We propose a classification of eight groups of gameful design elements produced from a study of participant preferences out of an online survey. This study provides an overview of which design elements work best for what demographic clusters and how we can apply this knowledge to design effective gameful systems.

1. Elements of Gameful
Design Emerging from
User Preferences
Gustavo F. Tondello
Alberto Mora
Lennart E. Nacke

2. Personalized Gamification
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Selecting the gameful elements preferred for each user
• Increased motivation
• Increased potential
for behaviour change
Cards from: Andrzej Marczewski. 2015 (updated 2017). 52 Gamification mechanics and elements. Gamified UK.
USER 1
USER 2
USER 3

3. Mapping user types to game elements
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PARTIAL
Andrzej Marczewski. 2015. User Types. In Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking & Motivational Design. Gamified UK.
G. F. Tondello, R. R. Wehbe, L. Diamond, M. Busch, A. Marczewski, and L. E. Nacke. The Gamification User Types Hexad Scale. Proc. of CHI PLAY 2016.

4. Goal
Directly explore user preferences for different gameful
design elements
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5. Methods
1. List of 59 gameful design elements
Based on a literature survey of academic and industry sources
2. Data collection
“Please rate how much the following elements
motivate you when you use a digital application”
(5-point Likert scale from “not at all” to “very much”)
3. Data analysis
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
Hierarchical cluster analysis
Correlational analysis
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196participants
aged 15-71
(M = 26.7,
SD = 9.7)
124 men,
53 women,
4 transgender,
3 non-binary

6. Groups of Gameful Design Elements
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Individual
Motivations
Immersion
Progression
External
Motivations
Risk/Reward
Customization
Incentive
Social
Motivations
Socialization
Assistance
Altruism
Icons are CC-BY 3.0 by Game-icons.net

7. Average Scores per Group
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0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
Immersion
Progression
Customization
Incentive
Risk/Reward
Altruism
Socialization
Assistance

8. Correlations with other Factors
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Individual Motivations
Immersion
Progression
External Motivations
Risk/Reward
Customization
Incentive
Social Motivations
Socialization
Assistance
Altruism
Hexad user types Big 5 personality traits Age Gender
significant r are
between .165 and .406
significant r are
between .194 and .323 significant r are
between -.150 and -.175
significant mean diff. are
between -.571 and .915

9. Implications
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Design
• Appealing to specific audiences
• Designers can choose elements with similar user preferences
• Personalizing the user experience
• Tailoring the system with the preferred elements for each user
Research
• Considering user preferences to better understand
gamification’s mechanisms and effects
• What is effective to one user might not be effective to others

10. Link to full paper:
Elements of Gameful Design Emerging
from User Preferences
CONTACT
Gustavo F. Tondello
gustavo@tondello.com
@GustavoTondello
http://hcigames.com/
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