Start the Game: Increasing User Experience of Enterprise Systems Following a Gamification Mechanism
“Hi dear, how was your day?” In the rarest of cases the responded would answer: “I had so much fun when entering the customer data into our Enterprise Systems.” However, the usage of Enterprise Systems is nowadays for many employees a key element of their
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Abstract
“Hi dear, how was your day?” In the rarest of cases the responded would answer: “I had so much fun when entering the customer data into our Enterprise Systems.” However, the usage of Enterprise Systems is nowadays for many employees a key element of their working activities. Therefore, their motivation to use these systems consistently is essential for organizations to ensure transparency and process accuracy. While today most software products have a high usability, they lack in positive user experiences such as fun. One trend having the potential to solve this issue is Gamification. Using mechanisms of traditional games such as achievements or rankings is successfully implemented in private applications such as social networks (e.g. Facebook) or online traveling portals (e.g. tripadvisor). These mechanisms motivate individuals to perform certain activities they would otherwise not do. Gabe Zichermann – a visionary of Gamification – explained this phenomenon as following: Games are the only force in the known universe that can get people to take actions against their selfinterest, in a predictable way, without using force. The principle of Gamification and its potential in organizations is presented in this book chapter.
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Motivation
Why are accounts payable clerks entering data sets into a SAP system enthusiastically despite it is a highly seasoned and monotonous job? Why do managers fight against dragons when preparing a presentation using Microsoft’s PowerPoint? The
M. Schacht e-mail: [email protected] S. Schacht University of Mannheim - Chair of Information Systems IV, Mannheim, Germany e-mail: [email protected] A. Maedche et al. (eds.), Software for People, Management for Professionals, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-31371-4_11, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
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M. Schacht and S. Schacht
answer to these questions is as simple as unexpected. They have fun in using their job-related software products. However, this was not always the case. In the past years, software products underwent an evolution form purely “solving problems” to “make software usable” to “improve overall user experience.” With the emergence of software as a product its sheer objective focused on machine programming. Software was solely some lines of codes which could only be understood and used by developers themselves. But soon developers had to realize that instructing users in dealing with software applications became more and more difficult. In particular, the growing complexity of enterprise software has led to increased reluctance of employees. These difficulties resulted in the second stage of software evolution integrating users and designers into the software development process to create more usable products. The user-centered design paradigm was born. The paradigm focused on increasing usability of software products by moving the user into the center of any design activities instead of the software system. It became the designer’s primarily role to simplify the tasks of users and to ensure tha
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