A Gamification Scenario

Imagine a scenario where a car is being tested for the noise created by its engine, while the driver sits in the car. In the given case, there are possibilities that either the driver hears more sound of the engine while he drives with the engine being switched on or he hears no sound or less.

In this scenario the design engineer would need to make changes to various components of the car. For example, if the sound of the car engine can be heard by the driver while the engine is switched on then probably reduce the speed at which the driver shaft rotates thereby reducing the frequency of the sound it makes or use a technique adopted by GM as solution to implement active noise cancellation in which GM used Microphones in the body to listen to the ambient sounds the car and engine are making, and the car plays the opposite of that over the vehicle’s speakers. The sound waves from the engine are cancelled out by the sound from the entertainment system, netting a quieter ride that can be more fuel efficient without being so bothersome. 

The entire process enumerated above could be used in a game using the technique of ‘Gamification’. It would act as a simulation for the design engineers of automobile companies to practice to make themselves better in their job performance.

For example an automobile company can install an ‘app’ in its system wherein the design engineer plays a game using the ‘app’. The design engineer would start playing the game, he/she would be given a scenario where the engine would be making a sound, while being switched on with the driver inside the car. Then the game would throw options to either rectify the error or not. If the player clicks on to rectify further options would be given to take certain decisions and the score of the player would be recorded. However if the player adopted the option to not rectify the error the game would show an error and the points to the score of the player would be reduced accordingly.

The per unit production cost would be determined on the basis of the results that the design engineer would derive. If the engine makes a sound the additional components required would throw up the per unit production cost but it would be far cost effective to rectify the error at the inception stage rather than post production which would have far reaching effects towards the competitive advantage of the company.