Toward a Successful Badge Design in Gamified e-Learning: A Literature Review

This study reviews a sole entity in the gamification design, badges, to determine best practices regarding design and implementation in digital environments. By condOucting a literature review covering ten experimental publications that examined the badge isolated in a gamified digital environment, this study concludes that existing research gives varied results in implementing badges. The study's key finding is that due to similar population, context and game attributes, the game element Badges seems to be most effective when used as signs and steppingstones steering the generated user activity towards the intended end-goal of the design. This study has both practical and theoretical implications.