Abstract
Even though there are existing studies on gamification in mental health apps, many of them do not detail the thought process behind choosing gamification elements nor list the use of any gamification frameworks. Some of the most commonly used gamification elements in studies are PBL (points, badges, leaderboards) and narrative/story. In these studies [9] however, there was no investigation into different ways to assemble these gamification components together to refine gamification effectiveness nor any attempts to integrate other lesser known gamification elements. In this paper, the ’game-first design framework’, a novel gamification framework that supports existing frameworks i.e. Six Steps to Gamification [53] to better design for spatial awareness is proposed. This framework attempts to address one of the lesser used gamification element of ’immersion’ in gameful design. The game-first design framework also allows the opportunity for ’re-framing’ certain elements within the app. In the context of mental health apps, making the mental health features discreet could help alleviate an initial hesitance to use the app due to a mental health stigma. A study was conducted to demonstrate the game-first design framework applied to the design of a mood diary (mood tracker category of mental health apps) called dEmoLog. The study findings show that the app created with game-first design framework was successful in reaching immersion and motivation in players. The majority of the testers said that the re-designed emotion logging system guided by game-first design named Vent, could provide them with emotive insights. This same group of testers also expressed that future mood diaries should be designed like dEmoLog. This paper demonstrated the game-first design framework in action and shows how new opportunities for gamifying features can bring great value to the app design. Using this game-first design framework as a starting point, potential future research directions could be into category-based implementation of the framework (such as other categories of mental health apps or apps in general) or expanding the proposed initial mood diary design into a fully finished application.