Gaming, Gamification, and Financial Literacy

The word “gamification” has been so played out, misused, and abused that the phrase alone leaves a lot of folks in the know rolling their eyes.  When I spoke with Doris Rusch, a “gaming expert” (pretty rad credentials, right?!) and current faculty member at the De Paul School of Computing and Digital Media about our mobile application’s design, I mentioned that we were using “gaming dynamics” but that the app itself was not a game.  She in turn referred me to the work of Jesse Schell, game design guru, who has written: “Don’t gamify — pleasurize or improve the motivational design.”  And how do you improve the motivational design?  He suggests you focus on making your user care, by: (continue reading)