Building Better Digital Badges

Background. Digital badges are used in games and simulations for purposes such as incentivizing learning, identifying progress , increasing time on task, and credentialing . Designing effective badges is complicated by psychological factors mediating the processes of recognizing, orienting toward, and acquiring badges. Aim. This article analyzes digital badges through mechanics and psychology . This approach involves understanding the underlying logics of badges as well as the experiential nature of badges-in-use. The proposed model provides additional insight about badges and recommends design strategies to complement existing scholarship. Procedure. This article examines an existing model of completion logic for digital badges. This model is expanded upon by pairing these formal mechanics with relevant psychological theory, summarizing key principles that pertain to how people interact with badges. It then considers three dimensions of badges-in-use—social, cognitive, and affective—reviewing examples and analyzing the relationship of badging to debriefing. Outcome. Understanding the relationships between formal completion logics and the psychological experience of badging allows designers to better design, deploy, and critique badging systems, leading to more effective implementations within simulation and gaming contexts. A design matrix and a series of design recommendations for badging are derived from the presented perspectives.