Gamification in an end-device limited environment
Toni Laaksonen · Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen) · 2018
Gamification, the insertion of video game elements into everyday life situations, has been a growing business trend in this decade. If implemented correctly, gamification increases the motivation of users to engage with the gamified product or service. Primitive forms of gamification have existed since the beginning of the last century, but nowadays the usage of various end-devices has grown thanks to digitalization and the popularity of smart devices. A gamification designer must know the potential barriers for gamification, which affect the planning- and designing process. This thesis explores game elements and motivational factors required for gamification, as well as factors restricting gamification. The adoption rates of smartphones and mobile internet connections are also examined, because many gamified products are tied to smartphone applications. The practical part of this thesis explores the possibility of gamifying store checkouts and the viability of such operation. For this purpose an EPOS demo was developed, which was used to model the functionality of a gamified cash register. The development of the demo was guided by gamification theory and feedback from an expert in the market industry and the commissioner. The gamification of store checkouts comes with a group of challenges, which vary between stores and age groups among others. The research started from a premise that the scanning speed of a cashier is the defining factor for the cashier’s efficiency, but in reality this is not always the case. It can be stated generally that as a new industry the end devices used for gamification have not been researched much at all, and many gamification research articles discuss the motivational aspects of gamification or the data used for it. The same goes for gamification projects undertaken by other store chains, and these projects either do not exist or the publicly released data regarding them is very sparse. Even so, there are many situations where the end devices have to accommodate for the gamified operating environment or userbase, and this can usually be seen in the end devices or lack of such devices.