Applying Goalification for Volunteering: An Event-Driven Microservices Approach

The role that volunteer work plays in our society, for individuals and the economy is very important. It is beneficial for these areas in several ways. To maximize those benefits it is necessary to increase volunteer engagement and motivation. Persuasive systems are a trending technology that is applied to foster behavior change among individuals or groups. Studies have shown that persuasive elements like goal-setting or gamification are currently not implemented in information systems designed for volunteers. Heterogeneous organizations, heterogeneous information systems, and the complexity of the persuasive features are challenges for integrating goal-setting into volunteer management systems. A promising solution to these challenges is the event-driven microservices architecture. This architecture style is widely adopted in the industry to realize complex services and connect heterogeneous systems.