Case Studies 2/3 - Gamification

 I had take an online course on Gamification offered through


  &  Coursera

 Conducted by Prof Kevin Werbach
Duration: 10th Jan 2014 - 14th April 2014

During the period all students were given 3 written assignments. Will be publishing all 3 cases and my solution along with peer comments in 3 blogs. This is the 2nd blog on the same:

Project Part II: Motivation

You are approached by Ryan Morrison, the mayor of a medium-sized city in the Midwest of the United States.  He has heard that you know a lot about gamification and believes that gamification techniques can transform city government. 

He would like to start with the health of city employees.  The city has 50,000 employees and they happen to have exactly the same rates of obesity as the U.S. average: 34.4% overweight (but not obese) and 33.9% of them are obese.  53.1% of the city’s employees do not meet the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic physical activity and 76% of them fail to meet the Guidelines for muscle-strengthening activity.  The city pays for health benefits for its employees and this cost is a huge part of the city budget.  Economists in Mayor Morrison’s office have estimated that a 3% improvement in the average physical fitness of city employees would amount to a US$94 million reduction in annual city health costs; a 5% improvement would save US$188 million. 

Describe in general terms a gamified system that could effectively motivate behavior change to address the challenge presented above. Specifically, explain how the system would effectively incorporate intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, or both. Your answer should address the fact that this is an internal gamification project, targeted at the institutional goals of the city government.  The system can use any technology (or no technology!), so long as the resources required seem justified by the scope of the opportunity.  

Solution:

• Objective: Keep city employees healthy, fit and they meet the U.S. Physical and muscle-strengthening activity guidelines.
  • If the employees are fit, city would not incur huge costs on health plans

• Target Behavior: Get city employees to exercise and eat healthy food
  • Success Matrix:
    • 80% employees who are overweight & obese to have controlled weight (as the average USA citizen)
    • 90% employees to meet the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic physical activity
    • 70% employees to meet Guidelines for muscle-strengthening activity

• Who are the players: City employees who:
  • Are Overweight, obese and do not meet U.S. Physical and muscle-strengthening activity guidelines

• Activity loop:

Assumption:
·         All employees eat at the office canteen/cafeteria
·         Government will tie-up with entity like ‘Reebok Crossfit’ http://reebokcrossfitone.com/

Approach to introduce gamification

Step 1: build a portal over the intranet. Just like facebook every player will have a profile page. Since government has details about all its players, the profile page will be prefilled with basic information like name, age, blood group etc. Some of the info players can choose to hide like weight. There will be options to fill up
·         status updates,
·         their exercise regime details,
·         wish list: where an employee and mention what he want to achieve like loose 40lbs in 3 months etc
Apart from the above there will be a point counter on every profile page & a relative (shows other players with 20% higher & 20% lower points) leader board.

Portal will have tab: ‘My Regime’
Reebok will send a customized workout plan for the week. Player can choose to share completed task. Reebok will publish weekly results to every player’s page. The results will carry points and badges for completion.

Step 2: Introduce salads at the office cafeteria. There will be variety of salads some most healthy and some not very healthy (but far better than junk food). Every salad will have points eg:
·         Ceasar salad: 200 points
·         Pesto chicken Salad; 150 points etc
Every purchase the player has to give his id number (empid) at payment counter. The system will be connected to the portal
Step 3: Employees following the regime at ‘Reebok Crossfit’ will be exempt from completing 40 hrs/week. Twice a week they can choose to leave one hour before the official leaving time.
Step 4: A giant weight machine (attractive as a slot machine) will be placed at the entrance of the office. Employees can again enter their empid and weigh. They get a fancy ticket and their recorded weight is transferred to the portal.
Gratification to players with highest points;
·         5 monthly winner gets a 3 months movie cinema pass
·         After 6 months, 1 player gets free Europe trip with family
 Gamification will introduce a fun element among players (employees). Health is a concern to most of the individuals. Firstly, by this process players will be intrinsically motivated and will be hooked on to this game like structure. Secondly, through PBL and gratification they will be extrinsically motivated to meet the guidelines

Peer Evaluation:

What I liked was...

peer 1 → the fact that Reebok will send a customized workout plan for the week and publish weekly results to every player’s page.

peer 2 → [This area was left blank by the evaluator.]

peer 3 → You explained one gamification system very structured, easy to understand and related with the context of the project.

peer 4 → Addressing diet as a key factor besides exercise. The link of the weight machine to the portal to track progress is unique.

peer 5 → the structure of your response! Well organized and presented information.

What could have made this submission better was...

peer 1 → You have choose as target players only city employees who are overweight, obese and do not meet U.S. Physical and muscle-strengthening activity guidelines. If I was one of them I would react negatively to the fact that because of my aspect I have to take part to this process: it would be discriminating! The giant weight machine (attractive as a slot machine) placed at the entrance of the officewould be a nightmare for the major part of women!

peer 2 → [This area was left blank by the evaluator.]

peer 3 → Maybe I would related the information learned in the course with the gamification system, explaining how the gamification system will motivated employees.

peer 4 → Maybe more team oriented 'quests' and cooperation so it doesn't feel so individual and people are supported. Strong solution to the problem overall.

peer 5 → more choice of quests for players - instead of just being sent a workout from reebok every week. That they would have more control over choosing what exercises they wished to complete to achieve their points

Case III on Gamification will be in the following blog