Gamification in Business – Psychology and Integration

A multi-disciplinary research team from the University of Minnesota, USA, University of Waterloo, Canada, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada, Old Dominion University, USA, and the University of Basel, Switzerland has developed a research method to use psychology models to research the impact of gamification in business etc. The purpose is to improve the research of gamified mechanisms used in learning, user experience design in general, healthcare, and government. Where the mind of the user when interacting in a gamified experience now can be further explored. The research team summarizes their findings in the following way:

“Gameful experience theory provides researchers with a unified foundation to study gamification from any social scientific lens.”

At the same time as it will help UX designers that use gamified mechanisms to optimize the user experience.

Psychology of Gamification in Business

Gamification is not a substitute, not something you add on in special projects, but mechanisms of an environment that should be integrated into all parts of the organization. The benefit is that it can empower the whole organization including management, marketing, learning, and innovation. The fuel that gamification produces is boosted enjoyment, engagement, commitment, and performance in general. As gamification has been around for more than a decade such a business environment could now further be enhanced with extended virtual reality features. That forms a bridge from the virtual world to the physical world, which makes the experience more authentic and real-time (including real-time analytics).

This is only one field where user experience design (UX design) will develop very fast during the coming years. Where the keyword for the development is design thinking.

Written by
LarsGoran Bostrom©

Author of the book “Learning Design in Practice for Everybody” and the founder of eLearningworld Europe AB. And also the developer of SOE PublishingLab – a new platform for integrated storytelling and learning in interactive books, with integrated gamification and soon with augmented reality features. Learn more about our Storyteller for Business services here