In this talk, Lennart will explain how game thinking works as a problem-solving strategy and provide practical takeaways for designers who are interested in using game thinking in their UX process. He will also talk about his most recent research into gameful design, player types, and surveys and heuristics to assess gamification.

1. GameThinking
or: “cool stuff and current research”
Lennart Nacke, PhD
Associate Professor
The Games Institute and
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
@acagamic | slideshare.net/acagamic |
linkedin.com/in/nacke/

2. Who am I?
Gameful Designer, User Researcher, Associate Professor
• Director of the HCI Games Group at the University of
Waterloo’s Games Institute
• Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo
• Co-Founder of MotiviUX, Inc.

3. OVERVIEW OFTHISTALK
“What have we been up to?”
1.Gamification and Game
Thinking
2.User Types Hexad and New
Trait Model
3.Gameful Design Heuristics
4.Gameful Experience Theory
5.Takeaways
3

4. Experiencing and
interpreting novel
information
may cause
neurophysiological
pleasure

5. What is
Gamification?
An approach to systems design that
uses game design elements to solve
motivation and engagement
problems.
5

6. GameThinking as an UmbrellaTerm
Andrzej Marczewski. 2016. https://www.gamified.uk/gamification-framework/differences-between-gamification-and-games/

7. GameThinking as a Player Journey
Your users needs and goals change over time. Know their
journey and design with the journey in mind.
7Players Journey By Amy Jo Kim, see http://amyjokim.com/blog/2014/04/08/the-players-journey/
Your users learn your systems as a visitor first, then a
newcomer, a regular, and finally they become experts or
enthusiasts.
Build a core learning loop first as a simple version of the
regular user experience you are creating.

8. GameThinking
asaDesign
Process
Design is problem-solving. We can
use games and gameful elements to
solve problems.
8

9. How might we address…
9
Put
hurdles/enablers
here
Put fitting design
lens/category
here
Put desired change here
(, using )
to achieve ?
Thanks to Sebastian Deterding for the examples.

10. How might we address…
10
AVOID MINDLESS
SNACKING
Put fitting design
lens/category
here
EAT HEALTHY FOOD
(, using )
to achieve ?
http://www.funkydesignspaces.com/plex/

11. How might we address…
11
AVOID MINDLESS
SNACKING
Put fitting design
lens/category
here
EAT HEALTHY FOOD
(, using )
to achieve ?
http://getmentalnotes.com/

12. 12
Gamification
Elements
https://www.gamified.uk/user-types/gamification-mechanics-elements
https://www.gamified.uk/2017/04/03/periodic-table-gamification-elements/

13. USERTYPE HEXAD MODEL
13
Andrzej Marczewski. 2015. User Types. In Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking & Motivational Design. Gamified UK.
Gustavo F. Tondello, Rina R. Wehbe, Lisa Diamond, Marc Busch, Andrzej Marczewski, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2016. The Gamification User Types Hexad Scale. In
Proceedings of CHI PLAY ’16, 229–243.

14. THE USERTYPES HEXAD SCALE FOR GAMIFICATION
• Philanthropists are motivated by purpose. They are altruistic and willing to give without
expecting a reward.
• Socialisers are motivated by relatedness. They want to interact with others and create social
connections.
• Achievers are motivated by competence. They seek to progress within a system by completing
tasks, or prove themselves by tackling difficult challenges.
• Free Spirits are motivated by autonomy, meaning freedom to express themselves and act
without external control. They like to create and explore within a system.
• Players are motivated by extrinsic rewards. They will do whatever to earn a reward within a
system, independently of the type of the activity.
• Disruptors are motivated by the triggering of change. They tend to disrupt the system either
directly or through others to force negative or positive changes. They like to test the system‘s
boundaries and try to push further.
14
Gustavo F. Tondello, Alberto Mora, Andrzej Marczewski, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2019. Empirical Validation of the Gamification User Types Hexad Scale in
English and Spanish. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 127: 95-111. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.002

15. THE USERTYPES HEXAD IS AVAILABLE IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH
15
Gustavo F. Tondello, Alberto Mora, Andrzej Marczewski, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2019. Empirical Validation of the Gamification User Types Hexad Scale in
English and Spanish. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 127: 95-111. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.002

16. BEYOND BARTLE: FIXING BRAINHEX PLAYERTYPES
• Published BrainHex in 2014, but the analysis was flawed
• Invalid model, even though it became highly popular and well-cited
• Revisited the data in 2015 with my research team
• First fixing attempt in 2018:
• Gustavo Fortes Tondello, Deltcho Valtchanov, Adrian Reetz, Rina R. Wehbe, Rita Orji &
Lennart E. Nacke (2018): Towards a Trait Model of Video Game Preferences,
International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, DOI:
10.1080/10447318.2018.1461765
• Next attempt in 2019:
• Just accepted into INTERACT 2019: Tondello et al.: “I don’t fit into a single type”: A Trait
Model and Scale of Game Playing Preference

17. FROM 7 NON-VALIDTYPESTO 5TRAITS
7 types collapsed into:
action orientation (Conqueror, Daredevil), later became challenge orientation
aesthetic orientation (Socializer, Seeker)
goal orientation (Mastermind, Achiever, Survivor)
Suggested additions:
social orientation
immersion orientation (later became
narrative orientation)
New names for the 5 player traits
1. Aesthetic orientation
2. Narrative orientation
3. Goal orientation
4. Social orientation
5. Challenge orientation
Gustavo F. Tondello, Karina Arrambide, Giovanni Ribeiro, Andrew Cen, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2019. “I don't fit into a single
type”: A Trait Model and Scale of Game Playing Preferences. In Proceedings of INTERACT 2019. Springer.

18. GAMEFUL DESIGN HEURISTICS: A GAMIFICATION INSPECTIONTOOL
18Gustavo F. Tondello, Dennis L. Kappen, Marim Ganaba, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2019. Gameful Design Heuristics:
A Gamification Inspection Tool. In Proceedings of HCI International 2019. Springer.

19. OUR GAMEFUL EXPERIENCE MODEL
• Gameful experience as fundamental state of gameplay
• Gameful systems defined by qualities of interventions and
environments that create gameful experiences
• Gameful design is the process of creating these systems
• Gamefulness is then: designer actions, system characteristics,
or the user’s psychological experience
Richard N. Landers, Gustavo F. Tondello, Dennis L. Kappen, Andrew Collmus, Elisa D. Mekler, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2019. Defining Gameful
Experience as a Psychological State Caused by Gameplay: Replacing the Term ‘Gamefulness’ with Three Distinct Constructs. In International
Journal of Human-Computer Studies 127: 81-94. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.08.003

20. Take Home Message
• Game Thinking is an approach to solve problems playfully
with iterative design
• Powerful free scales are available for personalized
gamification now and should be used instead of outdated or
inaccurate or proprietary models (like Bartle)
• With gameful heuristics, we can assess gameful elements
rapidly
• We have a better understanding than ever about gameful
experience and gameful design
20

21. ThankYou
Lennart Nacke
+1 519-888-4567 x37822
lennart.nacke@acm.org
www.hcigames.com
Slides at: https://www.slideshare.net/acagamic