Identity-based Gamification Model of
Museum Visitors
Flavio Escribano
Gamification Research Department at GECON.es
c/ Aragó, 336 08009 Barcelona, Spain.
93 666 78 29
fescribano@gecon.es
Jordi Moreton
Gamification Research Department at GECON.es
c/ Aragó, 336 08009 Barcelona, Spain.
93 666 78 29
jmoreton@gecon.es
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a gamification model of museum visitors using an existing
identity-based taxonomy of visitors, a player orientation meta-framework and a
gamification elements model. The model proposes the visitor type as the key concept and
the player orientation as an intrinsic and transversal set of characteristics. The paper
proposes the model as the basis for a recommendation tool.
Keywords
gamification, museum, culture, visitor, player orientations, recommendation tool
INTRODUCTION
In any Gamification project it is necessary to understand users and their motivations. One
way to do this is to use existing studies and models of users for a particular scenario.
Although traditionally studies of museum visitors have focused on defining demographic
characteristics of visitors, the most current knowledge tells us that sociodemographic
aspects do not provide much information about the motivations to visit or not (Prentice et
al. 1997).
Falk (2009) argues that demographic characteristics, type of museum, time of year and
group composition are not sufficient to understand and predict the behavior of museum
visitors because these don’t reflect their motivations, needs or interests. Falk explains that
the experience of every visitor is the synthesis of individual motivations related to their
identities and how they perceive the museum meets the needs and interests arising from
these motivations. According to Falk, the museum visit is conditioned by three different
contexts: personal, sociocultural and physical.
Proceedings of DiGRA 2015: Diversity of play: Games – Cultures – Identities
© 2015 Authors & Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Personal and educational classroom use of
this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.