"Beyond Nudges: Gamification as Motivational Architecture," presentation to the 2013 Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference, Brussels, Belgium

1. Gamification as Motivational
Architecture
Prof. Kevin Werbach
Dept. of Legal Studies & Business Ethics
Wharton School, Univ. of Pennsylvania
werbach@wharton.upenn.edu
Twitter: @kwerb

2. Regulation
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulton_and_Watt_centrifugal_governor-MJ.jp

3. Nudges
• We are “predictably irrational” (Ariely), prone
to mental “mistakes” (Kahnman & Tversky)
– E.g., loss aversion, anchoring, temporal biases
• Insight: leverage this knowledge to create
“choice architectures” (Sunstein & Thaler)
– E.g., changing defaults,
mandating disclosure
– Governments applying,
especially U.S., U.K.

4. My Grudge with Nudge
• Not the standard conservative critique!
– (the “Nanny State”)
• Choice limited to behaviorist conception
– What people do, not why they do it
– Deviations from “rationality” aren’t all “mistakes”
– Good data (“RECAP”) doesn’t always produce good results
• Architecture reduced to construction
– Real architecture is a design practice

5. Missing Piece: Motivation
• How does the experience satisfy human needs?
• Why do people comply?
• Can we go beyond basic compliance?
• Behaviorism is right… until it isn’t
– Teresa Amabile’s research on creativity
– Deci & Ryan on motivation in the workplace, school, etc.

6. Games as Motivational Design
• Good games are fun
– Challenges, contingency, competition, teamwork, etc.
– Voluntariness necessitates engagement techniques
• Games are designed artifacts
– Process: iterative, human-centered, goal-oriented
– Rich palette (e.g., points, levels, avatars, virtual goods)
– Developed practice (e.g. playtesting, narrative, balance)
– Focus on the player journey
– Recognition that users will game the system

7. Beyond Nudges
vs. vs.

8. Average speed in 3-day
Stockholm test decreased
from 32 to 25 kmph.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iynzHWwJXaA

9. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/23/games-grand-challenges

10. Private Sector
Gamification
Models

11. Pointsification as Motivational Design
Recyclebank

12. Fortunately,
it gets
better

13. Social Dynamics
OPower

14. Integrated Experiences
Zamzee (Hope Labs)

15. Rewards+Chance+Social
CAPRI (Balaji Prabhakar)

16. Data Protection Issues
• All interactions trackable
• Granular user data feeds analytics
– “We’re running several hundred tests at any given time for every
one of our games.” – Mark Pincus, Zynga (2010)
• To whom do achievements belong?

17. Reasons for Optimism
• Public sector doesn’t need to monetize
– Nascent industry of gamification vendors and adopters
seeking guidance
• Player-centric design
• Gamified UX for privacy policies (Calo)

18. Gamify the Privacy Policy?

19. Thank you!