Accessible Gamification

See your favorite games like never before! Ever wondered why farming for a mighty sword in a fantasy game feels entertaining and fun while filling out reporting documents – a seemingly similar repetitive activity – is incredibly boring? If so, you are not alone! The vast field of Gamification applies techniques and patterns from fundamental mechanics of game design to non-game contexts in order to make business tasks more fun for a user. This can lead to increased efficiency and accuracy and even facilitate better health by reducing exhaustion. However, there is one particular requirement that often becomes a hurdle for Gamification efforts: meeting accessibility requirements. In this computer science course, we will investigate this use case closer and derive a new set of patterns that are representation-agnostic. You will learn the fundamentals of Gamification and accessibility, as well as lessons in game development and game design. We will take a look at popular digital games and draw patterns from their game design and game mechanics. By the end of this course, you will have gained a better grasp on the problem at hand and learn patterns and techniques to deploy gamification in a broader and more abstract scope. But be warned: you might see your favorite digital games like you never saw them before – as a wired, but well-tailored, combination of reward, development, discover and challenge.