Focus At Play: Exploring Gamification through A Case Study Of Narrative-Based Focus Apps

"Focus apps" are a popular solution to minimise the distractions and temptations of smartphones and online content, based on the contradictory premise of using a mobile application to contrast smartphone addiction. These applications typically deploy several gamification strategies, often with a strong orientation towards narrative and storytelling. In this paper, we investigate how gamification is implemented in such apps and how users perceive its effectiveness in terms of enhanced focus, by analyzing three cases: Focus Quest, Forest, and Study Bunny. We first make use of a taxonomy of gamification to highlight the different strategies adopted: while all three apps apply gamification and narrative-based strategies to help users focus on tasks, their design approaches vary significantly. We then complement the investigation by examining online reviews on Google Play to reconstruct users’ accounts of perceived app efficacy. A content analysis of the reviews showcases how the strategies of the different apps result in diverse outcomes in users’ feelings towards the apps, ranging from positive to negative, and perception towards the effectiveness of gamification strategies, both effective and ineffective. Our results suggest that, to harness the potential of gamification in focus apps, the balance between gamification and the focus-enhancing goals, potential ethical implications, the strategic use of story-based strategies, and the technological aspect of online apps should be carefully considered. In this sense, we argue that the concept of using gamified apps to combat mobile device overuse presents an inherent paradox and raises ethical concerns about addiction and commercial exploitation. This raises the question of whether gamification is the best tool for the focus-enhancing purpose, which should be further investigated.