@inproceedings{BordiniKorn2021, author = {Bordini, Rog{\´e}rio Augusto and Korn, Oliver}, title = {Noneliness: A Gamified Mobile App to Reduce Loneliness Among University Students}, booktitle = {CHI PLAY '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play}, editor = {Wallner, G{\"u}nter and Meschtscherjakov, Alexander and Birk, Max and Iacovides, Jo and McEwan, Mitchell}, isbn = {978-1-4503-8356-1}, doi = {10.1145/3450337.3483480}, institution = {ACI - Affective and Cognitive Institute}, pages = {87 -- 93}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Loneliness, an emotional distress caused by the lack of meaningful social connections, has been increasingly affecting university students who need to deal with everyday situations in a new setting, especially those who have come from abroad. Currently there is little work on digital solutions to reduce loneliness. Therefore, this work describes the general design considerations for mobile apps in this context and outlines a potential solution. The mobile app Noneliness is used to this end: it aims to reduce loneliness by creating social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. The results of initial evaluations with the target audience are described. The results informed a user interface redesign as well as a review of the features and the gamification principles adopted.}, language = {en} }