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Bingcan(Gloria) Guo 🤍🫀

Projects

About me

Bingcan(Gloria) Guo 🤍🫀

Projects

About me

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Investigating Negative User Experiences with Gamification in Learning Apps: A Case Study of Duolingo

Gamification misuse is a phenomenon that occurs when users become too fixated on gamification and get distracted from learning. This undesirable phenomenon wastes users’ precious time and negatively impacts their learning performance. However, there has been little research in the literature to understand gamification misuse and inform future gamification designs. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by conducting the first extensive qualitative research on gamification misuse in the popular learning app Duolingo.

Hadi Mogavi, Reza, Bingcan Guo, Yuanhao Zhang, Ehsan-Ul Haq, Pan Hui, and Xiaojuan Ma. "When gamification spoils your learning: A qualitative case study of gamification misuse in a language-learning app." L@S 2022

(🏅 Received Honorable Mention in L@S 2022)

📎 ACM DL

Method

Mixed Methods

Year

2022

Role

Co-leading researcher on literature review, ideation, data collection, quantitative & qualitative analysis.

Motivation

🎮 Gamification is designed aiming to facilitate users' learning with game elements.

⚠️ However, many systems are so gamified that gamification itself might become a new source of distraction to learning.

📉 Users waste their time and receive negative impact on learning performance.

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

We conducted:

Content analysis: A large-scale qualitative content analysis of Duolingo's user-generated forum data from the past nine years.
Semi-structured interviews: Follow-up semi-structured interviews with 15 international Duolingo users.

Motivation

🎮 Gamification is designed aiming to facilitate users' learning with game elements.

⚠️ However, many systems are so gamified that gamification itself might become a new source of distraction to learning.

📉 Users waste their time and receive negative impact on learning performance.

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

We conducted:

Content analysis: A large-scale qualitative content analysis of Duolingo's user-generated forum data from the past nine years.
Semi-structured interviews: Follow-up semi-structured interviews with 15 international Duolingo users.

Motivation

🎮 Gamification is designed aiming to facilitate users' learning with game elements.

⚠️ However, many systems are so gamified that gamification itself might become a new source of distraction to learning.

📉 Users waste their time and receive negative impact on learning performance.

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

We conducted:

Content analysis: A large-scale qualitative content analysis of Duolingo's user-generated forum data from the past nine years.
Semi-structured interviews: Follow-up semi-structured interviews with 15 international Duolingo users.

Get in touch with me at

/bguoac/
at uw. edu

Projects

About me

Get in touch with me at

/bguoac/
at uw. edu

Projects

About me

Get in touch with me at

/bguoac/
at uw. edu

Projects

About me

Gloria Guo @ 2025 with 🤍

Investigating Negative User Experiences with Gamification in Learning Apps: A Case Study of Duolingo

Motivation

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

Motivation

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

Motivation

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

Our Approach

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”

“How do learners perceive and experience the ramifications of gamification misuse?”

“What factors lead learners to misuse gamification in a learning app?”

“How can gamification designers and practitioners deal with the problem of gamification misuse?”