You are approached by RashmiHorenstein, the CEO of ShareAll, a prominent company in the hot collaborative consumption space. (If you aren’t familiar with the concept, some good resources areCollaborativeConsumption.comand the March 9, 2013cover story in the Economist.) She knows you are one of the top experts on gamification, which she has heard can revolutionize business. She asks you to present a proposal for a gamified system to take her business to the next level.

ShareAll’s mission is to make shared use of products and services as common as individual purchases. It follows the path of companies such asAirBnB,Buzzcar, andUber, which allow sharing of particular products (cars, housing, etc). ShareAll’s patented technology makes it easy for consumers and business to share any product or service. ShareAll has also developed a global virtual currency, called Shares, which can be used to purchase access to any asset in the system. Shares can be exchanged for real money, and users can generate more Shares by sharing items or volunteering their time to complete tasks for others.

ShareAll charges a small transaction fee whenever Shares are generated, traded, or spent. Therefore, the more activity, the more money ShareAll makes. Horenstein tells you that she cares about the social benefits of sustainability. However, ShareAll is a for-profit company, with investments and partnerships from some of the world’s largest corporations, so profits matter. Horenstein believes gamification could significantly help ShareAll’s business. She is eager to read your ideas.

Proposal

1. Business Objectives

Whilst sustainability matters it is the bottom line that counts. However, profitability is determined by many factors outside the scope of this project, such as the resource costs and financial structure of the business. To avoid these complications the objective of this project will therefore beto increase revenue.

Revenue is driven by the number of users of ShareAll and the volume of ‘Share’ virtual currency transactions each individual makes. This leads directly to two subsidiary business objectives:

  • To increase the number of users registered with ShareAll [% to be agreed].
  • To increase the average volume of ‘Share’ virtual currency transactions Per User [% to be agreed].

Whilst sustainability is not a business objective it is seen that if the business objectives are achieved then the sustainability agenda will be advanced.

2. Target Behaviours

The following target behaviours are linked to the business objectives as follows:

Objective: To increase the number of users registered with ShareAll

  • Register with ShareAll. Collaborative consumption is a radically different and relatively new paradigm which many people would not even consider when planning future consumption. The collaborative option needs to become the ‘go-to’ option most of the time. The direct economic advantages of collaborative consumption are obvious, the single most important issue that might get in the way of it becoming the go-to option is trust; trust by asset owners that their asset will be looked after and returned in good condition, trust by those accessing an asset that it will be available and of an acceptable standard. It is known that trust is increased by sociability and reliability; both of these can be incentivisedwithin a system using gamification. Measure of Performance: New Registrations Per Month.
  • Recommend ShareAll To A Friend. This is powerful way to increase ShareAll registrations.Measure of Performance: Converted Recommendations Per Month.

Objective: To increase the average volume of ‘Share’ virtual currency transactions per user

  • Sign-In. The more time signed in the greater the probability that a revenue earning transaction will take place, as well as providing opportunities for building a relationship to ShareAll that can translate into increased loyalty and future revenue streams. The objective is to encourage individuals to be signed-in, not just when they intend to make a revenue generating transaction. The key to this is the creation of a community in which individuals want to participate for its own sake.Measures of Performance: Sign-ins Per Month, Average Session Duration Per Month.
  • Register and Access Assets.Both registering and purchasing access to assets can receive game rewards. The system can also provide the means, viathe ShareAll community,toexplore for additional opportunities to share and access underutilised assets, thereby growing the volume of revenue earning transactions. It will also be possible to create a sense of relatedness by showingthe impact of sharing in terms of sustainability measures.Measures of Performance:Total Volume of Items Registered for Sharing Per Month, Total Volume of Access to Shared Assets Purchased Per Month.

Player feedbackwill be both for individual and community accomplishments. Feedback will include: recognition for specific tasks (such as recommending friends, sharing and purchasing assets), financial savings made and reduction incarbon footprint, social standing (honour and reputation).

3. Players

Three groups of individuals are the most likely ShareAll players (not necessarily distinct):

  • Those with limited funds seeking to obtain access to assets more cheaply or earn some additional income by releasing underutilised assets.
  • Those with time on their hands seeking to make social contact with people.
  • Those ideologically committed to the idea of collaborative consumption and sustainability.

Collaborative consumption is as the name suggests about co-operation, and as already described strongly dependent on trust. The three groups of players already identified show alikely bias towards pro-social attitudes and behaviours. In terms of Battle’s four player types the ShareAll players are most likely Explorers or Socialisers. Therefore game elements that promote or utilise competition will not be given prominence. The system will focus on building a strong community for pursuing joint goals, achieving personal satisfaction and discovering new opportunities.

4. Activity Loops

Progression Loopcomprises the following stages:

  • Call to Adventure. The player joins the ShareAll community and is rewarded with an initial ‘Share’.
  • Onboarding. The player is encouraged to familiarise themselves with the ShareAll community, gaining further rewards for their first asset registration, first purchase of access to an asset, first honour rating and first contribution to community forum.
  • Novice. Player completes more shares, their honour increases until they are ready to progress to explorer.
  • Explorer.As an explorer players obtain reputation for their contribution in the quest to find new ways for the ShareAll community to share assets.
  • Master. As master the player is regarded by the ShareAll community as someone who can be trusted to provide guidance, help and advice to other players, a role-model who helps direct the community towards its goals.

Progress will unlock doors giving players access to additional powers. For example novices would be limited to adding posts to existing threads in the community forum, explorers could create new threads, whilst masters would be able to moderate threads.

Whilst in the early stages along this path there is strong extrinsic motivation, progression towards mastery is characterised by increasing intrinsic motivation, essential if players are going to stay active in the ShareAll community.

There are threeactivity loopssupporting progression:

  • Sharing. Points are earned for registering assets and purchasing access. Feedback also provided in terms of the player’s estimated financial savings and reduced carbon footprint.
  • Honouring. Trust is a key requirement of collaborative consumption. The reliability of the player in returning assets in good condition, on time etc or in providing assets as described, earns them honour.
  • Questing. The player is rewarded with reputation by the community for the contributions they make in the quest to find new sharing opportunities, and the quality of assistance and advice they give to other players.

These activity loops operate throughout the progression loop; the points, honour and reputation measuring progress towards mastery, and triggering transition between stages.

5. Fun

Sources of fun include:

  • Social Engagement, being part of a community of like minded individuals
  • Questing, co-operating with others to find new and innovative ways of sharing assets that will benefit players and society.
  • Sharingaccomplishments, such as progress towards mastery and reduced carbon footprint.
  • Designof system will include customisable avatars, sound effects, animated icons, all intended to reinforce the feeling of autonomy and that being part of the ShareAll community is fun.
  • Challenge,ShareAll gives the community an occasional challenge (individually or in teams) that would require application of collaborative consumption to a social problem. Special prizes could be awarded.

6. Deployment

The gamification application will be integrated with the existing ShareAll system, which will continue to manage ShareAll transactions. The gamification application will be centred on a ShareAll community website. This application will be web enabled and also permit access via mobile app.

The core gamification application will provide:

  • About Us Pagesthat gives access to sign-up and log in. (upon sign-up account automatically credited with initial ‘Share’).
  • Welcome Page, hosting notifications and announcements.
  • Invite Friends Pageenabling players to send invites to join. For each invite that results in new sign-up player receives gratis issue of ‘Shares’.
  • Let’s Get Going Pagethat leads new registrants through account set-up, first set of share transactions andCommunity Forum. On completion players will be automatically levelled-up to novice.
  • Profile Pagethat allows player to upload personal data, adjust settings andcustomise environment (eg avatars).
  • Dashboardavailable from all pages (past sign in) listing: total ‘Shares’ in player’s account; assets registered for sharing, status of requests to use player’s assets, status of player’s requests to use others’ assets, recent transaction history. It will give access to ShareAll’s existing system for transaction processing. In addition the dashboard will show points earned from sharing, estimated financial savings achieved, estimated reduction in carbon footprint achieved, current honour rating, reputation, level (novice, explorer or master), and finally the points, honour and reputation required to level-up. Some of these items can be selected by the player to be shown on their profile and therefore visible to the wider community, but important this be under player's control since the aim is give priority to community building and co-operation over competition (eg noleader boards).
  • Rating and Comments Pagewhere players are able to rate the reliability (against strict criteria) of those using their assets or providing assets to them. This will translate into an honour ranking.
  • The Community Forumthat allows players to interact with each other. Players can earn reputation from other players based on amongst other things recommendations, number of upvotes, reposts and followers. Players ‘powers’ within the community are determined by the level they have achieved. The forum will host a player directory supported by access to player profiles. The usual facilities for setting up threads, posting and replying will be provided as will ‘Meeting Rooms’ to support collaborative working in smaller groups and a ‘Wall’ where players can brainstorm their ideas and invite contributions or just put up anything they think is of interest to others. Aggregated community/group achievements will befed-backusing sustainability metrics (eg reduced carbon footprint).
  • Community Challengeis where ShareAll will announce occasional challenges to find innovative ways to use collaborative consumption to solve a social problem.

Evaluation/feedback on the above work

Note: this section can only be filled out during the evaluation phase.

Rubric(points scaled x4)
There is only one component to the score for this assignment. You may optionally also provide free-form feedback to the student.
The submission should be the student’s own work. If you conclude that a substantial portion has been copied without attribution from another student or an online resource, assign a score of “0” to both components.
0No answer or completely irrelevant answer.
1Addresses three or fewer of the six sections of the design framework.
2Addresses four or more of six sections of the design framework, but fails to describe a gamified system that the grader can envision.
3Describes a gamified system and addresses four or more of the six sections of the design framework, but does so in a way that is obvious or vague. For example, “The players are people who use ShareAll.”
4Describes a gamified system and addresses all six sections of the design framework, but fails to adequately explain how the proposed system would address ShareAll's goals.
5Describes a specific, realistic gamified system and addresses all six sections of the design framework in a manner that is generally thoughtful, consistent, and insightful.

Score from your peers:5