Resumen de “evaluating the quality in use of gamified software”
Juan Antonio Vargas Enriquez
Context: Gamification is defined as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). Gamification is a valuable approach as regards making non-game products, services or applications more enjoyable, more motivating and/or engaging to use (Deterding et al., 2011). Gamified Software has undergone a very important growth. It is, therefore, currently very popular, and this means by which to engage users is becoming a growing trend (Deterding et al., 2011). We therefore believe that the impact of gamified software on users and many areas of society and economy will probably be very high and that the assessment of and improvement to its quality may be necessary. Although there are standard quality models that can be used to assess the quality of any software product, such as the ISO 25010 (ISO, 2011b), they are generic and need to be tailored to specific domains, since quality models can differ considerably from one domain to another (Franch & Carvallo, 2003).
Objective: Although researchers have addressed the quality of gamified software, there is currently no quality model that considers the specific quality attributes and quality characteristics of gamified software. Therefore, the main objective of this PhD thesis is the development and validation of a Quality in use model for gamified software, which has been denominated as the QU-GamSoft model. This quality model is an adaptation of the Quality in use model (ISO, 2011b) that considers the specific quality attributes and quality characteristics of gamified software.
Method: The main objective of this PhD thesis has been achieved using several research methods that we considered to be most appropriate for each partial objective. A “Systematic Mapping Study” research method that was used to carry out the literature review in order to analyze the state of the art and to discover the existing initiatives on gamified software quality. The “Survey” empirical research method that was used to refine the QU-GamSoft model by gathering the opinions of experts in gamified software development as regards the understandability and relevance of the proposed quality attributes. Finally, the “Case Study” empirical research method that was used to investigate the applicability and usefulness of the QU-GamSoft model in industrial and real-life contexts.
Result: A quality in model for gamified software (QU-GamSoft) have proposed and developed. The construction process of the QU-GamSoft model followed a top-down approach (Franch & Carvallo, 2003) and it was based on the ISO/IEC 25010 (ISO, 2011b) standard and on the results of an SMS on gamified software quality. The QU-GamSoft model was refined by means of a survey of experts on gamified software development as regards the understandability and importance of the quality attributes. Results of this survey show that the definitions of the quality attributes are understandable for most of the respondents of the survey and that most the quality attributes of the QU-GamSoft model are to some extent important. Finally, in order to demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the QU-GamSoft model in industrial or real-life contexts two case studies were carried out.
Conclusion: We have developed and validated a quality in use model for gamified software (QU-GamSoft) that is an extension of ISO/IEC 25010 standard (ISO, 2011b), but specific for gamified software, that has been agreed on by experts on gamified software development. The QU-GamSoft model considers attributes that are not considered in the standard quality in use model and is useful in practice, in order to allow gamified designers and developers to evaluate and improve the quality of the gamified software they build.
