Gamification techniques can be applied to smart city apps to increase citizen engagement. The document analyzes NotiCity, a smart city app developed by KES that allows citizens to report issues in their cities. NotiCity was updated to include gamification elements like points, levels, leaderboards to motivate reporting. The server and client sides were modified, and the UI was restyled to be more immersive. Studies show gamification will be increasingly used in innovation and citizen engagement projects in the future.

1. “Use of gamification techniques
in app for smart cities projects”
Alina Gnerre

2. Our goal
Our goal today is the analysis of gamification techniques and their use in smart city projects. We will analyze
the relationship between smart city and gamification and how you can apply gamification techniques in your
app, thanks to the example of NotiCity, a smart city app developed by KES ( www.kesitaly.it ). NotyCity has the
purpose of the management and the reporting of critical events on the territory of Verona, Viterbo and
Avellino city. Then we’ll see the implementation of the technical choices and the creation of a new prototype
version of a gamified NotiCity .

3. Game “we are all players”

4. Gamification
The origins of the term“gamification”
dates back to 2010.
The term“gamification”indicates
“the application of game-design
elements and game principles in non-
game contexts”…
…in attempts to engage and motivate
people to achieve their goals.
There are two kinds of gamification:
intern or extern.
Very important: not to be confused it
with“serious game”!

5. Things are changing…
There are several reasons why
games and gamification are
becoming more common:
• Games are easier to build than
ever before.
• The average age of a person who
plays video games is getting
older.
• Games are available on
smartphones.

6. Games are no longer a
dirty word at the office
It is not unreasonable to believe that
within a short amount of time,
the idea of games and gamification
will be common in all workplaces
and educational institutions.
Not convinced?
Listen to this analogy that might help…

7. Five wrong reasons
1. Game and gamification are
cool/awesome/fun
2. Everyone is doing it
3. Things will be effortless
4. Everyone loves game
5. It’s easy to design them

8. Five right reasons
1.Creating interactivity
2. Engagement
3.Opportunities for reflection
4.Positively change behavior
5.Authentic practice

9. Success stories: education, marketing and tourism

10. Success stories: eco-sustainability

11. Success stories: transport, health and wellness

12. Gamification
techniques
1) Points -> reward
2) Levels -> status
3) Challenges -> achievement
4) Virtual Goods -> self expression
5) Leaderboards -> competition
Feeling of ownership, epic meaning
and calling: the desire of
participation is the desire to be part
of something much bigger than us,
to contribute to the creation of a
common good.

13. A smart city creates sustainable economic development and high quality of life by excelling
in multiple areas like mobility, environment, people and living. Excelling in these key areas
can be done so through strong human capital, social capital and/or ICT infrastructure.
“We should try to take a step
forward to the theme of
‘smart city’ that is already
innovative: when you think to
a smart city, you think to all
its services, but you have to
have citizens who volunteer
and emotionally are involved.
How you can achieve this?
Through videogames: using a
number of techniques that
make it a fun experience”
F. Viola

14. I-City
• iCity is an IoT ready solution by KES
with a set of innovative services and
tools to monitoring the main areas
of a smart city. iCity gathers and
analyzes data from the city through
smart objects (cameras, sensors, ...)
and offers applications for security,
mobility, environment and energy.
Target:
- Public administrations, to ensure
smart services for more livable cities;
- Citizens, to take active part in the
city life;

15. A video shows I-City

16. NotiCity
has been designed in a dual role: one to make people active part of the
city with the ability to report critical events, the other in support of those
who must take action to resolve the critical issues .

17. NotiCity: main functions
• Creating different types of geo-referenced reports ( accident , potholes , ... )
with an attached image
• Display lists of reports awaiting action and those stored
• Ability to change the flag status by staff authorizing intervention (new - work
in - resolved)
• Integration with iCity

18. NotiCity architecture
NotiCity is an hybrid app, adaptable to different
OS . The architecture is client-server. Server's
responsibilities are to receive queries from clients
and return the result. The server is based on REST
principles . The clients provide a user friendly
interface which will facilitate the construction of
the query and displays the results received from
the server.
Requests to the server are made through Ajax
and jQuery.

19. Gamifying NotiCity
Gamification can influence citizens’
behaviour in relation to many Smart Cities
concerns, such as participatory gover-
nance, tourism, culture, education, etc. The
“human” part of the city is gaining a
prominent position as a decisive factor in
good city policies.
ACTION/SCORE
Sign in +20 points
New valid report +50 points
Report with photo +10 points
New invalid report - 70 points
“bonus malus”

20. LEVELS
1 0 points
2 over 50 points
3 over 200 points
4 over 350 points
5 over 550 points
6 over 800 points
TOP over 1050 points
“signaller”
“guardian”
“duke”
“ancient roman”
“knight”
As his experience as a smart city citizen will go on ,
he will increase his score, he will win a higher level
and will scale leaderboard.
“sentinel”

21. The work done
To apply gamification
techniques, and make the
necessary changes, it was
necessary to work on two
fronts :
• Server side
• Client side

22. Server side
In order to keep track of new
informations introduced by
gamification techniques, it was
necessary to update the tables
in the existing database
designed with MySql. It was
added the column "score" in
the "user" table. And it was
created the table "level" with
the maximum and minimum
values for each level and the
table "action" that describes
the score associated with each
activity.

23. Server side pt.2
These are the four methods added to API Rest:
• UserRanking(User id) called to show users
ranking. It generates a group of arrays key-
value that will be the leaderboard.
• UserInformation(User id) called to show the
score of a single user. It returns all the
informations about the user, for example his
score.
• DeleteEvent(Event request) called by system to
add a score after a valid report.
• ApproveEvent(Event request) called by system
to subtract a score after an invalid report, that
will be deleted.

24. Client side
It was made a graphic restyling of UI
with the aim of making the user
experience more immersive and
captivating. The easy of use, the
attractive graphic, but also any
sounds to be added to highlight the
sending of a report or reaching an
higher level, are all key factors for
success, as we learn from the world
of videogames.

25. Restyling it’s very important
before…

26. Restyling it’s very important
…and after

27. NotiCity

28. The future of Gamification
Studies show that by 2020 there will be significant advances in the use of gamification and that more than
half of all companies will have “gamified” the innovation processes, and that gamification is the area where
most large companies have plans to invest in the short term. Certainly one of the major application
development areas of gamification will be precisely that of "citizen engagement", as demonstrated by the
importance that the theme plays as part of Horizon2020 program of the European Commission. In the long
run, gamification may just become the normal way we design, implement and interact with the world
around us. Research believes that gamification will continue to evolve.

29. Also in the argument of this paper it is possible
to imagine further developments in citizens
engagement allowed by gamification
techniques. The most significant challenge is
the transition from pure report feature to the
active participation to city’s problems. In other
words, "close the loop" by the activation of
initiatives by volunteers who take charge of a
problem’s solution.
From reporting to do something

30. Recommended
Reading
• “Actionable
Gamification - beyond
points, badges and
leaderboards” Yu-kai
Chou
• “The Gamification of
Learning and
Instruction Fieldbook”
Karl M.Kapp, Lucas
Blair, Rich Mesch