The Circularity Game

Abstract

SummaryAt the basis of the Circularity game is the Circularity deck (Konietzko, Bocken, & Hultink, 2020), it helps teams innovate for the Circular economy on various perspective levels and provides the users with a better understanding of the Circular economy and how they can innovate for it. They also gain a valid (set of) idea(s) , which they can start using already.The goal with the Circularity game was to improve the Circularity Deck, through gamification, in such a way that it...: ...stimulates creativity, multidisciplinary cooperation and innovation more;...motivates its users to engage more with it, driving enthusiasm and use;...is an easily accessible, stand-alone, ready to use product.From a project perspective, the value lies in showing that gamification is a worthwhile approach to reaching these goals and that further research and design in this direction is warranted.The project started with understanding the theory behind creativity and gamification. Taking the understanding of this and combining it into one theoretical construct that could be used in the design.The next step in the project was to better understand what the Circularity game should be. To know this, the various methods and tools were evaluated and chosen (most notably Octalysis) and an understanding of the intended user needs was created. The original deck was analyzed on a functional level and the goals for it, from the creators’ perspective, were established.What followed was creating a functional design filling the gaps of the original and laying the basic framework of what the new design should be. It took into account the various goals of the creators and the needs of the users in conjunction with the tools that Octalysis provided, specifically the core drives and the amount they needed to be applied in the design. This resulted in a ‘skeleton’ of requirements that could be filled with the right amount of ideas, fitting the established requirements.Next up was filling this ‘skeleton’ with the needed ‘meat’. This was done through various ideation methods, creating solutions for the problems provided by the framework. Which solutions to use and which to exclude was based on the established understanding at that point.To avoid a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’, the design included an envisioning of how it would be used and interacted with by the users. This helped to shape the Circularity game into a coherent, well working and pleasant experience.Near the end of the project, a working prototype of the new Circularity game was made and tested in a small student group, the results of this can be found near the end of the report.The report ends with conclusions and reflections on the design and provides recommendations for further research and development. The main conclusion is that the gamification seems to be working and that further development in this direction seems a worthwhile endeavor for the Circularity deck or game. However, the conducted test was very limited and can only be seen as a positive early indicator of the value of gamification.