1. Of Natures and Gamers: Lessons from developing a Geocaching game for Citizen Science Anne Bowser*, Derek Hansen+, Matthew Reid+, Jocelyn Raphael+, Ryan Gamett+, Yurong He*, Dana Rotman*, Carol Boston* & Jennifer Preece* *University of Maryland +Brigham Young University

2. Floracaching 3. Floracaching 4. Citizen Science Apps 5. Free as in puppies 6. Floracaching 7. Intrinsic Motivations, Collectivism 8. Intrinsic Motivations, Collectivism 9. Intrinsic Motivations, Collectivism 10. Intrinsic Motivations, Collectivism 11. Competition, Reward, Progress 12. Explore nature, Socialize, Scavenger hunt 13. Gamers Natures LBAG players Personal enjoyment Collectivism ? ? Competition ? ? Reward ? ? Progress ? ? Exploring Nature ? ? Socialization ? ? Scavenger Hunt ? ? 14. Research Question: Which activities do natures and gamers find appealing? 15. Challenge: Design a citizen science app that is appealing to both naturalists and gamers 16. Method: Co-design Floracaching 2 universities 6 sessions 58 participants 17. Method: Co-design Floracaching Activity (difficulty) Description Sample motivation Budding Scientist Report whether a Floracache is flowering Citizen Science Friendly Floracacher Check into a Floracache with a friend Social Tour Guide Make a plant tour Social, Explore Validator Validate that a first find was correctly identified Plant Identification 18. Method: Co-design Floracaching Surveys + focus groups Please rank the following activities in order from most to least interesting What would motivate you to participate in Floracaching or a similar activity? 19. Method: Co-design Floracaching Data Analysis Mann-Whitney U tests Modified grounded theory approach 20. Similarities A Geocaching game for citizen science Social Interactions 21. Differences Perceptions of Gamification Guidance v. Autonomy Integration v. Enrichment 22. Perceptions of Gamification In this context does it work? 23. Perceptions of Gamification Any kind of competition, with my friends or with a larger community, perhaps with a prize or some sort of recognition. - Gamer, survey 24. Perceptions of Gamification It could be a long term game, like 2 groups of people over the course of 2 months, trying to compete for I don't know, points or whatever. - Gamer, focus group 25. Perceptions of Gamification I did not want to compare myself to others, I want to learn for myself and had no use for this activity. - Nature, survey 26. Perceptions of Gamification "I think you could motivate people to do it, but it wouldn't be a game. It would be people who were seriously interested, who were willing to adopt an area, like you adopt a highway. - Nature, focus group 27. Guidance v. Autonomy How much instruction do users need in order to contribute? 28. Guidance v. Autonomy With Geocaching its cool, and its fun, but its like whats the point whereas with this, if youre contributing to science - Gamer, focus group 29. Guidance v. Autonomy I think one thing that would have helped if I had been assigned a specific task. Instead of saying, hey, go out and look at what you like and maybe you'll find something, but if I had been given a specific assignment saying you need to complete this tour and you need to create a tour. Then you report back on how those specific things went. - Gamer, focus group 30. Guidance v. Autonomy I actually enjoyed all the activities. I would have done all of them if there had been time. - Nature, survey 31. Guidance v. Autonomy "Something that I think would be very valuable is - but this is time related- is seeing if plants come back the next year, and when they bloom and when you see them start to develop. - Nature, survey 32. Integration v. Enrichment How does this fit into users lives? 33. Integration v. Enrichment My wife and I struggle to grow a garden. I mean I wouldnt want to be responsible for capturing that data unless I had a specific purpose for it. So if it was something having to do with my kids, teaching them how to collect data and how to do research it would be awesome. But if its just my wife and I its going to die and youre not going to get your data. - Gamer, focus group 34. Guidance v. Autonomy Im not going to drive an hour just to see if some plant bloomed. - Gamer, focus group 35. Integration v. Enrichment If the app could run in the background with very limited battery usage, and notify me if I was within a certain distance of a specific plant. - Gamer, survey 36. Integration v. Enrichment I liked it a lot, just because I like to be outdoors. - Nature, survey 37. Integration v. Enrichment None of my other friends know anything about plants so it would be cool to get them involved. And, like, make them want to... also go out. - Nature, focus group 38. 1. Gamification & Citizen science for both groups 2. Guidance & Integration for gamer group 3. Autonomy & Enrichment for nature group Implications for designing citizen science apps 39. Explore Floracaching: http://biotracker.byu.edu Contact Anne Bowser: Anne.bowser@gmail.com @annebowser 40. Survey Participants Natures Gamers All Females 12/18 (67%) 9/23 (39%) 21/41 (51%) Age range (mean) 19-55 (31.5) 21-68 (28.7) 19-68 (30.0) Experience with LBAGs 9/16 (56%) 9/23 (39%) 18/39 (46%) Smartphone use 12/16 (75%) 19/23 (83%) 31/39 (79%)