Everyone’s experience of a city is unique. Whether one is visiting a place for the first time or has lived there all their life, their experiences are shaped by their personal interactions with the built environment. Buildings, landscapes, and streets come together to offer an opportunity for sensory stimulation, however, most of them are unable to provide inspiration. While a city’s infrastructure accounts for livability, equal importance isn’t given to enjoyability. Play and games embedded in the city’s fabric can help improve user engagement with urban spaces.
Gamification describes the application of elements of game-playing to other areas of activity. When applied to the urban context, it presents itself as nodes for playful interaction that create transformative ways of experiencing the city. Urban gamification uses attributes like point scoring, competitions, and rules of play in many domains to encourage participation between people and the built environment. Games provide an even playing field for community members to meet and interact, each subject to the same conditions regardless of their social background.
