Gamified Citizen Science : A Study of Expert Users in the Field of Biodiversity

• Main Author: Holmgren, Sebastian
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Människa-datorinteraktion 2020
• Subjects: Citizen Science; Gamification; Motivation; Artdatabanken; Bartle's Taxonomy; Intrinsic Motivation; Extrinsic Motivation; Human Computer Interaction; Människa-datorinteraktion (interaktionsdesign)
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-415125

In previous research, researchers have looked into different gamified applications of citizen science such as fold.it, Zooniverse and Happy Moths. However, the users and participants of these studies are often on different skill levels, or beginners in the field. In this study, 10 expert users who submit their findings of species to Artdatabanken, an organisation that works in the field of biodiversity, were interviewed to find out their motivations for reporting their findings. This was done with the goal of finding what type of gamification that might suit these expert users to increase the quality of the data submitted through Artportalen, together with any obstacles that might hinder it. Through a latent thematic analysis and comparing the themes to Bartle’s Taxonomy of Players, the results show that these users were mainly of the types ‘achiever’ and ‘socialiser’. The answers were also compared to the theory of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which showed that the users are mainly reporting because of extrinsic motivation. While this supports the implementation of gamification there were things that would rather be solved by increasing usability.