Governmental Service Gamification: Central Principles

The introduction of gamification of governmental services is a topic of interest to policy makers and gamification researchers and practitioners alike. Nonetheless, governmental gamification still remains an understudied area, despite the practical governmental gamification initiatives already taking place, facing increased implementation risks from the lack of guiding implementation principles. Such risks and lack of unified guidelines for governmental gamification necessitates the examination of governmental gamification from the perspective of existing knowledge to synthesize key knowledge fathered on its implementation. This article examines existing research in order to provide guidelines for applying gamification in government services. By using a combination of research on gamification in civic engagement and the Gamified Service Framework of Klapztein and Cipolla, the article creates a basic roadmap for recognizing factors that need to be considered when applying gamification techniques and methods in government services and the public sector in general.