Evaluating the Benefits of Gamification both in Business Environment and for Business Purposes

Abstract

Gamification is a current hot topic of industry and business. It is seen as a way to improve menial tasks, customer interaction, employee engagement, and many other subjects. Even though gamification is marketed as an effective solution to multiple problems, gamification solutions in the business environment are rarely properly evaluated. The evaluation of the effects of gamification in business solutions requires an effective method to help make business decisions considering gamification.

This thesis proposes to find an effective solution for evaluating gamification in a business environment. Theory considering gamification and gamification study is presented based on which two case-control studies of two gamified solutions are designed.

During the study many factors affecting both organizing the testing in a business environment and effectively gathering meaningful data during the tests are recognized. Addressed issues include:

- Difficulty in gathering enough voluntary participants - Measures to creating a sufficiently functional test case - Efficiently gathering data so that meaningful results can be derived from it

This thesis shows that a case-control study is an effective method for evaluating the benefits of gamification in a business environment and describes guidelines for effectively conducting similar gamification testing in a business environment in the future.