A Qualitative Investigation of Gamification: Motivational Factors in Online Gamified Services and Applications

Gamification is commonly employed in designing interactive systems to enhance user engagement and motivations, or to trigger behavior change processes. Although some quantitative studies have been recently conducted aiming at measuring the effects of gamification on users’ behaviors and motivations, there is a shortage of qualitative studies able to capture the subjective experiences of users, when using gamified systems. The authors propose to investigate how users are engaged by the most common gamification techniques, by conducting a diary study followed by a series of six focus groups. From the findings gathered, they conclude the paper identifying some implications for the design of interactive systems that aim at supporting intrinsic motivations to engage their users.