Index
ParKing – A gamified crowdsourcing approach to simplify parking

Finding a parking spot in large cities is often time-consuming and stressful. Studies conducted in different cities around the globe revealed that around 30% of prevailing traffic is cruising for parking (Shoup, 2005, 2006). The traffic generated by people searching for a parking spot has great economic and ecological consequences: Searching for parking is responsible for tons of carbon dioxide emissions every day and heavily influences the time and fuel consumption of other drivers (Arnott et al., 2005; Axhausen et al., 1994; Shoup, 2005, 2006).

The idea behind the project ParKing was that a “Gamified Parking Assistant System” may help drivers unfamiliar with the parking situation of a city, such as tourists or business travellers, with getting an overview and reducing their cruising for parking. As part of the project, gamification patterns for engaging people in sharing information on parking spaces has been identified, evaluated and a working prototype of a gamified parking assistant was developed. A three-month field experiment across Germany with 372 people showed that the concept worked out and a comprehensive map of on-street parking spaces could be generated.
Results concerning the effects of different gamification design features on motivation and participation received international attention in the gamification research community and were published in the article:
Morschheuser, B., Hamari, J., & Maedche, A. (2019). Cooperation or competition – When do people contribute more? A field experiment on gamification of crowdsourcing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 127, 7−224. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.001
Please see the paper for full details:
Article in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Free pre-print on ResearchGate
Furthermore, several news media reported about this project, including the national radio channel Deutschlandfunk as well as the newspapers Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN) and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

The website parking-app.de provides a detailed overview about the study conducted and the prototype developed with students from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Mannheim. The website summarizes bothproject vision and conducted research.

Based on the results of this study, Robert Bosch GmbH developed the app “Parkineers”, which has been released as iOS and Android app in Germany.
Parkineers, the new community-based parking app, allows you to become a part of the city and to find parking spots more easily. You take responsibility and share information about parking in your neighbourhood with the community. In return, you get parking spot information for places you don’t know well. Parkineers wants to simplify the search for parking spots step by step – completely free, without any commitments but with a lot of fun.Robert Bosch GmbH
References
Arnott, R., Rave, T., & Schöb, R. (2005). Alleviating urban traffic congestion. MIT Press.
Axhausen, K. W., Polak, J. W., Boltze, M., & Puzicha, J. (1994). Effectiveness of the parking guidance system in Frankfurt am Main. Traffic Eng. Control 35, 304–309.
Shoup, D.C., 2006. Cruising for parking. Transp. Policy 13, 479–486. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2006.05.005
Shoup, D.C., 2005. The high cost of free parking. Planners Press, Chicago.
Morschheuser, B., Hamari, J., & Maedche, A. (2019). Cooperation or competition – When do people contribute more? A field experiment on gamification of crowdsourcing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 127, 7−224. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.001
Research projects

Gamification in the team sports of Football
In cooperation with adidas, we want to improve training and performance diagnostics in football through innovative gamification approaches. For this, we explore the impact of different gamification features using an existing adidas platform and wearable devices.
Project objectives:
- Design and development of different gamification features
- Evaluation of developed gamification features with regard to sociopsychological dynamics in the team and effects on the behavior of the football players
- Derive design recommendations and principles for gamification in team sports based on the results of field experiments
Team:
Sandra Birnstiel, Siao Fang Chen, Gerrit Sußner
Designing and understanding the effects of gamified VR training on human-robot teaming
In cooperation with Schaeffler, we investigate how gameful design can be used in virtual reality trainings for improving human-robot interaction. The project aims to develop and explore different design interventions to support and optimize collaboration in human-robot teaming.
Project goals:
- Structuring the knowledge of research on human-robot interaction, i.e., gamification of human-robot interaction
- Developing design interventions to support collaboration of humans and robots in a virtual reality training
- Investigation of the impact of gameful design on users’ perception and behavior
Team:
Revival of MUDs – Designing a text-based adventure game that helps children learn handwriting
In collaboration with STABILO International GmbH, we develop a text-based adventure for the STABILO DigiPen. Our aim is to transform learning and optimization of handwriting into a “gameful” and engaging experience by using design principles of multi-user dungeons (MUDs).
Project objectives:
- Development and empirical investigation of a text-based adventure game for the STABILO DigiPen
- Investigation of the impact of various design interventions on user behaviour and AI-based gesture recognition
- Derivation of theoretical and practical recommendations for designing gamification and serious game approaches to optimize handwriting
Team:
Gamifying the human-AI interaction
Can digital games and their design principles improve the collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence (AI)? Funded by FAU’s Emerging Talents Initiative (ETI), we are investigating how game design principles can help to optimise human-AI teaming.
Project objectives:
- Investigation of cooperation in games and derivation of design principles
- Investigation of the collaboration between humans and non-player characters (NPCs) in games and derivation of insights into designing more effective human-AI collaboration
- Conducting studies on the gamification of human-AI collaboration
Team:
Maximilian Wittmann, Sujit Thapa
Game-based solutions for logistics
In cooperation with the Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG we investigate how gamification can be applied in inbound logistics. The aim of the project is the development, piloting and evaluation of a gamification concept for use in a modern digital logistics center.
Project goals:
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- Structuring of the current body of knwodlege of research on gamification in logistics
- Development of a gamification concept with the active involvement of relevant stakeholders based on the method of Morschheuser et al. (2018)
- Implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of gamification approaches in inbound logistics
Completed projects
More details on our previous research will follow soon. In the meantime, please see our publications.
Publications

Peer-reviewed publications
2023
Is adaptive gamification just a theoretical fairytale? An experiment in a text-based adventure game for data crowdsourcing
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (Maui, Hawaii, 3. January 2023 - 6. January 2023)
In: Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2023
DOI: 10125/102768
URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/102768
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2022
Understanding human factors in the metaverse - an autonomous driving experiment
European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) (Timișoara)
In: ECIS 2022 Research-in-Progress Papers 2022
URL: https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2022_rip/37
, :
Designing gamification for sustainable employee behavior: Insights on employee motivations, design features and gamification elements
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2022 (HICSS 2022) (Maui, HI, 3. January 2022 - 7. January 2022)
In: Tung X. Bui (ed.): Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2022
DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2022.198
URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/79530
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Gamifying sustainable behavior at work: Results from an experiment with a corporate gamification app
30th International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD2022) (Cluj-Napoca)
In: R. A. Buchmann, G. C. Silaghi, D. Bufnea, V. Niculescu, G. Czibula, C. Barry, M. Lang, H. Linger, & C. Schneider (ed.): Information Systems Development: Artificial Intelligence for Information Systems Development and Operations 2022
URL: https://aisel.aisnet.org/isd2014/proceedings2022/usability/3/
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Gamification of cooperation: A framework, literature review and future research agenda
In: International Journal of Information Management 67 (2022)
ISSN: 0268-4012
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102549
URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401222000834
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What do games teach us about designing effective human-AI cooperation? - A systematic literature review and thematic synthesis on design patterns of non-player characters
GamiFIN Conference 2022 (Tampere, FI, 26. April 2022 - 29. April 2022)
In: Mila Bujić, Jonna Koivisto, Juho Hamari (ed.): Proceedings of the 6th International GamiFIN Conference 2022
Open Access: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3147/paper10.pdf
URL: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3147/paper10.pdf
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2020
How game features give rise to altruism and collective action? Implications for cultivating cooperation by gamification
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2020 (HICSS 2020) (Maui, HI, 7. January 2020 - 10. January 2020)
In: Tung X. Bui (ed.): Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2020
DOI: 10.24251/hicss.2020.086
URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/63825
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2019
Is it a tool or a toy? How user’s conception of a system’s purpose affects their experience and use
In: International Journal of Information Management 49 (2019), p. 461−474
ISSN: 0268-4012
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.016
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202011167971
, , :
The gamification of work: Lessons from crowdsourcing
In: Journal of Management Inquiry 28 (2019), p. 145−148
ISSN: 1056-4926
DOI: 10.1177/1056492618790921
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911216163
, :
Cooperation or competition – When do people contribute more? A field experiment on gamification of crowdsourcing
In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 127 (2019), p. 7−24
ISSN: 1071-5819
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.001
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202011167972
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2018
First-hand experience of why gamification projects fail and what could be done about it
GamiFIN Conference 2018 (Pori, 21. May 2018 - 23. May 2018)
In: Jonna Koivisto, Juho Hamari (ed.): Proceedings of the 2nd International GamiFIN Conference 2018
Open Access: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2186/paper17.pdf
URL: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2186/paper17.pdf
, , , :
How to design gamification? A method for engineering gamified software
In: Information and Software Technology 95 (2018), p. 219−237
ISSN: 0950-5849
DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2017.10.015
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911216151
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2017
The gamification of crowdsourcing systems: Empirical investigations and design (Dissertation, 2017)
URL: https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000074115/5503157
:
Gamified crowdsourcing: Conceptualization, literature review, and future agenda
In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 106 (2017), p. 26−43
ISSN: 1071-5819
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.04.005
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911216147
, , , :
How to gamify? A method for designing gamification
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2017 (HICSS 2017) (Big Island, HI, 3. January 2017 - 7. January 2017)
In: Tung X. Bui, R. H. Sprague Jr. (ed.): Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2017
DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2017.155
URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/41308
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Gamifizierung mit BPMN
In: Susanne Strahringer, Christian Leyh (ed.): Gamification und Serious Games: Grundlagen, Vorgehen und Anwendungen, Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg, 2017, p. 31−42 (Edition HMD)
ISBN: 9783658167417
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-16742-4_3
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Designing cooperative gamification: Conceptualization and prototypical implementation
CSCW '17: Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (Portland, Oregon, 25. February 2017 - 1. March 2017)
In: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing 2017
DOI: 10.1145/2998181.2998272
URL: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/17445
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How games induce cooperation? A study on the relationship between game features and we-intentions in an augmented reality game
In: Computers in Human Behavior 77 (2017), p. 169−183
ISSN: 0747-5632
DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.026
URL: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911216148
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2016
Gamification in crowdsourcing: A review
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2016 (HICSS 2016) (Kauai, HI, 5. January 2016 - 8. January 2016)
In: Ralph H. Sprague Jr., Tung X. Bui (ed.): Proceedings of the 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2016
DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2016.543
URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7427729
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2015
Outsourcing: Die Standardisierung gewinnt an Relevanz
In: Wilhelm Niehoff, Stefan Hirschmann (ed.): Aspekte einer effizienten Bankorganisation, die-bank, 2015, p. 98–103
ISBN: 9783865564276
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Increasing intranet usage through gamification – Insights from an experiment in the banking industry
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2015 (HICSS 2015) (Kauai, HI, 5. January 2015 - 8. January 2015)
In: Tung X. Bui, Ralph H. Sprague Jr. (ed.): Proceedings of the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2015
DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2015.83
URL: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:29-opus4-178761
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Gamifizierung mit BPMN
In: HMD : Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik 52 (2015), p. 840−850
ISSN: 1436-3011
DOI: 10.1365/s40702-015-0188-3
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2014
Interaction and reflection with quantified self and gamification: An experimental study
In: The Journal of Literacy and Technology 15 (2014), p. 136−156
ISSN: 1535-0975
Open Access: http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/uploads/1/3/6/8/136889/vr.pdf
URL: http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/uploads/1/3/6/8/136889/vr.pdf
, , , :
Banking 2020 - zwischen Individualisierung und Standardisierung.
2014
ISBN: 978-3-033-04538-5
URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Benedikt-Morschheuser/publication/263444216_Banking_2020_-_zwischen_Individualisierung_und_Standardisierung/links/57c411cc08aee50192e87ce2/Banking-2020-zwischen-Individualisierung-und-Standardisierung.pdf
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2013
Gamifying quantified self approaches for learning: An experiment with the Live-Interest-Meter
The PLE Conference 2013: Learning and Diversity in the Cities of the Future (Berlin, 10. July 2013 - 12. July 2013)
In: Ilona Buchem, Graham Attwell, Gemma Tur (ed.): Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Personal Learning Environments 2013
Open Access: http://pleconf.org/2013/files/2014/10/v5.0_PLE_Conference2013_ResearchReport_BeuthUniversity_MonashUniversity.pdf
URL: http://pleconf.org/2013/files/2014/10/v5.0_PLE_Conference2013_ResearchReport_BeuthUniversity_MonashUniversity.pdf
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Patents
- Method for providing information regarding parking spots (Property Right: DE102015211051A1)
Inventor(s):
Research

We create impactful scientific knowledge about the ongoing penetration of society, technology, economy and everyday life with digital games and emerging phenomena of the gaming industry in order to better understand these developments and to support society and organizations in solving problems in a ‘gameful’ way
Selection of our research fields and interests:
Gaming meets Product & Service Design
- Designing gamified information systems
- Motivational design
- Game design patterns
- Game thinking
- Gamified crowdsourcing and co-creation
- Personalized gamification
- Gamification of future mobility and transportation (e.g. in-car gaming)
Gaming meets Marketing & Sales
- Digital customer engagement
- Customer steering in the omni-channel
- Loyalty programs
- Virtual goods and commerce in the Metaverse
- Customer insights, gamers/players as customers
Gaming meets Work & Collaboration
- Gamification in technology-mediated collaboration e.g. crowdsourcing, remote work
- Gamification for creativity and ingenuity
- Serious and educational games
- Gamification in organizational transformation initiatives
- Human-AI teaming and collaboration
- Work and education in the “Metaverse”
- Gamifying sustainable behavior at work
Gaming meets Sports & Health
- Gamification of exercise, sports & quantified-self
- Virtual and augmented reality in sports
- Location-based games
- eSports
- Gamification in corporate health
- Gamification of prevention, therapy and rehabilitation
Gaming meets Society and Culture
- Inclusive and accessible games and gamification
- Ethics of gamification
- Gamification to prevent and counter radicalization and extremism
- Data Privacy in the Metaverse
- Understanding the creator economy