Gamification mechanics for behavioral change: a systematic review and proposed taxonomy

Abstract

In the last few years, gamification has been proven as an effective strategy to improve people's motivation and performance. Many authors have reported success examples of gamification in areas such as education, entertainment, health and business. This paper is focused on the use of gamification for health, specifically for the promotion of behavioral changes. Firstly, this paper describes a systematic review conducted to identify in the literature the gamification elements that are being used to promote behavioral change. The results of this systematic review evidence the broad terminology related to gamification elements, with different perspectives and levels of abstraction. Based on these results, a taxonomy for gamification mechanics has been proposed. The taxonomy identifies and classifies the most common gamification mechanics and relates them with psychological fundamentals on behavioral changes.