the 12 dimensions of motivational affordances
TRANSCRIPT
THE 12 DIMENSIONS OF MOTIVATIONAL
AFFORDANCESGustavo F. Tondello
March 2017
Photo: Game Night by Randy Robertson (CC BY 2.0)
Gameful Design Heuristics
Motivational Affordances
Motivational affordances are properties added to an object, which allow its users to experience the satisfaction of their psychological needs.1
In gameful design, motivational affordances are often used to facilitate intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.2
1 Sebastian Deterding. 2011. Situated motivational affordances of game elements: A conceptual model. Gamification: Using Game Design Elements in Non-Gaming Contexts.
2 Gustavo F. Tondello, Dennis L. Kappen, Elisa D. Mekler, Marim Ganaba, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2016. Heuristic Evaluation for Gameful Design. In Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Extended Abstracts – CHI PLAY ’16.
Purpose and MeaningAffordances aimed at helping users identify a meaningful goal that will be achieved through the system and can benefit the
users themselves or other people.
Meaning
Helping the user identify a meaningful contribution (to themselves or to others).
Information and Reflection
Providing information and opportunities for reflection towards self-improvement.
Challenge and CompetenceAffordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of competence through accomplishing difficult challenges or goals.
Increasing Challenge
Offering challenges that grow with the user’s skill.
Onboarding
Offering initial challenges for newcomers that help them learn how it works.
Self-challenge
Helping the user discover or create new challenges to test themselves.
Completeness and MasteryAffordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of
competence by completing series of tasks or collecting virtual achievements.
Progressive Goals
Always presenting next goals that the user can pursue that are immediately achievable.
Achievement
Letting the user keep track of their achievements or advancements.
Autonomy and CreativityAffordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of autonomy by offering meaningful choices and opportunities for
self-expression.
Choice
Providing the user with choices on what to do or how to do something, which are interesting but also limited in scope according to each user’s capacity.
Self-expression
Letting the user express themselves or create new content.
Freedom
Letting the user experiment with new or different paths without fear or serious consequences.
RelatednessAffordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of relatedness through social interaction, usually with other users.
Social Interaction
Letting the user connect and interact socially.
Social Cooperation
Letting users work together towards achieving common goals.
Social Competition
Letting users compare themselves with others or challenge other users.
Fairness
Offering similar opportunities of success for everyone and means for newcomers to feel motivated even when comparing themselves with veterans.
ImmersionAffordances aimed at immersing users into the system to
improve their aesthetic experience, usually by means of a theme, narrative, or story, which can be real or fictional.
Narrative
Offering users a meaningful narrative or story with which they can relate to.
Perceived Fun
Letting the user interact with and be part of the story (easy fun).
Extrinsic MotivationOutcomes or values separated from the activity itself
Ownership and RewardsAffordances aimed at motivating users through extrinsic rewards
or possession of real or virtual goods.
Ownership
Letting the user own virtual goods or build an individual profile over time.
Rewards
Offering rewards for interaction and continued use, which are valuable to users and proportional to the amount of effort invested.
Virtual Economy
Letting users exchange the result of their efforts with in-system or outside rewards.
ScarcityAffordances aimed at motivating users through feelings of status or exclusivity by means of acquisition of difficult or rare rewards,
goods, or achievements.
Status
Letting users work hard to show their status to others.
Exclusivity
Offering interesting features or rewards that are rare or difficult to obtain.
Loss AvoidanceAffordances aimed at leading users to act with urgency, by
creating situations in which they could lose acquired or potential rewards, goods, or achievements if they do not act immediately.
Urgency
Creating urgency through possible losses unless the user acts immediately.
Loss of Rewards
Letting the user loose anticipated of earned rewards if they do not comply with the system’s requirements.
FeedbackAffordances aimed at informing users of their progress and the
next available actions or challenges.
Clear and Immediate Feedback
Always informing the user immediately of any changes or accomplishments in an easy and graspable way.
Actionable Feedback
Always informing the user about the next available actions and improvements available.
Graspable Progress
Always telling the user where they stand and what is the path ahead for progression.
UnpredictabilityAffordances aimed at surprising users with variable tasks,
challenges, feedback, or rewards.
Varied Challenges
Offering unexpected variability in the challenges or tasks presented to the user.
Varied Rewards
Offering unexpected variability in the rewards that are offered to the user.
Change and DisruptionAffordances aimed at engaging users with disruptive tendencies by allowing them to help improve the system, in a positive rather
than destructive way.
Innovation
Letting users contribute with ideas, content, plugins, or modifications aimed at improving, enhancing, or extending the system itself.
Disruption Control
Protecting the system against cheating, hacking, or other forms of manipulation from users.
Gameful Design Heuristics
Using the Gameful Design Heuristics
1. Familiarize yourself with the application
2. Use the heuristics checklist
3. For each heuristic:a. Familiarize yourself with the heuristicb. Think about the supporting questions in relation to
the appc. If you identify any issue in the app related to the
heuristic, write it down
4. Finally, count the number of issues identified for each category to identify those with more issues
Gameful Design Heuristics
gamefuldesign.hcigames.com
Gustavo F. Tondello, Dennis L. Kappen, Elisa D. Mekler, Marim Ganaba, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2016. Heuristic Evaluation for Gameful Design. In Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts – CHI PLAY ’16. ACM. doi:10.1145/2968120.2987729
Gameful Design Heuristics: References
Yu-kai Chou. 2015. Actionable Gamification - Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Octalysis Media. Alt.: yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-framework/
Sebastian Deterding. 2015. The Lens of Intrinsic Skill Atoms: A Method for Gameful Design. Human-Computer Interaction 30, 3-4: 294–335. doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2014.993471
Dennis L. Kappen and Lennart E. Nacke. 2013. The Kaleidoscope of Effective Gamification: Deconstructing Gamification in Business Applications. Proceedings of Gamification 2013. ACM, 119–122. doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583029
Andrzej Marczewski. 2015. User Types. In Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking & Motivational Design. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 69–84. Alt.: www.gamified.uk/user-types/
Jane McGonigal. 2015. SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient. Penguin Books.
Scott Nicholson. 2014. A RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification. In Gamification in Education and Business, T. Reiners and L. C. Wood (eds.). Springer, 1–20. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5
Photo: A Board Game by Karen Borter (CC BY-ND 2.0)