A4 Refereed article in a conference publication
HereSay: Gamifying Urban Crowdsourcing Through Affordance-Based Data Collection; 
Authors: Baer, Manuel F.; Fonseca Alves, Luma; Laato, Samuli
Editors: DSouza, Prajwal; Tang, Hairui; Xi, Nannan; Hamari, Juho
Conference name: GamiFIN Conference
Publisher: ACM
Publication year: 2026
Book title : GamiFIN '26 : Proceedings of the 10th Annual International GamiFIN Conference 2026
Article number: 29
First page : 1
Last page: 13
ISBN: 979-8-4007-2190-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3789624.3789646
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1145/3789624.3789646
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/523447099
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
We present HereSay, a gamified mobile crowdsourcing application that transforms urban observation into engaging gameplay whilst collecting valuable data for participatory planning. The app addresses the challenge of sustaining citizen engagement in urban planning through five integrated gamification mechanics: progressive unlocking, daily streaks, experience points, levels and leaderboards. Unlike traditional planning tools that solely rely on functional categorisation, HereSay adds affordance-based prompts to capture how citizens actually perceive and use urban spaces, with particular emphasis on urban landscape perception. Built using Flutter and Firebase for cross-platform accessibility, the application requires only standard smartphone capabilities. Initial evaluation with seven users demonstrates strong engagement with gamification features and successful motivation to explore urban spaces. The application showcases a scalable solution for inclusive citizen participation that bridges the gap between informal experiential knowledge and structured planning data.
Keywords:
participatory design, participatory tools
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
Funding information in the publication:
the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant no. 230591 and the Digital Waters (DIWA) Doctoral education pilot related to the DIWA flagship (grant no. 359247) funded by the Research Council of Finland under the Finnish Flagship Programme.
