Designing Gamified Systems

Introduction

Imagine a world in which every organization—corporations, schools, museums, government agencies—hired a game designer. In 2013, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), a century-and-a-half-old institution with a vast and diverse collection of 4.5 million treasures, did just that. Why? Because a museum that has everything from the original Winnie the Pooh drawings to the mechanical tiger of an Indian Sultan needs to figure out ways for visitors to navigate through vast amounts of information. The V&A didn’t just need a game designer, it also needed someone who understood public space, education, marketing and business, and most importantly building relationships with and among people. So why did it choose a game designer?

For ...