Modelling and evaluation of software system gamification elements

Author, Institution: Darius Ašeriškis, Kaunas University of Technology

Science Area, Field of Science: Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T

Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Robertas DAMAŠEVIČIUS (Kaunas University of Technology, Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T)

Dissertation Defence Board of Informatics Engineering Science Field:

Prof. Dr. Rimvydas SIMUTIS (Kaunas University of Technology, Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T),
Prof. Dr. Rimantas GATAUTIS (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Management – 03S),
Prof. Dr. Arnas KAČENIAUSKAS (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T),
Prof. Dr. Tomas KRILAVIČIUS (Vytautas Magnus University, Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T),
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ricardo QUEIROS (Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Technological Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T).

The doctoral dissertation is available at the library of Kaunas University of Technology (K. Donelaičio g. 20,Kaunas)

Annotation:
Dissertation focuses on gamification domain. Dissertation reviews application, psychological and social aspects of gamification. Methods, covered by related work, for modelling and simulation gamified system are reviewed and other gamification related topics are touched. Author dives deeply into formal gamification modelling. In the dissertation as a result of gamified system analysis 10 gamified system patterns are identified used for gamified system analysis. During research UAREI (User, Action, Rule, Entity, Interface) modelling framework is identified for which GMOD tool is created with simulation capabilities. Experiments are carried out with four systems: Trogon PMS, eLearning system, minority game and OilTrader game. Author offers methods for gamified system evaluation starting from usability and visual attractiveness. UAREI was compared to other methods used for gamified system modelling. Modelling frameworks imitation capabilities were demonstrated with eLearning system, minority game and OilTrader game. Using minority game a method for evaluating gamified system interestingness was defined based on player victory distributions. OilTrader experiment was used to show how to evaluate gamified system by psychological player types. All offered gamification evaluation methods help evaluate gamified systems and aids gamified system design.