A Badge, Not a Barrier: Designing for–and Throughout–Digital Badge Implementation

We synthesize insights from a multi-year project involving the design and implementation of a digital badge system with youth co-designers at a science center. Using stakeholder interviews and surveys, participatory design session data, and user analytics, we identify the sociotechnical, sociocultural, and technical challenges of long-term badge implementation and propose several recommendations for the design and implementation of future badge systems. By identifying these challenges and providing recommendations that foreground stakeholder values and participation, we show how to support implementation throughout the entire design-to-implementation cycle.