Gamification

Gamification is the practice of applying game elements — points, badges, rankings, challenges, rewards — to fields outside games, such as education, marketing, health management and business improvement. It works by stimulating the human desire to achieve, to compete and to collect, giving motivation to behavior that would otherwise be tedious.

QR codes are widely used as the means of implementing gamification, and the most common form is the digital stamp rally. Participants scan the codes placed at each spot in a shopping street or tourist area to collect digital stamps, and receive a prize once they reach a set number. Compared with a paper stamp card, this approach makes cheating difficult, allows participation to be tracked in real time, and leaves far more freedom in the design of the stamps themselves.

At treasure hunt events, games in which players search out QR codes hidden around the venue and scan them to earn hints or points are popular. In education, a scheme where scanning the QR code in a textbook presents a quiz and correct answers accumulate points has proved effective at raising the appetite for study.

What matters in designing gamification is never to forget that the game elements are a means and not the end. Collecting stamps is not the fun in itself; the value lies in walking around the shopping street while collecting them and discovering new shops along the way. The ideal design is one in which the experience of scanning a QR code naturally advances the original purpose — exploring, learning, or acting on one's health.