Design and development of a gamification based mobile application: Discover Karahisar

Gamification is a term that has been found frequently in literature, especially since 2011. The most common definition in the literature is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. The aim of gamification is to bring the persistent behavior desired to be earned to the target group more fun. It is seen in the academic studies that the gamification elements are interesting to increase and to achieve the targeted behaviors. In this study, a gamification based mobile application was designed and developed by using the most common gamification elements for the promotion of historical and cultural places in Afyonkarahisar province. In the study, there are two separate systems, mobile application and management panel. The mobile app consists of a total of 17 screen that users can view and management panel consist of a total 12 screen that administrators can view. Mobile application and management panel are developed by using, Html, Css, Php, Mysql, Javascript and Jquery Mobile. In this study, Waterfall Model for the development of the mobile application and the D6 Gamification Design Framework for the design of the gamification were used. The app has been tested on three Android-powered smartphones and one tablet. The application was made available via the Google Play Store for pilot implementation and has been active for 3 weeks. During pilot implementation, 7 pre-determined experts and a total of 33 users downloaded the app through the Google Play Store used the app. Opinions of experts using the app were collected by unstructured interview method. The study included information on the design and development process of the application, expert and user opinions, and suggested solutions for possible problems. In the last section, the advantages and disadvantages mentioned in the literature of the gamification have been addressed, and the recommendation which is supposed to illuminate future work in the direction of expert and user opinions is given. In line with the opinions of experts and daily users who use the application, it has been seen that the application can be effective in promoting the historical and cultural places.