Integrating Gamification: The Human-Centered Gamification Process

The dynamically growing research area of gamification is loaded with a lack of consensus on definitions, a variety of non-validated frameworks, and few practical insights. Hence, we conducted a literature review to explore current best practices in applying gamification for integration in a practical use case. Instead, we found a narrow focus on theoretical discussions. For a stronger representation of practical research, standards need to be established for transferring gamification concepts to practical application. To fill this research gap, we designed a process and tools for a practical, human-centered, and context-related gamification application. We derived the process and tools from insights of our literature review as well as the realization of a gamification use case on a German online comparison platform. In addition, we incorporated standards such as the Human-Centered Design Process to maintain the established quality level of the field of user experience. In this paper, we present the Human-Centered Gamification Process (HCGP) and provide tools as practical guidance to lower the barrier for researchers and professionals to conduct theoretical and practical gamification projects.