Opportunities of gamification in Creative Facilitation.

By implementing game elements in non-game contexts – in the present case matters of Urban Design – desired user actions can be fostered. These user actions comprise giving contributions in regard to the Urban Design process such as publishing ideas, opinions and comments and thereby ensure an intense discourse. That is why gamification is considered suitable for effectively supporting participation processes. Because an appropriate gameful design can be highly valuable for creating mutual collaboration between all stakeholders, gamified tools in the field of Urban Design have already been implemented in various ways. Especially crowdsourcing platforms intensely added game elements such as leaderboards, badges or so called missions to their platforms in order to make participation more enjoyable and in that way, to also foster long-term motivation.

Nevertheless, implementing game elements in a proper manner is a complex task and should not be underestimated. In some cases, a false implementation of game elements can cause reverse effects and lead to demotivation, for instance if new entrants of a participation platform realize their profiles on the bottom of a long-term leaderboard.

Furthermore, gamification is no panacea as some participants may see the serious field of Urban Design inappropriate for being gamified. Though, current scientific research states an overall positive effect of gamification when it comes to user motivation and therefore is worth being investigated within this project.

  _{^{This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 688873.}}