A framework for agile design of personalized gamification services

Resumen

The interest in the application of gamification techniques under different contexts has increased during the last years, becoming a promising trend in many areas such as Human-Computer interaction (HCI) or educational technologies. Unfortunately, many instances of the use of these techniques do not meet their objectives of motivation, primarily due to poor design or a completely ``ad-hoc'' approach. Findings reveal that a formal design strategy is the key to success. This thesis presents the development and validation of a framework for the design of personalized gamification services. This framework, called FRAGGLE (FRamework for AGile Gamification of personalized Learning Experiences) is based on the use of the Agile methodologies in order to obtain a fast design ready for testing and iterated. It is aimed to the application of different techniques all the way down to the lowest levels of abstraction through a guided step-by-step process, including a design validation process of intrinsic motivation (SPARC).This approach was tested and assessed in two courses at an e-learning based Bachelor in Computer Science, its goals being the encouragement of learners in solving non-graded formative activities and increasing their sense of kinship as well the interest to the class group. The first case revealed a moderate positive assessment of the designed experience and student engagement in a ``one-size-fits-all'' proposal, meanwhile the second case of study allowed to assess which design elements had a greater impact in student engagement. Results in a further case of study also revealed that personalization worked better regarding students' behavioral and emotional engagement than previous generic approaches.Finally, the framework was also applied in a healthcare real environment through Preventive Neuro Health, a gamified crowdsourcing-inspired tool developed for cognitive impairment prevention of healthy older adults. It enabled a high degree of personalization both from clinical and engagement perspectives with the purpose of motivating its regular use among them.