A taxonomy for digital badge design in medical technologies

This paper discusses gamification as an emerging area of research in medical health application development. It then defines digital badges as an example of gamification, explains their purpose and functionality, and outlines their primary advantages as well as ten different challenges impacting their use. This background is framed both generally and within the context of medical games and applications. The paper then reviews how digital badges and achievements are currently being used in medical games and healthcare applications. It concludes by synthesizing prior literature on effective game design and serious game design taxonomies with prior guidelines for effective digital badge design. The result is an interdisciplinary taxonomy combining research from serious games development, psychology, economics, user experience design, and education. This taxonomy can be reviewed to help researchers and developers consider a wide range of relevant issues when designing procedures for effective digital badge design and development in medical games and applications.