Motivational Design And Game Thinking: It's Not Just For The Young

When deployed in research studies, Datacubed Health’s Linkt platform and patient app increases participant retention and compliance, with respect to the collection of patient-reported outcomes data. Each element of the Linkt app’s participant-facing interface has been designed specifically to sustain and/or increase retention and compliance to support collection of complete data. While these elements are well tolerated by all adult age groups, participants ages 55 or older have shown elevated interest in these elements relative to adult participants in other age groups.

One indicator of interest in gamification elements is engagement with the Linkt Avatar Store. Engagement with the Avatar Store increases with participant age and is highest for participants ages 55 or older. Immediately after logging into the Linkt app for the first time, subjects are directed to create an Avatar. Participants are initially presented with a limited number of options to customize their avatar (e.g., facial features, hair color and style, eye color and shape).