Gamification and Basic Human Needs in Information Technology Design: A Literature Analysis

Gamification is a promising approach to enhance user experience in many contexts. Taking a motivational perspective and using the motivational affordances theory as a guiding framework, this paper presents a literature analysis of 60 journal articles that study motivational influences of gamification in information technology design. Our results reveal that four types of game design features and eight basic human needs are studied in this pool of literature. Correspondence analysis indicates some interesting associations between game design features and basic human needs. We discuss the findings and suggest potential directions for future investigations.