsson  and  Filippo  Menczer.  Social  Phishing.  CACM  October  2007.

SOCIAL PERSUASION The results....

Source: From:  Tom  Jaga+c  and  Nathan  Johnson  and  Markus  Jakobsson  and  Filippo  Menczer.  Social  Phishing.  CACM  October  2007.

LESSONS FROM THE FIELD

MY “COW CLICK” EXPERIENCE• Where’s Blue - An addictive “dog catching” game...

• Incentivizing the harvest of Bluetooth addresses in public places

Reference: J. Engelsma, J. Ferrans, and M. Hans. EncounterEngine: Integrating Bluetooth User Proximity Data into Social Applications.Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Wireless & Mobile Computing, Networking & Communication. October 2008. Avignon, France

GVSU ART GALLERY APP NOT GETTING USED VERY MUCH...

!

ART PLAY @ GVSU

ART PLAY - SITUATED DISPLAY

ART PLAY @ GVSU RESULTS

ART PLAY @ GVSU RESULTS

THINGS WE LEARNED

• Game content cannibalized the non-game content.

• tight integration of game features in non-game content is key.

• People will do just about anything for free stuff.

• Situated displays had little quantitative impact, but did have a qualitative impact on how user’s played the game.

SHOP SOCIAL• Shop Social is a “social”

barcode scanning app.

• Finds relevant video content for products that you scan.

• Integrates with Facebook.

• Incorporates simple game mechanics to encourage engagement.

ACTIVITY PER AUTHENTICATED USER

Authenticated users (10% of overall user population) produced 43% of all the activities!

ENGAGEMENT BY PLATFORM

WHAT WE LEARNED

• Authenticated users are substantially more engaged than non-authenticated users.

• Video content shares better than photos and other types of static content.

• Significant difference in engagement levels on iOS vs. Android. (That is diminishing now.)

• Badges really do suck.

PARABOLAX

• A study on learner engagement in serious games.

• Implemented a game that helps middle school students learn about quadratic equations.

• Collected data in middle schools around the country.

PARABOLAX

RESULTS• Using ParabolaX helped me understand quadratic functions

better :

76%

24%

Full Version

Agree

Disagree 50% 50%

Basic Version

Agree

Disagree

χ2 (1, N = 66) = 4.373, p = 0.037

RESULTS• Using ParabolaX helped me understand quadratic functions

better :

χ2 (1, N = 66) = 5.067, p = 0.024

83%

17%

Occassionally plays digital games

Agree

Disagree 57%

43%

Frequently plays digital games

Agree

Disagree

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED TO-DATE

• Results to date have not been too promising:

• ParabolaX DID NOT improve students’ ability to recognize properties and concepts of quadratic functions.

• ParabolaX DID NOT make the study of quadratic concepts more engaging to students.

• Kid’s that play a lot of video games have high expectations...

POCKET PT

• Investigation of the use of accessorized therapeutic games to assist physical therapists who are treating traumatic brain injury patients.

• Joint collaboration involving researchers from GVSU, Mary Free Bed & Hope Network.

Video: http://youtu.be/1lNnmoNZ7Mk

CREDITS

• Alejo Montoya

• Alex Restrepo

• Juan Mejia

• Andres Solano

• Tom Parker

• Sam Serpoosh

• Kevin Formsma

• Greg Zavitz

• John Golden

• Char Beckmann

• Andres Solano

• Joseph Roth

My colleagues / students who contributed to these apps:

• John Farris

• Cathy Harro

• Nathan Kemler

• Ferris Jumah

THANK YOU!!

• Email: Jonathan.Engelsma@gvsu.edu

•Twitter: @batwingd

•Web: http://themobilemontage.com

•GVSU: http://masl.cis.gvsu.edu