Complete your master thesis under the guidance of our group!
Gamification Group (GG) is a world-leading research group in several areas where technology and humanity meet. GG is internationally revered for seminal academic and societal contributions in the areas of novel technologies, such as motivational information systems (e.g., gamification, game-based learning, quantified-self, persuasive technologies), internet commerce (e.g., crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, sharing economies, game economies), new media (e.g., esports, streaming, immersive journalism), as well as human-computer interaction (e.g., VR, wearables, transhumanism, user interfaces). However, GG is especially recognized as the birthing ground for the general umbrella field of gamification research, where GG is the most cited and published research group internationally in its pursuit of wielding gameful approaches towards the flourishing of the planet, people, and prosperity. Our group members offer supervision of master theses for students of multiple disciplines and interests. Completing your thesis as part of the Gamification Group provides an excellent opportunity to publish in peer-reviewed venues and a kickstart for those interested in pursuing an academic career.
If you are interested in completing your thesis under the guidance of our group members, do not hesitate to contact us and discuss your research interests.
CONTACT |
AREA |
METHODOLOGICAL EXPERTISE |
RESEARCH QUESTIONS EXAMPLES |
EXAMPLE PUBLICATION |
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Sustainability |
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| Daniel Fernández Galeote Postdoctoral Researcher daniel.fernandezgaleote@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Qualitative Quantitative |
How do existing games and gamification represent and persuade about climate change and sustainability overall? What are the effects of games and gamification on players’ climate change engagement? How can we create more engaging experiences that encourage reflection and climate action? |
Fernández Galeote, D., & Hamari, J. (2021). Game-based climate change engagement: Analyzing the potential of entertainment and serious games. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY). Fernández Galeote, D., Rajanen, M., Rajanen, D., Legaki, N. Z., Langley, D. J., & Hamari, J. (2021). Gamification for climate change engagement: Review of corpus and future agenda. Environmental Research Letters, 16(6), 1–50. |
| Georgina Guillen Researcher / PhD candidate georgina.guillen@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Qualitative |
In what ways can gamification enable or improve practices of sustainable consumption? How can circular business models be improved through gamification? |
Guillen, G., Hamari, J., & Quist, J. (2021). Gamification of sustainable consumption: A systematic literature review. Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1345–1354. Guillen, G., Quist, J., & Hamari, J. (2021). Gamification of backcasting for sustainability: The development of the Gameful Backcasting Framework (GAMEBACK). Journal of Cleaner Production, 126609. |
| Laura Cosio Researcher / PhD candidate laura.cosio@tuni.fi |
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Design research Qualitative Literature review |
What types of interaction in VR aid in promoting pro-environmental behavior from users? How can we design engaging VR nature environments which elicit emotional connections between users and nature? Does the visualization style (realistic, caricature, abstract, etc) of a VR environment affect users' perceived credibility of the presented information? |
Cosio, L. D., Buruk, O. T., Fernández Galeote, D., De Villiers Bosman, I., & Hamari, J. (2023). Virtual and Augmented Reality for Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Review. Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), 6, 1–23. |
Education |
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| Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki Senior Research Fellow zampeta.legaki@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Experimental research Quantitative |
How does gamification impact public understanding of data and datification, especially regarding Sustainable Development Goals? How do gamified strategies influence statistics education and information and data literacy? How does gamification impact on decision making/ data and visual analytics? |
Legaki, N. Z., Karpouzis, K., Assimakopoulos, V., & Hamari, J. (2021). Gamification to avoid cognitive biases: An experiment of gamifying a forecasting course. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 167, 120725. Legaki, N. Z., Xi, N., Hamari, J., Karpouzis, K., & Assimakopoulos, V. (2020). The effect of challenge-based gamification on learning: An experiment in the context of statistics education. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 144, 1–14. |
| Ana Carolina Tomé Klock Postdoctoral Researcher ana.tomeklock@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Experimental research Quantitative |
How does gamification influence psychological and behavioural outcomes in educational settings? How does gamification affect the overall user experience when considering and understanding their individual characteristics? How is gamification able to address current social issues, such as implicit bias and discrimination? |
Klock, A. C. T., Gasparini, I., & Pimenta, M. S. (2019). User-centered gamification for e-learning systems: A Quantitative and qualitative analysis of its application. Interacting with Computers, 31(5), 425-445. Klock, A. C. T., Gasparini, I., Pimenta, M. S., & Hamari, J. (2020). Tailored gamification: A review of literature. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 144, 1–22. |
| Isabella Aura Postdoctoral Researcher isabella.aura@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Qualitative |
How does gamification affect students’ learning, behavior and well-being? How to gamify pedagogy and learning environments in order to enhance students’ and teachers’ school experience? How do children experience games as part of their childhood and how is gamification utilized in early childhood education? |
Aura, I., Hassan, L., & Hamari, J. (2021). Teaching within a story: Understanding storification of pedagogy. International Journal of Educational Research, 106, 101728. |
| Wilk Oliveira Researcher / PhD candidate wilk.oliveira@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Quantitative Qualitative |
Does gamification affect students' learning and flow experiences? Does tailored gamification affect students' learning and flow experiences? Does gamification affect computational think? How to tailor gamified educational settings? |
Oliveira, W., Pastushenko, O., Rodrigues, L., Toda, A. M., Palomino, P. T., Hamari, J., & Isotani, S. (2021). Does gamification affect flow experience? A systematic literature review. Proceedings of the 5th International GamiFIN Conference, 2883, 110–119. Oliveira, W., Tenório, K., Hamari, J., & Isotani, S. (2022). The relationship between students’ flow experience and their behavior data in gamified educational systems. Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 64–73. |
Business, Marketing & Decision making |
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| Nannan Xi Assistant Professor nannan.xi@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Qualitative Quantitative |
How do users pay attention to different extended realities? |
Xi, N., & Hamari, J. (2021). Shopping in virtual reality: A literature review and future agenda. Journal of Business Research, 134, 37–58. Xi, N., & Hamari, J. (2020). Does gamification affect brand engagement and equity? A study in online brand communities. Journal of Business Research, 109, 449–460. |
| Joseph Macey Postdoctoral Researcher joseph.macey@tuni.fi |
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Qualitative Quantitative |
Macey, J., & Hamari, J. (2019). eSports, skins and loot boxes: Participants, practices and problematic behaviour associated with emergent forms of gambling. New Media & Society, 21(1), 20–41. Macey, J., & Hamari, J. (2020). GamCog: A measurement instrument for miscognitions related to gamblification, gambling, and video gaming. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(1), 242–256. |
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| Eetu Wallius Researcher / PhD candidate eetu.wallius@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Qualitative Quantitative |
How to enhance occupational safety using gamification? How does gamification affect safety behaviours? How to improve production/logistics operations’ efficiency using gamification? |
Wallius, E., Klock, A. C. T., Eronen, V., & Hamari, J. (2021). Preconceptions towards gamifying work: A thematic analysis of responses of a maritime logistics organization. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Academic Mindtrek, 128–133. |
| Elpida Bampouni Researcher / PhD candidate elpida.bampouni@tuni.fi |
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Experimental research Qualitative Quantitative |
How does VR influence human cognitive aspects and/or perception? Can digital training benefit our cognitive functions (e.g. memory)? What are the multisensory effects on virtual experiences? How do games influence our lives/ mood/ cognitive functions? |
Xi, N., Bampouni, E., & Hamari, J. (2022). How does extended reality influence consumer decision making? The empirical evidence from a laboratory experiment. Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1791–1799. Billing, E., Bampouni, E., & Lamb, M. (2020). Automatic selection of viewpoint for digital human modelling. Proceedings of the Digital Human Modelling Symposium, 61-70. |
Social and emotional psychology |
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| Mila Bujić Postdoctoral Researcher mila.bujic@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Experimental research Qualitative Quantitative |
How do VR gaming experiences influence our cognition and behavior? What are the usability heuristics for modern VR applications? How do users discuss their social VR experiences on internet forums? |
Bujić, M., & Hamari, J. (2020). Satisfaction and willingness to consume immersive journalism: Experiment of differences between VR, 360 video, and article. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Academic Mindtrek, 120–125. Bujić, M., Salminen, M., Macey, J., & Hamari, J. (2020). “Empathy machine”: How virtual reality affects human rights attitudes. Internet Research, 30(5), 1407–1425. |
| Simo Järvelä Postdoctoral researcher simo.jarvela@tuni.fi |
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Experimental research Qualitative Quantitative |
Salminen, M., Järvelä, S., Ruonala, A., Harjunen, V. J., Jacucci, G., Hamari, J., & Ravaja, N. (2019). Evoking physiological synchrony and empathy using social VR with biofeedback. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, 1949-3045. Kivikangas, J. M., Chanel, G., Cowley, B., Ekman, I., Salminen, M., Järvelä, S., & Ravaja, N. (2011). A review of the use of psychophysiological methods in game research. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 3(3), 181-199. |
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| Anna-Leena Macey Ph.D. candidate anna-leena.macey@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Experimental research Qualitative |
How can we manipulate virtual reality environments to enhance user empowerment and reduce stress? |
Bujić, M., Macey, A.-L., Järvelä, S., & Hamari, J. (2022). Playing with embodied social interaction: A thematic review of experiments on social aspects in gameful virtual reality. Interacting with Computers. Macey, A.-L., Macey, J., & Hamari, J. (2022). Virtual reality in emotion regulation: A scoping review. Proceedings of the 6th International GamiFIN Conference, 3147, 64–74. |
Design & Space |
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| Mattia Thibault Assistant Professor mattia.thibault@tuni.fi |
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Design research Qualitative |
How can the environment encourage or discourage playful behaviour? How the presence of toys in offices and shops affects our perception of work? How can we use play and games to reappropriate alienated urban spaces? |
Thibault, M. (2019). Towards a typology of urban gamification. Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1476–1485. Thibault, M., Buruk, O. T., Buruk, S. S., & Hamari, J. (2020). Transurbanism: Smart cities for transhumans. Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 1915–1928. |
| Çağlar Genç Postdoctoral Researcher genc.caglar@tuni.fi |
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Design research Qualitative Quantitative |
How can we augment humans for the future of communication? How can we learn from fashion design practices to design fashionable wearable technologies? How can we develop interactive (and playful) applications via designing with and through biomaterials (i.e., mushrooms, bacteria and wood)? |
Genç, Ç., Spors, V., Buruk, O. O., Thibault, M., Masek, L., & Hamari, J. (2023, October). Crafting Bodies and Auras: Speculative Designs for Transhuman Communication. In Proceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference (pp. 354-358). Genç, Ç., Launne, E., & Häkkilä, J. (2022, October). Interactive Mycelium Composites: Material Exploration on Combining Mushroom with Off-the-shelf Electronic Components. In Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (pp. 1-12). Genç, Ç., Buruk, O. T., Inal, S., Can, K., & Özcan, O. (2018). Exploring Computational Materials as Fashion Materials: Recommendations for Designing Fashionable Wearables. International Journal of Design, 12(3), 1-19. |
| Oğuz ‘Oz’ Buruk Assistant Professor oguz.buruk@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Qualitative |
How can we design playful posthuman technologies? How can we design playful body-integrated technologies? What is the role of games & play in fashion design? How can we enhance engagement with nature and lived experiences through playful technologies? How can we augment virtual worlds through embodied technologies? |
Buruk, O. T., Özcan, O., Baykal, G. E., Göksun, T., Acar, S., Akduman, G., Baytaş, M. A., Beşevli, C., Best, J., Coşkun, A., Genç, H. U., Kocaballi, A. B., Laato, S., Mota, C., Papangelis, K., Raftopoulos, M., Ramchurn, R., Sádaba, J., Thibault, M., … Yildiz, M. (2020). Children in 2077: Designing children’s technologies in the age of transhumanism. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–14. Jung, S., Xiao, R., Buruk, O. O., & Hamari, J. (2021). Designing Gaming Wearables: From Participatory Design to Concept Creation. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 1–14. |
| Bojan Kerous Postdoctoral Researcher bojan.kerous@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Quantitative |
How can affect-aware technology-mediated interaction (visualization or a physical manifestation of affect) augment interhuman experience? Does rapport or simple familiarity moderate uncanny valley? Why is “uncanny valley” useful and is it? Does exercise beat self-regulation (interoceptive practice) in esport performance? Is there a relationship between game genre and executive functioning? Is there a relationship between game genre and interoceptive awareness? |
Kerous, B., Barteček, R., Roman, R., Sojka, P., Becev, O., & Liarokapis, F. (2020). Social Environment Simulation in VR Elicits a Distinct Reaction in Subjects with Different Levels of Anxiety and Somatoform Dissociation. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 36, 505-515. Kerous, B., Skola, F., & Liarokapis, F. (2017). EEG-based BCI and video games: a progress report. Virtual Reality, 22, 119-135. |
| Ferran Altarriba Bertran Postdoctoral Researcher ferran.altarribabertran@tuni.fi |
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Design research Qualitative |
How can we use playful technology to enrich the experiential texture of mealtime? How can we design technology that adds a playful and social note to our experiences within nature? How can we co-imagine future technology designs with diverse stakeholders? |
Altarriba Bertran, F., Duval, J., Bisbe Armengol, L., Chen, I., Dong, V., Dastoor, B., Altarriba Bertran, A., & Isbister, K. (2021). A Catalog of Speculative Playful Urban Technology Ideas: Exploring the Playful Potential of Smart Cities. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Academic Mindtrek, 60–71. Altarriba Bertran, F., Pometko, A., Gupta, M., Wilcox, L., Banerjee, R., & Isbister, K. (2021). The playful potential of shared mealtime: A speculative catalog of playful technologies for day-to-day social eating experiences. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY). |
| Velvet Spors Postdoctoral Researcher velvet.spors@tuni.fi |
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Design research Qualitative Quantitative |
How can technology teach and support people in doing self-care? How can we use gamification in nature contexts (in meaningful, ethical and considered ways)? What can we learn from playing games for designing caring technologies? |
Spors, V., & Kaufman, I. (2021). Respawn, Reload, Relate: Exploring the Self-Care Possibilities for Mental Health in Games through a Humanistic Lens. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY), 1–31. Spors, V., Wagner, H. G., Flintham, M., Brundell, P., & Murphy, D. (2021). Selling Glossy, Easy Futures: A Feminist Exploration of Commercial Mental-Health-focused Self-Care Apps’ Descriptions in the Google Play Store. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–17. |
| Eshtiak Ahmed Researcher / PhD candidate eshtiak.ahmed@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Qualitative |
How can technology be leveraged to create a sustainable relationship between humans and nature? How can daily life activities be made more interesting and engaging through technology? How does interactive technology affect human lives in the long run and how can it be reshaped for a better quality of life? How is robotic companionship created and how can companion robots reshape human lives? |
Ahmed, E., & Ahtinen, A. (2021). Design implications for a virtual language learning companion robot: Considering the appearance, interaction and rewarding behavior. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, 56–65. Ahmed, E., Buruk, O. T., & Hamari, J. (2022). Robots as Human Companions: A Review. Proceedings of the 2022 Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems. Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Taipei. |
| Sangwon Jung Researcher / PhD candidate sangwon.jung@tuni.fi |
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Literature review Design research Qualitative |
What are the possible designs of technology-driven altered states of consciousness? How could the design of games alter users’ states of consciousness? How can altered states of consciousness be portrayed in video games? What are the ethical concerns around technological alteration of states of consciousness? How is the user experience of currently available altered states of consciousness games? |
Jung, S., Xiao, R., Buruk, O. O., & Hamari, J. (2021). Designing Gaming Wearables: From Participatory Design to Concept Creation. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 1-14. [Forthcoming] Jung, S., Buruk, O. O., & Hamari, J. (2022). Altered States of Consciousness in Human-Computer Interaction: A Review. In Proceedings of the Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference, 1-13. |