Applying game achievement systems to enhance user experience in a photo sharing service

  • Authors:
  • Markus Montola;Timo Nummenmaa;Andrés Lucero;Marion Boberg;Hannu Korhonen

  • Affiliations:
  • Nokia Research, Finland and University of Tampere, Finland;Nokia Research, Finland and University of Tampere, Finland;Nokia Research, Finland;Nokia Research, Finland;Nokia Research, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 13th International MindTrek Conference: Everyday Life in the Ubiquitous Era
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Achievement systems are reward structures providing additional goals for players, and thus extending the play time of videogames. In this paper, we explore how applications other than games could benefit from achievement systems, and how users perceive this additional content in a service. For this purpose, we added an achievement system to a geo-tagged photo sharing service called Nokia Image Space. The results suggest that there is some potential in achievement systems outside the game domain. The achievements triggered some friendly competition and comparison between users. However, many users were not convinced, expressing concerns about the achievements motivating undesirable usage patterns. Therefore, an achievement system poses certain design considerations when applied in nongame software.