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Gamification and Emergencies

Gamification is the implementation of intrinsic (sensory) and extrinsic (tangible) rewards into a system. They promote action and engagement from users for prizes. This can and has been done in the workplace and in education. Something I want to look at is the potential of gamification to improve user responsiveness before a volcanic eruption.


One of the outcomes of gamification is learning and improvement. People will learn from previous attempts and improve on them when rewards are involved. Otherwise, there won't be as much interest since there isn't an immediate reason to learn. "Users have no reason to browse trainings".
Gamification significantly increases "motivation, engagement and challenge".
Through this, we could teach people to learn what a safe distance from a volcano is if they were somehow graded on it. Maybe they could be graded on correct answers when it comes to climbing down safely and efficiently. If penalties are beneficial to learning, they could be applied when going too close to a danger zone.
Gamification also increases awareness and is good at starting engagement with people who are unaware or actively ignore a system.

Some forms of gamification work better on some people than others. If you're using competitive scoring, some people will become more interested and willing to participate, while others will not show interest at all. For the latter, they might like individual challenges, which might not interest competitive types. 
Providing a balance is the key to maximising engagement. This is important if we're trying to get everyone to take interest in evacuating a volcano.

Of course, our game should not intrude on the process of evacuation. Ideally you would be given the best incentives to leave to a safe distance once a volcanic eruption is on its way.


What could we do with this? We could provide a digital game to users that visit volcanic tourist attractions. This game can have quizzes, or challenge you to reach a designated area (away from danger zones of course). Souvenirs could be given away as rewards for enough points.

One idea is a phone app for the game. 
An issue with that could be the reliability of other peoples' phones. They might not have been charged, they might not have the data for another app, they might not like mobile phones, they might get dropped somewhere, or they could be faulty. 
We need people to know they must evacuate immediately and there are too many external factors with other peoples' technology.

Some in-house tech could prove more reliable. 
Maybe the game could be on a smartwatch. This can be given out for free and returned when the tour is over (like a coke bottle cap). Since it's a watch, it shouldn't get lost because it's wrapped around the users' arm, they can be repaired by staff, and they can be recharged when not in use (if wishful thinking was allowed, they could be charged by geothermal energy). 
Once an evacuation is called for by our A.I., the watch could buzz and display an evacuation message.
The screen would need to be big enough to accommodate the game and the message. Too big and it might be uncomfortable to wear, too small and it would be hard to interact with. 

The watch doesn't account for volcanoes near cities (we shouldn't make a take and return system for people living all day near volcanoes). Gamification isn't out of the question for citizens. Web courses made by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) are made for the general public. It might be easier to implement quizzes and points into a phone app.




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