Anna Sort is a qualified nurse, healthcare lecturer and the director of PlayBenefit, a Barcelona-based company which uses gaming to help people heal.
What
are your key areas of interest and research? Video games, Engagement design,
behaviour change, Placebo effect/mind power, willpower and eustress.
What
are the major challenges in your field? Finding people who want to try and apply
engagement design in their own institution. People see the benefit but are
afraid to change or doing things differently.
What
is your top management tip? Listen to understand, not to reply. It helps much more
in the long run.
What
would you single out as a career highlight? Starting my company, PlayBenefit.
I did it because I saw the need to change, and I thought it was better to have
someone take that road no matter how hard, rather than waiting for something to
happen and magically change everything.
If
you had not chosen this career path what do you think you would have
become? I
have no idea. My job didn't exist before, so I couldn't work on it in the field.
I think I would have eventually gone down the same road because it's what I
really believe in. The only other thing that could have happened is that if I had
believed as strongly on something else, I would have gone down that path!
What
are your personal interests outside of work? I love video games, reading and
exercising. Time with family and friends is equally important! I don't do much
"creativity" stuff out of work, I spend my day there being creative
constantly! I love video games because I like to analyse how I engage and what
attracts me to them, how they help me keep in touch with people that I don't see
often (I have a ton of friends in France from my previous job) and how they also
helps my imagination. I love story games, finance games and management games!
Your favourite quote?
“It’s not the problem, it’s how you react to it.”