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social sciences
Article
Gamifying Online News in a Senior Online Community:
Insights from Designing and Assessing the Readers’ Experience
Francisco Regalado 1, Liliana Vale Costa 1, Fernanda Martins 2and Ana Isabel Veloso 1, *
Citation: Regalado, Francisco,
Liliana Vale Costa, Fernanda Martins,
and Ana Isabel Veloso. 2021.
Gamifying Online News in a Senior
Online Community: Insights from
Designing and Assessing the Readers’
Experience. Social Sciences 10: 463.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
socsci10120463
Academic Editor: Nigel Parton
Received: 26 October 2021
Accepted: 29 November 2021
Published: 5 December 2021
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
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iations.
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
1DigiMedia, Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal;
fsfregalado@ua.pt (F.R.); lilianavale@ua.pt (L.V.C.)
2CITCEM, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, 4150-564 Porto, Portugal;
mmartins@letras.up.pt
*Correspondence: aiv@ua.pt
Abstract:
Aging audiences and the shift of news consumption to an online paradigm have led to
the need of finding strategies to engage aging readers with online news by assessing their news
consumption habits and identifying the potential for digital platforms to assist the reader’s journey,
i.e., the activities performed from access to the information to the relatedness and shareability of
the news content. It is well established that the use of game elements and game thinking within
the context of a community can capture the user’s attention and lead to behavioral engagement
toward repetitive tasks. However, information about the design implications of socially gamified
news to the aging reader’s experience is still lacking. Using a development research approach,
we implemented a prototype that socially gamifies news to support the aging reader experience
based on a pre-assessment survey with 248 participants about their news consumption habits and
motivations. We then validated the prototype with six market-oriented representatives of Portuguese
newspapers and eleven adults aged 50 and over. A model for onboarding a reader’s 6-step journey
(read, react, discuss, share, relate and experience) within the context of a Senior Online Community
using gamification is proposed. The game elements used can inform the design of a much more
personalized experience of consuming news and news behavioral engagement.
Keywords:
aging; gamification; digital media; online communities; reader’s experience; online news
1. Introduction
In light of social distancing measures during COVID-19 and the prevalence of digital
platforms to access daily basis services (e.g., access to online social support, access to health
information) (Seifert 2020), new challenges are posed to the Human–Computer Interaction
field to meet users’ context and daily-living activities, of which online news is no exception.
Moreover, the increasing aging population and the importance of reading news in the daily
life of older adults to keep them informed and relate with society (Lin et al. 2014) amplify
the need to find digitally-mediated strategies to enhance the reader’s experience. While the
reading activity has been the focus when assessing news consumption (Bergström 2020),
other equally important social dimensions inherent to news consumption (i.e., reacting,
discussing and relating) have been quite neglected, which are likely to affect the news
reading experience.
Within this context, gamification, i.e., the use of game elements in contexts that go
beyond the entertainment purpose (Deterding et al. 2011), can be a digitally-mediated
solution to assist the reader’s experience in a social context. Indeed, social relatedness
and discussion with the news content brought with gamification are of particular im-
portance given that there seems to be a general difficulty in detecting lies and screening
misinformation or manipulated images in later adulthood (Brashier and Schacter 2020).
Moreover, the growing paradigm change of news to online has also led to the
need to reinvent the newsrooms and transform journalism practices, e.g., immediacy
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10120463 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 2 of 22
in news divulgation (Siapera and Veglis 2012), visual journalism and news storytelling
(
Caldwell and Zappaterra 2014
). If, on the one hand, online journalism can reach a larger
audience, on the other hand, a much more personalized experience that considers readers’
context and their engagement within the context of a community is also necessary.
There are a number of publications (Barnes 2015;Bergström 2020;
Conill and Karlsson 2015
)
that highlight that an aging audience of online news is growing, especially in terms of the
consumption of digital morning and local news, but social anchoring and relatedness to
news content is still challenging. Thus, gamification is presented as a way to regularly
engage audiences with news content (Conill 2016). It is worth noting, however, that
caution must be applied when gamifying news given the possibility of spreading fake
news and politicizing particular news sources and, as such, a value-sensitive design
(
Manders-Huits 2011
) should not be overlooked. In fact, the growing use of personalized
algorithms can promote echo chambers of thoughts, while limiting and reinforcing a shared
narrative among users (Cinelli et al. 2021). Nonetheless, Zichermann (2019) proposes a
gamification system to mitigate the spread of fake news based on a trust score and an up-
and down-vote system—as in the case of Reddit (Cinelli et al. 2021). Consequently, it is
suggested that, as long as the news feeds do not undergo a personalization of interest-based
content but rather user and reader-oriented ratings, there is a possibility of slowing the
spread of misinformation.
In terms of the target group, most of the gamification studies tend to focus on a
young audience (e.g., Toscani et al. 2018;Cesário et al. 2017;Duarte-Hueros et al. 2020;
Guardia et al. 2019), while only little published data has been available on how older
populations tend to access news (e.g., Bergström 2020;Fisher et al. 2021) and gamified
systems (e.g., Altmeyer et al. 2018;De Vette et al. 2018;Moser et al. 2015;Kappen 2015).
To address this research gap, the authors designed, developed and deployed a socially
gamified news system to support the aging reader experience within the context of a Senior
Online Community.
Regarding the concept of Senior Online Communities, these can be defined as the
usage of online spaces in which social interactions between members rely on the shared
purpose of aging actively and ensure social support in daily living (Nimrod 2010), taking
into account age-related changes in platform design (Fisk et al. 2009). Examples include
Stitch
1
, Older is wiser
2
, Buzz 50
3
and miOne
4
. The latter has the particularity of addressing
the different domains of active aging—i.e., health, sense of security and participation
in society (WHO—World Health Organization 2002)—and incorporating the gamified
strategy proposed in this paper to engage its members with online news.
Specifically, this paper gives insights into how gamification can be used to foster
interaction and engage older adults with online news, while aiming to answer the following
research question, How can gamification engage adult learners at the Universities of the
Third Age with online news?, and achieving its corresponding goals: [i] characterize the
older adults’ contexts of gamification, Internet, social media and online news consumption;
and [ii] design, develop and assess a gamification strategy to the news for an online
community addressed to older adults. To achieve this purpose, a development research
framework (Van der Maren 2004) was used and the results of the gamification deployment
led to some indicators as to what the older adults tend to value in a personalized experience
of consuming news and news behavioral engagement. A 3-step was considered in this
research: Step 1 began with the analysis and evaluation of the situation, in which there
was a pre-assessment with 248 participants about their news consumption habits and
motivations. Step 2 was relative to the conception and design of the prototype to assist the
aging reader’s experience, whereas Step 3 referred to its implementation and validation
with Portuguese representatives of the newspaper’s industry and eleven adults aged 50
and over within the context of the Senior Online Community miOne, leading to a model
for onboarding a reader’s 6-step journey.
Specifically, we make the following contributions:
•A prototype that socially gamifies news to support the aging reader’s experience;
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 3 of 22
•
A model for onboarding a reader’s 6-step journey (read, react, discuss, share, relate
and experience) within the context of a Senior Online Community using gamification.
This paper is structured in six sections, including the Introduction and Conclusion.
Section 2,Related Work, situates the research into the literature regarding the use of gamifi-
cation in online communities and journalism. Section 3,Method, describes the procedures
undertaken in the development research method used, including the analysis and evalu-
ation of the situation, conception and design of the prototype, and implementation and
evaluation. The evaluation procedures and data collection are also presented. Then,
findings are reported, followed by a discussion, limitations, and future directions.
2. Related Work
In the context of this research, a gamification system will be applied within the
context of an online community to foster interaction and engage older adults with online
news. Given this purpose, both social aspects of gamification and its application in online
news platforms are covered. In this section, we provide a brief overview of the literature
about gamification in online communities, its application in online news and usage by
older adults.
2.1. Gamification in Online Communities
Game elements and game thinking have been applied to the context of online communities
to encourage members’ participation and reward community activities (
Cavusoglu et al. 2015
),
while helping to improve engagement by (a) facilitating and accelerating feedback; (b) pro-
viding well-defined and simple goals and rules to play; (c) creating a narrative that guides
the users, while captivating and engaging them; and (d) challenging while inducing a
feeling of enjoyment (Deterding et al. 2011 as cited in Barnes 2015).
Gamification may also constitute a way to give visibility to the members’ activities
within online communities and encourage social modeling through the use of badges,
leaderboards, among other elements (Bista et al. 2014). For example, the use of badges
in online communities is commonly widespread, as it is in the case of Reddit
5
—which
gives honorary awards for worthy contributions; Campus by Fundação Altice
6
(previously
entitled SAPO Campus)—which adopted a badge-based strategy, allowing to highlight the
learning path held by each student (Araújo et al. 2017); Khan Academy
7
, that rewards user’s
behaviors through badges, assigned for certain actions such as earning points, achieving
mastery in exercises or even building a community; and a Government Online Community
(Bista et al. 2012), in which Bista and their colleagues applied temporary and permanent
badges, concluding that these incite participation and return to the platform.
Moreover, other examples should be considered regarding the promotion of engage-
ment in online communities, as it is in the case of Peoople
8
, which implements two simple
mechanisms that can be used not only to motivate and engage users to use the app but also
to promote responsible behaviors: (i) four different levels (i.e., Rookie, Influencer, Unicorn
and Star) that can be completed when challenges are fulfilled and (ii) a wallet that is filled
with money as people interact with the app. Additionally, Reddit has a wide range of
gamified elements, such as Awards
9
—being a way for redditors, i.e., Reddit’s users, to rec-
ognize other redditors’ content, ‘Karma’ points—earned for each posts’ upvote, promoting
community participation (Morrison and Hayes 2013) and ‘Reddit coins’
10
—a virtual good
that can be bought with physical money and exchanged for various types of Awards. The
application of gamification in the StackOverflow Q&A Community has also shown to be
effective to stimulate voluntary participation (Cavusoglu et al. 2015). Nevertheless, social
recognition beyond these aforementioned rewarding systems seems to be key to advance
from extrinsic to intrinsic motivations (Cordero-Brito and Mena 2018).
In brief, a level designed system associated to missions and awarded actions have
been suggested in literature to encourage members’ participation in the context of online
community and enable social modeling. Beyond activity metrics, community-endorsed
rewards seem to enhance the members’ relatedness to the transmitted content.
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 4 of 22
2.2. Gamification in News
Similar to online communities, news platforms have also been using game elements
as a way to engage their readers. Progression levels, progression bars, points, levels,
badges, leaderboards and community-shared goals—that have been used to reward readers
(
Sotirakou and Mourlas 2015
), give feedback on their current state and translate it into the
readers’ reputation (Conill 2016)—are part of the vast portfolio studied not only by the
industry but also by the academic community.
The use of game elements in the journalism context takes a variety of forms. News-
games, i.e., games which illustrate current news events (Treanor and Mateas 2009), are
an important example of how to generate empathy, connection and awareness for issues
that would otherwise not be possible. The example of the game developed by Al Jazeera
in 2014 can be a great contribution to the ongoing research. It consisted of an interactive
investigation and, as users progress in the game, the story is deciphered and cumulative
points are earned—‘Investigation Points’ (Conill and Karlsson 2015), levels are progressed
(Conill 2016) and content is unlocked (Conill 2016;Conill and Karlsson 2015). Therefore, it
becomes a storytelling technique that immerses and engages its readers (Conill 2016). This
example, despite being a game, presents engagement-promoting elements that can easily
fit into other contexts—such as a gamification system.
Additionally, gamification can also be one form of the usage of game elements in the
journalism environment. Conill and Karlsson (2015) emphasize the following benefits of
gamifying news: (i) benefiting business logics and (ii) boosting users’ engagement. Badges
are, undoubtedly, the most commonly used mechanic—e.g., The Times of India used it to
maintain their readers’ loyalty (Conill 2016); The Huffington Post used them as a “a fun new
way of recognizing and empowering the community” (Huffington 2010, para. 3), while
triggering political discussion on the United Kingdom’s issues (
Jones and Altadonna 2012
);
and BuzzFeed uses content-categorization badges as a way to translate the interaction
a certain post had—something that Foxman (2015) studied as a good example of game
technics used to engage, inform and educate its readers. Moreover, leaderboards also
play a significant role in the gamified news world, as it is in the case of a Gamified
News Read for Mobile Devices developed by Sotirakou and Mourlas (2015), in which
readers with the best performance had the possibility to join a leaderboard, highlighting
the utmost importance given to social recognition in order to lead to self-motivation
(
Sotirakou and Mourlas 2015
). Meanwhile, The Guardian used a leaderboard with the top
readers that performed a community-shared goal to classify political documents that were
leaked in 2009 (Conill 2016).
Game elements can be also used to help in community fact checking and improve
news literacy, and hence assist the end users of a community to distinguish credible content
from misleading information (Micallef et al. 2021;Zichermann 2019).
In all the studies reviewed, gamification can enable scaffolding in the readers’ activity—
e.g., use of progression levels, content categorization as occurred in BuzzFeed, content-
categorization badges and ranking readers’ activities (leaderboard). However, an integra-
tion of gamification as a whole system and its interconnection with different activities that
define the readers’ experience is still lacking.
2.3. Gamification and Older Adults
Gamification has been pinpointed to be an effective strategy to foster older adults’
cognitive training and health self-management (Koivisto and Malik 2020). Much of the
research up to now has been focused on the use of gamification-driven strategies in
health and potential benefits for physical, cognitive and social wellbeing (Boot et al. 2016;
Gerling and Masuch 2011
;Kappen et al. 2018;Pannese et al. 2016). However, its usage to
foster older adults’ participation in online communities or engaging with reading activities
is still lacking.
Previous research on the use of gamification in later adulthood has highlighted the poten-
tial benefits: improve the cognitive and socio-emotional state (
Altmeyer et al. 2018
;Koivisto
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 5 of 22
and Malik 2020;Martinho et al. 2020), improve personalized healthcare (
Martinho et al. 2020
),
enable skills scaffolding (Kostopoulos et al. 2018), capture interest in activities and facilitate
social interactions (Altmeyer et al. 2018;Martinho et al. 2020;
Méndez et al. 2020
). By
contrast, challenges associated to such usage include digital inclusion and unfamiliarity
with game conventions (Barambones et al. 2020;Martinho et al. 2020).
When designing a gamified system for this target group, one should take into ac-
count the following considerations: prioritize social interactions, immediate feedback,
progression and rewards (Martinho et al. 2020), enable personal mastery and opt for failure
avoidance (Barambones et al. 2020).
According to Minge and Cymek (2020), the following gamification elements had
high acceptance in older adults: progress visualization and having different levels of
difficulty for activities. Age-related impairments should also be considered (
Fisk et al. 2009
;
Pak and McLaughlin 2011
) when designing these gamified systems, such as cognitive
deterioration (e.g., deterioration of working memory), visual difficulties (e.g., increased
difficulty in distinguishing color contrasts) and movement impairments (on average, older
adults take 1.5 to 2 times longer than youngsters to perform the same task and movement
control is less precise).
In a broad sense, the literature revealed few studies which consider older adults’
community context (Koivisto and Hamari 2014) and a digitally-mediated solution that
meets their interests was proposed (Nimrod 2014). In this sense, courses of action are
needed to familiarize this target group to gamification elements and promote a motivational
environment and behavioral changes (Kazhamiakin et al. 2016), with impact on physical,
psychological and social activities.
Building on top of this previous work on gamification and online communities, news
and older adults, this research provides further insights on the way a gamified strategy can
affect the reader’s 6-step journey (read, react, discuss, share, relate and experience) within
the context of a Senior Online Community. Hence, the following sections report on the
development of a gamification system applied to online news platforms based on the older
adults’ motivations and context. This is particularly important to enable aging audiences’
social relatedness and discussion with the news content provided within the context of
a community.
3. Method
The current study is part of the SEDUCE 2.0 research project that aims (a) to assess
the impact of psychosocial variables and online sociability of senior citizens through the
use of Information and Communication Technologies and (b) contribute to the growing
development of the miOne online community with the participation of senior citizens from
Universities of the Third Age11.
Given the research question, How can gamification engage adult learners at the
Universities of the Third Age with online news?, and the identified goals for this research
(i.e., [i] characterize the older adults’ contexts of gamification, Internet, social media and
online news’ consumption and [ii] design, develop and assess a gamification strategy to
the news for an online community addressed to older adults), a development research
framework (Van der Maren 2004), alongside evaluative and intervention research, was
required to answer the study’s main goals, combining both quantitative (i.e., pre-assessment
survey) and qualitative (i.e., interviews, field notes and participant observation) data
collection tools. According to Oliveira (2006), one of the advantages and distinguished
points of development research is its ability to combine other methodologies that may be
useful for the research process.
The research approach adopted was the development of a product to be integrated in
the miOne’s news platform, composed of three main steps: (i) analysis and evaluation of
the situation—grounded in the literature review, related work and previous research in
the area; (ii) conception and design of the prototype—in which the researchers designed
a solution that met users’ needs while attempting to solve the research problem; and
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 6 of 22
(iii) implementation and evaluation—a functional prototype was developed and tested by
the end users.
In the following sections, each of the three steps previously mentioned will be described.
3.1. Step 1—Analysis and Evaluation of the Situation
After the literature review and analysis of related work, a group of 248 older adults
were surveyed from 1 June of 2020 to 9 July of the same year to assess their familiarity
with online news, gamification strategies, social media and games. It is relevant to note
that this questionnaire was intended to be cross-sectional and to nourish the development
of the prototype, since a general lack of information was found during the literature
review. Therefore, a convenience sample was selected from 16 different countries (Australia,
Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of
America). The selection criteria was to fit within the age cohorts previously identified—
pre-seniors (50–64 years old) (Lee et al. 2011), youngest-old (60–74 years old), middle-old
adults (75–84 years old) and oldest-old (85+ years old) (Lee et al. 2018).
After questioning the demographic information (age, country of residence and gen-
der), the following questions were posed: (1) Please indicate the frequency in which you
perform the following activities (Access to the Internet/Social media/Online banking or
other financial products, Read/Share/Discuss online news, Try to avoid news, Online
search/shopping, Send and read emails, Use entertainment media)—5-item scale, ranging
from 1-never to 5-always; (2) Which activities do you usually undertake when you access
the news? (3) Do you use any points/card/coupon or discount mechanisms in your daily
life?; (4) Do you use any mobile application in your everyday life that rewards you with
challenges, badges, levels, points or leaderboards?—dichotomous question; (5) Do you usu-
ally play games?—dichotomous question; and (6) In an online social network/community,
please indicate the importance of the following activities you would like to be valued for
(activity in groups, frequency with which you talk to other people in the community, debate
news, share news, react to news)—5-item scale of importance, ranging from 1—not at all
important to 5—extremely important.
The average age of the sample is, approximately, 67 years old (minimum = 50; maxi-
mum = 91; SD = 8369), distributed over three continents—America, Europe and Oceania,
with Portugal (60%; n= 146) and the United Kingdom (29%; n= 72) being the most pre-
dominant countries among all. A total of 57% (n= 140) of respondents identified as being
female, 43% (n= 107) identified as being male, and 1 respondent identified with another
gender (see Table 1).
Table 1. Demographic characterization of the sample.
Gender n%
Total 248 100
Male 140 57
Female 107 43
Other 1 0
Age n%
Total 248 100
Pre-senior 93 37.7
Young-old 110 44.5
Middle-old 39 15.8
Oldest-old 5 2
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 7 of 22
Table 1. Cont.
Country of Residence n%
Total 245 100
Portugal 146 60
United Kingdom 72 29
Australia 13 5
Other 14 6
Results suggest that the most perceived performed online activities by participants
are, firstly, send and read emails (118 always and 93 often), followed by access the Internet
(111 always and 120 often) and read online news (60 always and 106 often). Regarding the
second question posed, i.e., Which activities do you usually do when you access the news?, the
majority of participants revealed to read the news (89.11%; n= 211), followed by sharing
news (34.68%; n= 86) and reacting to news (32.66%; n= 81).
After assessing participants’ most performed activities, the next questions aimed
to understand their relationship with game elements and gather foundations to design
the gamification system. Regarding the third and fourth questions (i.e., Do you use any
points/card/coupon or discount mechanisms in your daily life? and Do you use any mobile applica-
tion in your everyday life that rewards you with challenges, badges, levels, points or leaderboards?),
the results suggest that approximately 65% (n= 162) of participants use and recognize the
use of gamified systems in daily life, whilst only approximately 11% (n= 27) recognize
using gamified mobile apps (see Figure 1). Aiming to understand the familiarity with game
elements through games themselves, the fifth question—Do you usually play games?—was
posed, and 42.7% (n= 106) of the respondents stated playing games on a usual basis.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 23
Table 1. Demographic characterization of the sample.
Gender n
%
Total 248 100
Male 140 57
Female 107 43
Other 1 0
Age n
%
Total 248 100
Pre-senior 93 37.7
Young-old 110 44.5
Middle-old 39 15.8
Oldest-old 5 2
Country of Residence n
%
Total 245 100
Portugal 146 60
United Kingdom 72 29
Australia 13 5
Other 14 6
Results suggest that the most perceived performed online activities by participants
are, firstly, send and read emails (118 always and 93 often), followed by access the Internet
(111 always and 120 often) and read online news (60 always and 106 often). Regarding the
second question posed, i.e., Which activities do you usually do when you access the news?, the
majority of participants revealed to read the news (89.11%; n = 211), followed by sharing
news (34.68%; n = 86) and reacting to news (32.66%; n = 81).
After assessing participants’ most performed activities, the next questions aimed to
understand their relationship with game elements and gather foundations to design the
gamification system. Regarding the third and fourth questions (i.e., Do you use any
points/card/coupon or discount mechanisms in your daily life? and Do you use any mobile appli-
cation in your everyday life that rewards you with challenges, badges, levels, points or leader-
boards?), the results suggest that approximately 65% (n = 162) of participants use and rec-
ognize the use of gamified systems in daily life, whilst only approximately 11% (n = 27)
recognize using gamified mobile apps (see Figure 1). Aiming to understand the familiarity
with game elements through games themselves, the fifth question—Do you usually play
games?—was posed, and 42.7% (n = 106) of the respondents stated playing games on a
usual basis.
Figure 1. Respondents’ contact with gamification systems (n = 248).
Lastly, when analyzing the results of the sixth and last question (see Table 2), it was
found that group activity (7 extremely important and 40 very important) is the main ac-
tivity respondents like to be valued for, followed by the frequency with which they talk
to other people in the community (6 extremely important and 33 very important). Lastly,
three other activities related to news emerged: debate news (3 extremely important and
32 very important), share news (5 extremely important and 31 very important) and react
10.89%
65.32%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Use of gamified mobile apps
Use of any points/cards/coupon or discount
Figure 1. Respondents’ contact with gamification systems (n= 248).
Lastly, when analyzing the results of the sixth and last question (see Table 2), it was
found that group activity (7 extremely important and 40 very important) is the main
activity respondents like to be valued for, followed by the frequency with which they talk
to other people in the community (6 extremely important and 33 very important). Lastly,
three other activities related to news emerged: debate news (3 extremely important and
32 very important), share news (5 extremely important and 31 very important) and react to
news (6 extremely important and 26 very important). Therefore, it is verified that a great
importance is given to discussion, expression of thoughts and sharing of opinions, which
are important topics to consider when building a gamification system.
Table 2. Main activities respondents like to be valued for (n= 248).
Activities
Not at All
Important
Slightly
Important
Moderately
Important
Very
Important
Extremely
Important
n%n%n%n%n%
Activity in Groups 64 25.8 59 23.8 78 31.5 40 16.1 7 2.8
Frequency with which you talk to other
people in the community 64 25.8 55 22.2 90 36.3 33 13.3 6 2.4
Debate news 85 34.3 61 24.6 67 27.0 32 12.9 3 1.2
Share news 71 28.6 71 28.6 70 28.2 31 12.5 5 2.0
React to news 74 29.8 66 26.6 76 30.6 26 10.5 6 2.4
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 8 of 22
Overall, this data collection instrument allowed to understand the motivations of
older adults regarding news consumption habits in online communities—i.e., contact
with each other and sharing of information and opinions—and what activities should be
targeted when developing a gamification system for online news—i.e., read, share and react.
Furthermore, it allowed the conception of the reader’s journey, which will be explored in
the next section. If the reader wants to deepen their knowledge on this subject, the detailed
results have been published in (Regalado et al. 2021).
3.2. Step 2—Conception and Design of the Prototype
3.2.1. Gamification Prototype
When analyzing the examples presented in the related work section (cf. Section 2),
it is possible to identify some key elements that have been used and proved to be able
to engage users: levels, points, leaderboards, badges, a status/level that recognizes the
users’ achievements when completing different challenges, rewards assigned to other
users’ content and rewards that have an impact outside the platform. Moreover, taking
into account the previously described contributions in Step 1—the pre-assessment phase,
where it was possible to identify the older adults’ motivations regarding online news
consumption and the reader’s journey defined by the researchers as a result of the sur-
vey’s responses (see Figure 2)—a three-element gamification system was designed. The
latter addresses the awards mechanism, which allows one to recognize user-produced
content, while prioritizing social interactions, immediate feedback, progression and re-
wards (
Martinho et al. 2020
); levels with different degrees of difficulty, as suggested by
Minge and Cymek (2020)
; and a leaderboard, promoting self-motivation and participation
by highlighting users’ best performances (Conill 2016;Sotirakou and Mourlas 2015).
Its main goals are to be a common reward engine, where all the elements are inter-
connected, and take into consideration the older adults’ age-related impairments, while
motivating and engaging miOne’s news platform users in order to deepen their experience.
Therefore, three elements constitute the mentioned designed system: (i) awards, (ii)
levels and (iii) a leaderboard.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Figure 2.
Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community
involvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021).
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired
by Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’
context. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 9 of 22
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked,
a modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3.
Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021).
Illustration Name and Description
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Oh, oh . . . How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is
attributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is
attributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
Figure 2. Reader’s journey relating the level of content interest and the degree of community in-
volvement. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021) .
Awards
A set of twelve awards was designed and its main purpose is to allow users to reward
each other for their news sharing, see Table 3. The awards have news-related themes, but,
in general, can be applied to broader contexts. The design and contents were inspired by
Reddit’s awards, while adapting and creating the content based on the aging readers’ con-
text. Using the ‘Award’ button, which was added to every news activity, users can only
attribute each award once per activity, see Figure 3. When the award button is clicked, a
modal view is launched, and all the awards and their descriptions are listed, from where
users can select one and assign it to the news activity, see Figure 4.
Table 3. Description of the awards. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the miOne Online Community
(Regalado 2021) .
Illustration
Name and Description
Impressive!
This award is attributed to news shared that makes the brain explode. So
good they are!
Oh, oh... How spicy!
When the news item is about a sensationalist topic.
Today I learned
Do you feel that you’ve learned something new today? This award is at-
tributed to news that fostered learning of a certain topic.
What a catch!
Haven’t you heard about this subject for a long time? This award is at-
tributed when the news shared is a real treasure.
Hope restored
There is the saying “Hope is the last thing that dies in man.” This award
is
attributed when the news gives hope on certain subjects.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Helpful
Give this award when the news item has helpful information.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what
you want to publicly support.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought
with the news shared.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 10 of 22
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 23
Supported!
Do you agree with the shared post? Give this award for sharing what you
want to publicly support.
Ally
Alliance established! Give this award to show the alliance of thought with
the news shared.
So much for the denture!
When you lose teeth from laughing a lot with the news shared.
Bravo!
From ordinary to extraordinary. Bravo!
Super favorite
Do you feel that the favorite button is not enough? The super favorite is
here for that!
5 stars
Is this news item different from the rest? Give it 5 stars.
At the same time, social connection and recognition are important when building a
gamification system, and thus users can view who assigned each award at the different
news activities.
This gamification element is symbiotically interconnected with the two elements that
will be further explored.
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Figure 3. Award scheme on news activities (Authors’ copyright).
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 23
Figure 4. Endorsing awards modal (Authors’ copyright).
Levels
Another gamification mechanism was designed for this proposal, aiming to guide
users through the platform and incite their engagement. This multi-level mechanism is
composed of four different components:
1. Levels: Each level is defined by a variable set of missions. As the user advances, the
difficulty progressively increases. A total of four levels was defined specifically for
the miOne community (‘Beginner’, ‘Explorer’, ‘Master’ and ‘Legend’) (see Figure 5),
while including news-related missions.
Figure 5. Initial modal with information about the various levels (Authors’ copyright).
2. Missions: These are the core and prime element of the system’s levels. To complete
each level, users must perform a set of predefined missions. Similar to levels, these
missions are progressively more difficult and more time demanding. To make users
aware of what they need to achieve to advance through the missions and levels, while
giving them constant feedback, aggregated information concerning users’ progress
was added to the platform’s interface (see Figure 6).
Figure 4. Endorsing awards modal (Authors’ copyright).
Levels
Another gamification mechanism was designed for this proposal, aiming to guide
users through the platform and incite their engagement. This multi-level mechanism is
composed of four different components:
1.
Levels: Each level is defined by a variable set of missions. As the user advances, the
difficulty progressively increases. A total of four levels was defined specifically for
the miOne community (‘Beginner’, ‘Explorer ’, ‘Master’ and ‘Legend’) (see Figure 5),
while including news-related missions.
2.
Missions: These are the core and prime element of the system’s levels. To complete
each level, users must perform a set of predefined missions. Similar to levels, these
missions are progressively more difficult and more time demanding. To make users
aware of what they need to achieve to advance through the missions and levels, while
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 11 of 22
giving them constant feedback, aggregated information concerning users’ progress
was added to the platform’s interface (see Figure 6).
3.
Social recognition: A circle was added to the avatar with the color of the users’ levels,
in order to allow the social recognition.
4.
Feedback: Feedback is one of the key elements in gamification systems, perpetuating a
user’s participation. Whenever a user reaches a new level, a modal window is pushed
and a notification is sent, encouraging further progress (see Figure 7).
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 23
Figure 4. Endorsing awards modal (Authors’ copyright).
Levels
Another gamification mechanism was designed for this proposal, aiming to guide
users through the platform and incite their engagement. This multi-level mechanism is
composed of four different components:
1. Levels: Each level is defined by a variable set of missions. As the user advances, the
difficulty progressively increases. A total of four levels was defined specifically for
the miOne community (‘Beginner’, ‘Explorer’, ‘Master’ and ‘Legend’) (see Figure 5),
while including news-related missions.
Figure 5. Initial modal with information about the various levels (Authors’ copyright).
2. Missions: These are the core and prime element of the system’s levels. To complete
each level, users must perform a set of predefined missions. Similar to levels, these
missions are progressively more difficult and more time demanding. To make users
aware of what they need to achieve to advance through the missions and levels, while
giving them constant feedback, aggregated information concerning users’ progress
was added to the platform’s interface (see Figure 6).
Figure 5. Initial modal with information about the various levels (Authors’ copyright).
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 23
Figure 6. miOne’s homepage with the mission progress summary (Authors’ copyright).
3. Social recognition: A circle was added to the avatar with the color of the users’ levels,
in order to allow the social recognition.
4. Feedback: Feedback is one of the key elements in gamification systems, perpetuating
a user’s participation. Whenever a user reaches a new level, a modal window is
pushed and a notification is sent, encouraging further progress (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Modal of leveling up to the Explorer level (Authors’ copyright).
Leaderboard
Considering a set of variables for each news activity—such as the number of unique
comments, total comments, total awards, shares and how long ago it was published—a
leaderboard was built and added to the sidebar of the news platform (see Figure 8). It
features the most engaged news activities of the past seven days and provides a social
highlight and recognition by associating the activities’ authors to each leaderboard entry.
Figure 6. miOne’s homepage with the mission progress summary (Authors’ copyright).
Leaderboard
Considering a set of variables for each news activity—such as the number of unique
comments, total comments, total awards, shares and how long ago it was published—a
leaderboard was built and added to the sidebar of the news platform (see Figure 8). It
features the most engaged news activities of the past seven days and provides a social
highlight and recognition by associating the activities’ authors to each leaderboard entry.
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 12 of 22
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 23
Figure 6. miOne’s homepage with the mission progress summary (Authors’ copyright).
3. Social recognition: A circle was added to the avatar with the color of the users’ levels,
in order to allow the social recognition.
4. Feedback: Feedback is one of the key elements in gamification systems, perpetuating
a user’s participation. Whenever a user reaches a new level, a modal window is
pushed and a notification is sent, encouraging further progress (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Modal of leveling up to the Explorer level (Authors’ copyright).
Leaderboard
Considering a set of variables for each news activity—such as the number of unique
comments, total comments, total awards, shares and how long ago it was published—a
leaderboard was built and added to the sidebar of the news platform (see Figure 8). It
features the most engaged news activities of the past seven days and provides a social
highlight and recognition by associating the activities’ authors to each leaderboard entry.
Figure 7. Modal of leveling up to the Explorer level (Authors’ copyright).
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 23
Figure 8. Leaderboard scheme (Authors’ copyright).
Returning to the reader’s journey, cf. Figure 2, it is important to understand how each
of the presented gamification elements will foster its steps. The leaderboard allows read-
ers to get in touch with the most community-relevant news—fulfilling the reading step—
and relate with the shared content by allowing a clear identification of who produced each
content—fulfilling the relating step. Moreover, the levels mechanism plays an important
role in guiding users through the platform, inciting them to share new content and start
new debates—fulfilling both discussing and sharing steps. Lastly, the awards mechanism
allows reacting in a simple and fast way to other users’ news-related content, fulfilling the
react step of the reader’s journey. In all, these mechanisms enable building a relationship
of experience within the news platform, and thus increasing the readers’ engagement, in-
volvement and immersion in the content.
3.2.2. Interviews with News’ Representatives
A semi-structured interview was conducted with six news representatives from ma-
jor Portuguese news players—Público, Jornal de Notícias, SIC and Rádio Renascença. A set of
eight questions, divided into two moments ((i) ice breaking questions and (ii) data collec-
tion questions), was posed relative to the impact of the journalism’s digitalization, the
metrics used to evaluate the success of a news item and the interviewees’ opinion regard-
ing the gamification strategy designed. The key purpose was to assess their perspective
on the digitalization impact on journalism and to validate and obtain a new perspective
on the designed prototype.
In regard to the question, What challenges did you have to face with the shift from
the news’ paradigm to digital and online?, it was possible to identify the impacts that the
shift to an online world had on journalism. Besides “gamification, data journalism, [and]
virtual reality” (Interviewee 6), Interviewee 4 emphasizes an opinion that is shared by all
interviewees: “the foundation is always the same” and “journalism is journalism, and we
are always repeating that, reminding ourselves of it because it is convenient not to lose
sight of what guides us, and which should always guide and enlighten us in production”
(Interviewee 6).
Moreover, the NVivo software was used to facilitate the process of coding and ana-
lyzing interviewees’ answers. Following the analysis of the six conducted interviews, a
Figure 8. Leaderboard scheme (Authors’ copyright).
Returning to the reader’s journey, cf. Figure 2, it is important to understand how each
of the presented gamification elements will foster its steps. The leaderboard allows readers
to get in touch with the most community-relevant news—fulfilling the reading step—and
relate with the shared content by allowing a clear identification of who produced each
content—fulfilling the relating step. Moreover, the levels mechanism plays an important
role in guiding users through the platform, inciting them to share new content and start
new debates—fulfilling both discussing and sharing steps. Lastly, the awards mechanism
allows reacting in a simple and fast way to other users’ news-related content, fulfilling the
react step of the reader’s journey. In all, these mechanisms enable building a relationship
of experience within the news platform, and thus increasing the readers’ engagement,
involvement and immersion in the content.
3.2.2. Interviews with News’ Representatives
A semi-structured interview was conducted with six news representatives from major
Portuguese news players—Público,Jornal de Notícias,SIC and Rádio Renascença. A set
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 13 of 22
of eight questions, divided into two moments ((i) ice breaking questions and (ii) data
collection questions), was posed relative to the impact of the journalism’s digitalization, the
metrics used to evaluate the success of a news item and the interviewees’ opinion regarding
the gamification strategy designed. The key purpose was to assess their perspective on the
digitalization impact on journalism and to validate and obtain a new perspective on the
designed prototype.
In regard to the question, What challenges did you have to face with the shift from
the news’ paradigm to digital and online?, it was possible to identify the impacts that the
shift to an online world had on journalism. Besides “gamification, data journalism, [and]
virtual reality” (Interviewee 6), Interviewee 4 emphasizes an opinion that is shared by all
interviewees: “the foundation is always the same” and “journalism is journalism, and we
are always repeating that, reminding ourselves of it because it is convenient not to lose
sight of what guides us, and which should always guide and enlighten us in production”
(Interviewee 6).
Moreover, the NVivo software was used to facilitate the process of coding and analyz-
ing interviewees’ answers. Following the analysis of the six conducted interviews, a total
of 17 codes were identified, which were divided by 5 top-level codes—i.e., engagement
techniques, teams, gamification, journalism and gamification prototype. The first top-level
code—i.e., engagement techniques—allowed the analysis of the question What metrics do
you use to evaluate the success of online news?, particularly relevant in the construction of
a gamification system, especially one that includes a leaderboard. By using the NVivo tool
word frequency, it was possible to identify the most important metrics: time (on the page),
likes, views, clicks, visits and scroll.
Next, the gamification proposal was presented through a few presentation slides, and
the elements that compose the proposed gamification system were shown and explained.
After concluding the presentation and posing the question, In your opinion, how can the
proposed strategies foster the participation of different publics/readers?, by individually
pre-analyzing each of the responses, it is possible to outline the main contributions. In-
terviewee 2 stated that it is “a service to people that is fun, appealing, interesting, and,
above all, informative”. Moreover, Interviewee 6 emphasized “the question of rewarding
people, of being involved, of feeling that they are recognized for, is very interesting”, and
Interviewee 1 reinforced the questions associated to level saturation, and, despite “the
platform provides something special for those who reach certain points”, they mentioned
being important to give special awards—“either the platform provides something special
for those who reach certain points, or partnerships that the platform has”, as defined and
foreseen by Potze (2018).
Overall, it was possible to extract positive feedback that corroborated the designed
prototype of the gamification system and added relevant contributions that were later intro-
duced to the prototype, such as the external rewards. Therefore, an external reward system
was included, opening the opportunity to establish partnerships with other projects and
companies that can offer gifts to miOne’s users, e.g., a monthly subscription to a newspaper.
3.3. Step 3—Implementation and Evaluation
After implementing the designed gamification prototype, in the context of the miOne
online community, online evaluation tests were performed with a convenience sample of
11 adult learners from the Universities of the Third Age partners with the research project
SEDUCE 2.0.
The next section describes the procedures taken to conduct the mentioned evaluation.
Evaluation with Older Adults from Universities of the Third Age
The online evaluation with older adults from Portuguese UTA took place from
25 November of 2020 to 11 December of 2020. Before performing any test on the miOne’s
news platform, a set of questions was applied to further demographically characterize the
sample and assess its access to the Internet and news consumption habits.
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 14 of 22
The average age of the sample is approximately 67 years old (minimum = 54; maxi-
mum = 75; SD = 6.788), and around 64% (n= 7) of the participants are female, whereas 36%
(n= 4) are male. Similar to what was verified in the results of Step 1, send and read emails
(90.91%; n= 10) and access social media (90.91%; n= 10) are the most preferred activities
when accessing the Internet, followed by online search (72.73% n= 8) and read online news
(63.64%; n= 7).
The prototype evaluation tests followed the structure defined in the reader’s journey,
see Figure 2. Therefore, each of the activities aimed to progressively and respectively target
the defined steps—i.e., read, react, discuss, share, relate and experience—while promoting
participants’ community involvement and developing their engagement toward the news
platform. Table 4describes the activities expected to be performed during the evaluation
test for every state of the reader’s journey. For this purpose, the levels and missions’
mechanism were used to guide the participants. Each participant joined a level with four
missions to be completed, while covering all the activities defined on Table 4: (i) Keep
up with the latest news—to guide participants to the news platform, (ii) Give and receive
awards—to encourage participants to use the awards mechanism, (iii) Some news are worth
sharing—to stimulate the news sharing and (iv) Show your opinion—to incite the debate.
Table 4.
Activities to be performed during the evaluation test. Retrieved from Gamifying News for the
miOne Online Community (Regalado 2021).
Goal of the Activities Activities
Reading
Navigate
Understand how the navigation to the news
platform is achieved.
1. Access the news platform
2. Select the category of their preference
Visibility
Understand from where the news has been
read (activities 3, 4, 5 and 6 are alternatives to
each other).
3. Read the news item from the newsfeed
4. Read the news item with more awards
5. Read the latest news item
6. Read the news item from the leaderboard
Reacting
Identification
Understand how the participant identifies
with the content to reward it. 7. Award the news item(s)
Semiotics
Understand if the conceptualized meaning is
equal to the understood one. 8. Understand the meaning of each award
Sharing and
discussing
Share
Verify if the user shares a news item and the
reasons for sharing it. 9. Share news
Comment
Check if the comments are relative to: (i) the
leaderboard news, (ii) those with more
awards, (iii) members or
(iv) content/category.
10. Comment news
Relating
Visualization
Understand what makes the user relate to the
news. Two possible factors: content and
people (leaderboard) and news profiling.
11. See the members’ ranking and news
profiling
At the end of the test, an oral semi-structured interview was applied to validate
the gamification proposal and assess the possible impact the strategy would have on the
perception of the miOne’s news platform and future engagement with it. The following
questions were posed: (i) How long do you think this activity took? (ii) To what extent
did this experience increase or not the interest in reading the news? What about reacting
(awarding/recommendation of news)? What about sharing/discussing news? What about
your relationship with the news? (iii) What did you like most about this activity? and
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 15 of 22
(iv) After this experience, do you recommend using miOne’s news platform? During all
the evaluation, participants were encouraged to provide additional comments.
3.4. Data Collection and Analyzing Procedures
Data triangulation from the different data sources—i.e., pre-assessment survey, in-
terviews, field notes and participant observation—was performed in order to assure the
validity of the research. In order to analyze the data collected during Step 1, i.e., quanti-
tative data, the SPSS software was used. The remaining data was codified and analyzed
using NVivo. The data collected at each step was crucial to define the steps that followed,
with a close interconnection between all the data sources.
3.5. Ethical Considerations
This is study safeguards to follow the Ethics and Deontology Council of the Univer-
sity of Aveiro Ethical Approval for the SEDUCE 2.0 project—use of communication and
information in the miOne online community by senior citizens (Project nr. POCI-0145-
FEDER-031696). Moreover, all the participants signed a written informed consent before
participation, stating that (i) they agree to participate voluntarily in the research, (ii) they
were informed of the procedures and understood the conditions of participation in the
ongoing research, (iii) they authorize the recording and capture of images and audio for
research purposes and (iv) they authorize to be contacted via e-mail by the responsible
researcher for the purposes of the research.
4. Results
During the period of time the tests were conducted at Step 3—i.e., from 25 November
of 2020 to 11 December of 2020—it was possible to register great participation and adhesion
to the gamification strategy, to the news platform and to what is still an embryonic online
community. Therefore, a total of 110 awards were assigned, 46 news items were shared,
and 66 news activities were published.
In order to analyze what motivated these numbers, an analysis based on the reader’s
journey will be made, divided by each level, cf. Figure 2, and based on the activities
proposed on Table 4.
4.1. Reading
When participants were asked to read a news item—through the mission Keep up with
the latest news, all of them preferred to read it through the news platform, bypassing the
newsfeed. During the observation process, a distinction was made regarding the origin
of the news items read. It is possible to conclude that half (50%; n= 13) of the news read
was from the news platforms’ global page, i.e., a page where all the news items shared are
listed and divided by categories. Nevertheless, 34.60% (n= 9) of the news read was from
the leaderboard, thus highlighting the impact this mechanism has in providing relevant
and discussed news to the community. The remaining 15.40% (n= 4) concerns recent news,
i.e., those that are displayed at the global page’s top.
4.2. Reacting
Reacting is the second step of the reader’s journey and, to do so, participants were
incited to use the newly designed awards mechanism through the mission Give and receive
awards. During the process of selecting an award, reading its meaning and assigning it
to the news activity, it was possible to observe that participants valued more the person
to whom they were assigning it. Participant 1, after assigning an award to an activity,
stated “that’s it, she’ll be happy”, and, similarly, Participant 4 mentioned “for her to be
happy
( . . . )
, because she deserves it”. Therefore, considering this thoughtfulness towards
the other, it is quite evident the social and recognition sides throughout this process—
participants recognize the value each award has and are willing to give it to those who
are close to them. Moreover, awards act as an external stimulus, as it activates “people’s
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 16 of 22
curiosity, (
. . .
) of wanting to develop more. To enter more, to see beyond the award,
the person is satisfied and (
. . .
), with the continuation, will want to be more updated in
relation to the news here [miOne]” (Participant 5).
Lastly, it was possible to examine the awards with a larger number of endorsements.
The ones with an immediate interpretation by just analyzing its visual representation, and
more similar to the reactions used in other social media contexts, were the most endorsed—
Super favorite (n= 28), Five stars (n= 18) and Bravo (n= 14). Equally, awards with more
difficult interpretations have led them to be less used, as is the case of the awards Oh, oh
. . . How spicy! (n= 2), So much for the denture (n= 1) and What a catch! (n= 1).
4.3. Sharing and Discussing
During the sharing and discussing steps, the levels mechanism, through the missions
Some news are worth sharing and Show your opinion, encouraged participants to share news
items and show their opinion using the comments section in each news activity.
Similar to the reading step, an analysis based on the source of news discussions was
made. The primary source is the leaderboard, having been verified that 36.40% (n= 4) of the
comments made during this evaluation process was through this gamification mechanism.
The second and third main sources of discussion during the tests, each with 27.30% (n= 3),
are the global news and the most recent ones. Lastly, according to the participants’ feedback,
only one news item was commented on because it was the most awarded. In conclusion,
the leaderboard played an essential role in leading people to comment on the news.
Moreover, a pattern was registered where the news items with the most interactions—
i.e., comments and shares—were also the most awarded ones.
4.4. Relating
The clear identification of who posted each news activity is possible in the leaderboard,
in the debate area and in the newsfeed, where all kinds of activities, news-related or not,
are aggregated. Therefore, this clear identification of the content’s producer stimulated the
engagement with news activities. Regarding this matter, Participant 2 stated that “I think it
increases the interest because we know who are the people interested in the same news
as well”.
The majority of the participants—i.e., Participants 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9—clearly identi-
fied their activities in the debate area, comparing to those shared by other users. Likewise,
the leaderboard also allowed this association, as 8 out of the 11 participants identified their
or other users’ news activities displayed there.
At the end of the tests, participants were asked how long they thought the activity
had taken. Most of the participants had the perception that time passed faster than reality,
suggesting a possible state of flow—i.e., a balance between boredom and anxiety—leading
users to lose track of space and time (Zichermann and Cunningham 2011). Moreover, the
participants’ opinion regarding the gamification system was coded using NVivo, resulting
in one top-level code, i.e., gamification opinion. When analyzing participants’ most uttered
words regarding what extent did the experience increase or not their interest in reading,
reacting, awarding, sharing and discussing news, it was observed that the word ‘interesting’
was mentioned twelve times.
In addition to the participants 1 and 8 considering the miOne’s news platform a
reliable source of information, they all said they would recommend its use. These are some
of their statements regarding the gamification experience:
“I find it interesting because it makes me develop more knowledge. We have steps to
follow, etc. I find it interesting the way it presents itself. It’s also very basic—just to say
that you’ve passed the level and so on. But it’s funny the way you develop the issues in a
way that . . . I think it’s interesting!”—Participant 4.
“It activates people’s curiosity and enthusiasm to continue using”—Participant 5.
“It’s a good strategy because if we don’t get feedback from what we communicate, we stop
communicating. Either we have a very firm, principled and independent personality from
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 17 of 22
others, or we give up. It’s not only those who publish that stop publishing, those who
read also stop reading if there isn’t this challenge. It is of both parts. Of course, it is more
painful for those who publish and have no return”—Participant 9.
Besides the questions asked, monitoring users’ activities was performed after the
evaluation. From the end of all tests (4 December of 2020) to December 11th of 2020, eight
participants returned to the platform and interacted somehow with its content. Chosen
by six participants, assigning awards was the most popular form of interaction, possibly
because they are a faster, easier and a more immediate way of reacting. Additionally,
comments were the second most performed activity, leaving to last the news sharing,
which involves more time, thought and social exposure of participants.
Lastly, some behavioral change was reported. In fact, only Participant 5 mentioned
discussing and sharing news, and Participants 2 and 5 were the only ones who mentioned
reacting to the news. Thus, it is possible to perceive the impact that the gamification system
had in promoting the interaction with miOne’s news platform.
5. Discussion
This paper has presented the complete process of conception, design, implementation
and evaluation of a gamification system for the news platform of an online community
that targets older adults—miOne.
Step 1 had significant contributions to the gamification system in question. Accord-
ing to the Pew Research Center (2019), the technologies used to communicate have been
growing at a vertiginous pace, and this interpersonal communication, while allowing to
overcome loneliness, is something that older adults value much (Leist 2013). This fact is
supported by the results of the most valued activities by the sample’s older adults: (i) ac-
tivity in groups, (ii) the frequency with which they talk to other people in the community,
(iii) debate news, (iv) share news and (v) react to the news. These results suggest that older
adults are focused on connecting with each other—a consequence of social media, which
provides benefits such as social support to older adults (Nimrod 2014)—and value sharing
their opinions and thoughts—i.e., self-expression, which is fundamental to develop a sense
of growth, change, openness and self-revelation (Nimrod 2014).
Based on the presented contributions of Step 1, during Step 2, the prototype was
designed and presented to experts in the news area, allowing their mostly positive feedback
to be collected and some minor changes to the prototype to be made. These included the
addition of external rewards to the platform, reinforcing what Potze (2018) stated: rewards
must have a meaning and relatedness on daily life, while translating the time and effort
spent on the gamified task. This aspect was later added to the levels mechanism, enabling
users to be given an external reward once a given task was completed.
Lastly, the evaluation sessions with older adult learners from Universities of the Third
Age partners of the project SEDUCE 2.0, allowed us to collect some indicators that seem
to point out that this gamification system can induce behavioral engagement with the
miOne’s news platform by (i) allowing the clear identification of the content producers;
(ii) rewarding and recognizing each user individually; (iii) simplifying the navigation
within the platform, thus overcoming technological difficulties; (iv) providing external
motivations for something common for them; and (v) stimulating learning and exploration
of new areas, something that proved to be highly valued by them.
Thus, as already mentioned, and to add to previous studies (Altmeyer et al. 2018;
Moser et al. 2015;Sotirakou and Mourlas 2015), this gamification system is one more proof
that gamification can promote engagement. It was possible to overcome some barriers that
older adults face with ICT (e.g., intrapersonal—being too old to use; interpersonal—not hav-
ing someone to teach them how to use (Leist 2013), or the perceived need to use technology
(Fisk et al. 2009)) and deliver a pleasant and user-friendly solution that not only brought
more involvement but also proved to be a lively, enjoyable and emerging experience. Thus,
not only it is possible to increase older adults’ technological prowess but also sustain their
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 18 of 22
psychological and social activities (Altmeyer et al. 2018;
Gerling and Masuch 2011
), con-
tributing to their overall well-being and self-esteem (Ijsselsteijn et al. 2007;
Ryan et al. 2006
).
Furthermore, the ethical aspects of this gamification system should not be neglected.
Its goal, as previously mentioned, is to improve reader’s experience, increase engagement
and surpass possible technological barriers. In fact, we were able to prove that the designed
and implemented gamification system is able to engage older adults with miOne’s online
news. However, caution must be applied when adopting gamification systems to online
news, especially in the context of an online community, as it may also encourage and stim-
ulate the ongoing spread of misinformation, clickbait news titles that mislead readers and
fake news, and promote an echo chamber of thoughts, i.e., the formation of homogeneous
groups that limit and reinforce a shared narrative among all its users (Cinelli et al. 2021;
Törnberg 2018).
Therefore, it is crucial to find strategies to mitigate such misinformation and polariza-
tion, being essential to analyze the structure of the context where the gamification strategy
will be applied. As highlighted by Cinelli and colleagues (Cinelli et al. 2021), social media
feeds without an adjustable algorithm by its users (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) promote
higher segregation of news consumption than in those where this is possible (e.g., Reddit).
Therefore, the spread of fake news is a by-product of the profitable and engaging algo-
rithms (Rhodes 2021). Furthermore, according to Garrett (2009), in the particular case of
politics, the longer users are exposed to opinion-challenging information, the more they
are willing to maintain awareness of the heterogeneous political space.
Moreover, Zichermann (2019) proposes a gamified solution to stop the spread of
fake news based on a trust score and an up- and down-vote system. Calculated from
the variables of credibility of the originator, credibility of the amplifiers, partisanship and
velocity, the author believes that transparency is the key, enabling the construction of
reference check as a social proof (Zichermann 2019).
Lastly, it is important to acknowledge that the gamification system resulting from this
research focuses on the model for onboarding a reader’s 6-step journey (read, react, discuss,
share, relate and experience) within the context of a Senior Online Community, (cf. Figure
2). Therefore, although there is a component of content relatedness (one of the reader’s
journey steps which is achieved by the clear identification of the news activities’ authors,
and through the leaderboard), the main goal of this research was to design a gamification
system for the Senior Online Community’s news platform and assess it regarding its ability
to behaviorally engage older adults.
6. Conclusions
In a nutshell, this study allowed to further extend current knowledge on gamifi-
cation solutions to news platforms targeting older adults, the relationship established
between the aged population and news consumption habits, as well as their familiarity
with gamification mechanisms.
The designed and implemented gamification strategy for the miOne’s news platform
has two major differentiator aspects: (i) a common reward engine, with no disconnection
between its elements, and thus facilitating its understanding; and (ii) a prototyped solution
that took the context of use and the added difficulties presented by older adult learners.
While other apps fail in the considerations needed to develop technological solutions for
the aging citizen, and that the development of gamification strategies do not have them
in mind, the solution presented in this paper fills this gap. One may wonder, why gamify
news for an audience that is most interested in online news. In fact, despite the high
consumption of news, the technical difficulties are still not completely surpassed. Thus,
the gamification can be a strategy for learning and motivating continued consumption
of online news. Moreover, we make the following contributions for gamification and
journalism for aging audiences research: (i) a prototype that socially gamifies news to
support aging readers’ experience and (ii) a model for a reader’s 6-step journey (read, react,
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 19 of 22
discuss, share, relate and experience) to onboard within the context of a Senior Online
Community using gamification.
A number of limitations should be considered, and the results need to be interpreted
with caution. Firstly, the topic of gamification and digital media in the context of an
aging population is, still, to the best of our knowledge, an unexplored topic, being this is
pioneering research. Secondly, a convenience sample was used. So, attempts to generalize
beyond these participants are discouraged. Thirdly, during the course of this research
process, the world was facing the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the fact of older adults
having a greater risk of developing serious complications with the COVID-19 disease, the
face-to-face contact with the students from the Universities of the Third Age was highly
limited. Consequently, the evaluation tests had to be performed online, making it difficult
to recruit participants and monitor tests.
Regarding further work, a social network analysis (SNA) could be performed, al-
lowing further knowledge on users’ behaviors and engagement patterns (Ferreira 2016;
De Nooy et al. 2018
), and the efficiency of the outlined gamification strategy proposed
could be deduced. Due to time constraints and the embryonic state of the miOne online
community, it would not be possible to collect relevant data. Moreover, a larger sample
could be used in further research, allowing a more confirmatory approach. Lastly, the
gamification system could incorporate a content validation mechanism to mitigate mis-
information and the possible spreading of fake news, thereby not only focusing on the
achieved engagement.
Author Contributions:
Conceptualization, F.R. and L.V.C.; methodology, F.R., L.V.C. and A.I.V.; soft-
ware, F.R. and L.V.C.; validation, F.R., L.V.C. and A.I.V.; formal analysis, F.R. and L.V.C.; investigation,
F.R. and L.V.C.; resources, L.V.C. and A.I.V.; data curation, F.R. and L.V.C.; writing—original draft
preparation, F.R. and L.V.C.; writing—review and editing, F.R., L.V.C., F.M., and A.I.V.; visualization,
F.R. and L.V.C.; supervision, L.V.C. and A.I.V.; project administration, A.I.V.; funding acquisition,
L.V.C., F.M., and A.I.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding:
This research was funded by FCT and COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and European Union,
European Regional Development Fund, SEDUCE 2.0 project nr. POCI-0145-FEDER-031696.
Institutional Review Board Statement:
The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the
Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics and Deontology Council of University of Aveiro
(ResolutionNo 12-CED, 13 November 2019).
Informed Consent Statement:
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement:
The datasets generated from the questionnaire and interviews during
the current study are not publicly available following the General Data Protection Regulation but are
available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgments:
This study was supported by the SEDUCE 2.0 research project—Use of Com-
munication and Information in the online community miOne by senior citizens, and with financial
support from FCT and COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and European Union, European Regional
Development Fund, SEDUCE 2.0 project nr. POCI-0145-FEDER-031696. We would also like to thank
the DigiMedia research unit—DIGIMEDIA (UIDP/05460/2020+UIBD/05460/2020).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Notes
1Available online: https://www.stitch.net/ (accessed on 29 May 2021).
2Available online: https://www.olderiswiser.com/ (accessed on 29 May 2021).
3Available online: https://www.buzz50.com/ (accessed on 29 May 2021).
4Available online: https://mione.altice.pt/ (accessed on 29 May 2021).
5Available online: https://www.reddit.com/ (accessed on 28 January 2021).
6Available online: https://campus.altice.pt/ (accessed on 3 May 2021).
7Available online: https://pt-pt.khanacademy.org/ (accessed on 3 May 2021).
Soc. Sci. 2021,10, 463 20 of 22
8Available online: https://peoople.app/ (accessed on 28 January 2021).
9Available online: https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043034132 (accessed on 28 January 2021).
10 Available online: https://www.reddit.com/coins (accessed on 3 May 2021).
11
Universities of the Third Age (UTA) are institutions dedicated to the occupation of their students’ free time, through a variety
of theoretical and/or practical learning topics—e.g., informatics, sewing, theater, singing, and dancing. Their target audience,
which is also the one of miOne online community—the context within which this study is being developed, is adults aged 50
and older.
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