Abstract:

The sustainability of crowdsourcing platform is largely dependent on the related incentive mechanism to keep the crowd’s participation intention, and gamification design can play an important role in eliciting participants’ motivation. The article first conducts a literature review on the crowdsourcing and gamification, especially taking a close look at the theoretical and practical aspects of gamification in the crowdsourcing platform. Then, based on the operation process of the crowdsourcing platform, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of the game elements in crowdsourcing platform, including the core properties, mechanisms, and gamified components, respectively. Furthermore, the study examines the typology of crowdsourcing platforms from two dimensions, namely the task propensity (e.g., general or specific) and adoption stage (e.g., initial adoption or continuous use). In line with the defined typology, the study investigates the potential problems that may occur in each of the four quadrants, and suggests that various game elements should be strategically employed in accordance with the diverse aims and objectives of crowdsourcing platforms, and thus improve the usability and user experience via the gamified approach. The research findings will contribute to the incentive design of crowdsourcing platforms, and yield some implication to the exploration of gamification in the crowdsourcing context.

Key words: Crowdsourcing, Gamification, Crowdsourcing platform, Citizen science, User adoption