A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Why so serious? The Role of Gamification on Motivation and Engagement in e-Participation
Authors: Sarah-Kristin Thiel, Titiana Petra Ertiö, Matthias Baldauf
Publisher: IaD School/ University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
Publishing place: Rome
Publication year: 2017
Journal: Id&a interaction design & architecture(s)
Issue: 35
First page : 158
Last page: 181
Number of pages: 24
ISSN: 1826-9745
eISSN: 2283-2998
Web address : http://www.mifav.uniroma2.it/inevent/events/idea2010/doc/35_8.pdf
Since the emergence of e-participation platforms, an increase of public participation has not yet been documented. Recently practitioners and researchers have begun to explore the applicability of gamification in the hope to promote the usage of e-participation services. Gamification has been proven partially successful in several domains, but is only emerging in public participation. This work provides insights on whether game components can promote public participation. We report on the evaluation of a gamified mobile participation application in a field trial that took place in Turku, Finland over a period of five months. We focus on whether specific factors (internal & external) can be used to predict active participation. Our results indicate that citizens are primarily motivated by genuine interest in urban planning. Although gamification had little influence, it did add to some users' motivation. The approach did, however, not succeed in engaging new groups.