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Gamifying citizen science: a study of two user groups

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Jen HammockAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW Companion '14: Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing

Pages 137 - 140

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556420.2556502

Published: 15 February 2014 Publication History

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Abstract

Citizen science projects increasingly incorporate the motivational affordances of games. However, the different user groups that gamified citizen science projects may attract are poorly understood. This project examines how two user groups, nature participants and gamer participants, experience Floracaching, a gamified mobile application for citizen science. Both groups enjoyed Floracaching, and were motivated by discovery, education, and social interaction; both were also motivated by competition, but in different ways. Gamer participants desired guidance while nature participants preferred autonomy. Nature participants saw the inherent value in the app; gamer participants needed to understand how the app could be integrated with their other life activities.

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Coşkunserçe O(2024)Use of a mobile plant identification application and the out‐of‐school learning method in biodiversity educationEcology and Evolution10.1002/ece3.1095714:4Online publication date: 17-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10957
Kapono CKane HBurns J(2023)Branding the MEGA lab; methods to improve science communication and citizen science engagementFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.120868311Online publication date: 18-Sep-2023
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Spors VLaato SBuruk OHamari J(2023)Longing to be the Mountain: A Scoping Review about Nature-Centric, Health-Minded TechnologiesProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581479(1-16)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Index Terms

Gamifying citizen science: a study of two user groups
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

CSCW Companion '14: Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing

February 2014

372 pages

ISBN:9781450325417

DOI:10.1145/2556420

General Chairs:
Susan Fussell
Cornell University
,
Wayne Lutters
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
,
Program Chairs:
Meredith Ringel Morris
Microsoft Research
,
Madhu Reddy
Penn State University

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 February 2014

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CSCW'14

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SIGCHI

CSCW'14: Computer Supported Cooperative Work

February 15 - 19, 2014

Maryland, Baltimore, USA

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CSCW Companion '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 88 of 497 submissions, 18%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

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CSCW '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

October 18 - 22, 2025

Bergen , Norway

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https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10957
Kapono CKane HBurns J(2023)Branding the MEGA lab; methods to improve science communication and citizen science engagementFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.120868311Online publication date: 18-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1208683
Spors VLaato SBuruk OHamari J(2023)Longing to be the Mountain: A Scoping Review about Nature-Centric, Health-Minded TechnologiesProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581479(1-16)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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“I want to be a captain! I want to be a captain!”: gamification in the old weather citizen science project

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