Word of the day: gamification
Earlier this week, I attended Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for England (ACE) in my capacity as the member for England on the Communications Consumer Panel (CCP). Ofcom plans to abolish both ACE and the CCP, but meanwhile we endeavour to track consumer behaviour and promote consumer interests.
ACE member John Varney gave a fascinating presentation on the latest developments in consumer electronics including not just pad computers & their apps and 3D & IPTV but also such esoteric notions as gamification, personal digital curation and open source robotics.
Gamification can be defined as “the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications, particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications”. The potential for modifying consumer and citizen behaviour in a ‘gentle’ manner is enormous and, besides current uses, I can forsee applications in environmental change and political participation.
It fits well with the idea of ‘nudge’ which is developing in behavioural economics and political change – see here.