Gamifying Intelligent Daily Environments through Introducing Fictionality

A virtual form is an abstraction that enhances existing products and services by adding a layer to virtualize them. From a technical point of view, the current information technologies already make it possible to develop a virtual form using various techniques that represent information such as augmented reality technologies or ubiquitous display technologies. The virtual form can return a immediate feedback to a user so that it becomes a good design tool to develop games deployed in public spaces. We believe that incorporating fictional stories into virtual forms offers a new possibility for gamifying and enriching user experiences. However, only technological approaches cannot offer an ideal solution to develop attractive products and services if people do not feel values on them, and the design patterns for virtual forms is not well defined, especially, when a fictionality is incorporated. The design patterns needs to take into account a semiotic aspect of a virtual form. One key factor, in particular, is how strongly we believe in the reality of a fictional story within the virtual form from the semiotic aspect. This paper proposes some design patterns to integrate fictional stories into the real world for gamifying intelligent daily environments. The proposed design patterns cover three aspects. The first aspect is to exploit visual reality. The second aspect is to exploit ideological messages in fictional stories. The third aspect is to compose multiple fictional stories. The paper also shows a case study to motivate and gamify to join the Haiku contest by increasing the awareness of the importance of the contest, and show the effectiveness of the proposed design patterns.