Gaming the system on a quest for better experiences and outcomes
If there ever was a potion to cure many ills and provide a fresh boost to user engagement, gamification is its name. Looking to captivate and hold on to a larger audience? Feeling keen on increasing your profits? Time to level up for that.
Simply put, gamification refers to applying design characteristics and game mechanics to products and everyday situations to offer a more satisfying user experience. The unique trait of these features is that they promote a very genuine motivation, since they build in an element of play.
Even if you think putting fun and productivity in the same sentence is just another hack of modern-day capitalism, it can actually serve the greater good. The addictive tendencies of games can be wielded to promote positive behaviours and instil healthy habits, or just to simply keep us accountable, amongst else. But first things first: let’s start with the data to set the scene.
It’s also a numbers game
By 2021, gamification was worth $11.9 billion worldwide. If you consider that one half of the American workforce are casual gamers, it makes sense that they are both drivers and consumers of the exploding integration of play into business. Driving this point home, interest in the concept has remained steady over the past year:
Gamified environments are linked to increased engagement, motivation, and improved results not just at work, though. Just to name a few, education, sports, and healthcare have all capitalised on the business and marketing strategies of gamification, infusing life and rewards into mundane tasks we’d usually rather leave as side-quests on our To-Do lists.
With an estimated growth rate of 30 percent, by 2025 its global market value is expected to reach over $32 billion.
It should come as no surprise then, that on an international scale 70 percent of global 2000 companies use gamification in some shape or form. Start-ups are also quick to follow suit: 50 percent of them in the U.S. play to the trends.
The gamification of user experiences
Responding to your audience’s needs (or thinking ahead, based on current trends and statistics) is one key element of a successful product. The numbers prove that adding gaming elements into non-game products is bound to create a wholesome user interaction, where rewards, challenges and adventures all add up to positive experiences and happy customers.
If you are wondering how UX and gamification make the dream team, I’ve got you covered. A 2017 study contrasted user-centred design with a six-step gamification design framework developed by fellow researchers Wood and Reiners, which emphasised business and end-user benefits, as well. Here I am paraphrasing them, but the essence remains.
> Step 1: Consider the goals you want to achieve through gamification.
It is no shocker that the business purposes and the goals of the intended gamification setup need to be defined before you get building. Consider if the whole aim is feasible and viable — otherwise you might be in for a pricey bottom line or heaps of wasted time.
The same applies to UX, where understanding the needs and motivations of all parties involved requires research in the form of the usual culprits — interviews, focus groups, and so on; you know the drill. Combining the two POVs allows for a start that sets up a solid footing.
> Step 2: Identify necessary user behaviour changes required for ideal outcomes.
Define and evaluate the target behaviours you want to achieve or optimise. These should be as specific as possible, so you know how to measure and evaluate them. Being able to track these is what helps design and develop a system that paves the path towards the business or product goals, rather than working based on guesswork.
For instance, you could build in a progress bar for completing profiles, offer rewards for inviting others to join your platform, or have users compete against each other via integrated leaderboards.
> Step 3: Player profiles = personas.
This takes us back to research territory, albeit in another way. Different player types have varied preferences and unique styles of playing, so understanding their characteristics help gauge what works best for each.
The original gamer categorisation was defined by researcher Richard Bartle in 1996, but I’ll go with the Hexad typology here for a brief summary, mainly because I find the former slightly outdated.
- Achievers enjoy challenges and climbing levels, as they are intrinsically motivated by competence and mastery.
- Players are driven by competition, leaderboards and social status (or ranks).
- Explorers (or free spirits) are engaged by world immersion, character customisation and unlockables.
- Socialisers make the most out of groups settings, social networks and building relationships.
- Philanthropists are motivated by meaning and purpose, so helping others is their main focus.
- Disruptors seek out changes either in a positive way (say, by flagging system flaws) or in a negative way (for example, by spoiling others’ experiences).
These player types are not mutually exclusive, so take it all with a pinch of salt.
> Step 4: Design the game’s flow and clarify rules for progression.
How you structure core gameplay aspects is established by two activity loops.
Engagement loops define what users do, why they do it and how the system responds. Immediate and regular feedback is crucial here to keep the player enticed and motivated.
Progression loops build on this, by offering perspective on the user’s journey on a wider scale. Escalating levels with matching challenges and difficulties result in a fresh experience as the player progresses.
> Step 5: Fun is subjective, errors are not.
If the point of fun is creating an engrossing experience, then system errors or failures are gamification’s nightmare as they add friction and break the product’s flow.
To add insult to injury, the more you draw your users in, the harder they fall and get disenchanted once you let them down by not spotting friction along the way. Catch out pain points early on or you risk losing trust and buy-in.
> Step 6: Tailor game elements to your project.
Pick and mix what you employ from the array of gamification possibilities. Will a leaderboard boost motivation and user investment? How about earning badges and power-ups for unlocking achievements? Perhaps your audience would take kindly to having a customisable avatar or being able to beat targets as part of a team.
Does this all sound cryptic to you? Worry not, next up we are going through techniques broken down by the essential components of games.
All fun and games
The elements of a game come with their own range of techniques you can integrate into your product for a more wholesome and interactive experience.
➤ Story: You know I love a good storytelling —and where humans exist, so do tales. Games are no exception. The setting defines the adventure, so you could weave a narrative arc around defeating a common enemy, preventing a disaster from happening, or simply come up with any hero’s journey for your user. For example, it could be a time-crunched situation, a linear “do this, then that” scenario or something entirely different. Get creative (or hire someone to cast that magic spell for you)!
➤ Personalisation: Whether it’s allowing the player to customise their avatar’s appearance, cherry-pick colour themes, or choose from a number of options, there are opportunities galore. Above all, don’t forget to use their names (or the nicknames they choose) in your narrative, so they feel seen and truly part of the story.
➤ Progression: Achieving skill developments and reaching new levels are the basic ingredients of gamer satisfaction. When players get the impression they are progressing, this motivates them to put in a continuous effort to best further challenges. The structures of most games are based on an eternal feedback loop — this can be in the form of badges, points, level-ups, progression bars and ranking in leaderboards.
➤ Rewards: For some added extrinsic motivation you can provide rewards at fixed or even variable intervals to keep your players on their toes, if that’s your jam. Alternatively, players could attain them after completing specific tasks or reaching milestones. Think collectibles, equipment, in-game resources, power-ups and tools they can use.
➤ Microinteractions: For a great experience, you need to pay attention to the details. Sound effects, subtle animations, fun transition screens and visual narrative elements can add to user satisfaction. Just don’t make it all bells and whistles — they shouldn’t be stealing the show alone.
On the shoulders of giants
Whilst competition can be tough in the “gamefulness” field, this just means we have some great examples to look towards for insights and lessons (or experience points, if you will).
Habitica is every RPG-fan’s dream for gamifying tasks, tracking goals and aiming for self-improvement in any way. It incorporates elements catering to multiple player types: earning rewards for completing tasks, collecting pets, and levelling up as you progress in real life.
You also get to pick your class, join guilds and team up with others to slay your dragons together. By inching towards your goals, your character advances with you, and when you slack, you earn damage instead. It’s peak gamification, especially with the old-school pixel art to tap into your nostalgia.
Meanwhile, Fitbit showcases a more physical version of gamification. Exercise already has an ingrained element of fun and/or competition, so they aptly capitalised on it. The personal trainer on your wrist that nudges you to get up from your chair might not be overly accurate, but it does encourage its users to prioritise movement. Last year alone its customers walked a combined 46 trillion steps worldwide. A win-win for both the company and the “watchful” fitness tribe.
Duolingo is undoubtedly an (oftentimes terrifying) leader at keeping audiences engaged and making language-learning fun by providing constant feedback, showing highly visual proofs of advancement, and patting you on the back for your efforts. It also doesn’t shy away from looking over your shoulder and encouraging you to keep streaks intact by pushing you to check in on a regular basis. They are also a treasure trove of meme material, and, well, they know.
Not just another side-quest
Gamification effectively serves as a design pattern taking the overarching product goal and game mechanics as a frame. At its core, it speaks to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, so weaving at least some of the outlined elements into your product might give you the edge you need to stand out from the crowd.
If you get it right, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved, so you might as well play the long game by giving it some consideration.
Thanks for reading! ❤️
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References & Credits:
- Gamification: benefits, considerations, and future by VIctoria Cao
- 25 Gamification Statistics [2022]: Facts + Trends You Need To Know by Zippia
- Survey Finds Execs Gaming On Office Time by Leigh Alexander
- Gamification Market by Deployment, Enterprise Size, End User, and Geography-Global Forecast up to 2025 by Orbis Research
- Gamification Elements to Use for Learning by Mindy Jackson
- Klock, A. C. T., Gasparini, I., Pimenta, M. S., & Hamari, J. (2020). Tailored gamification: A review of literature. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 144, 102495.
- Ning, B. (2018, July). A ux-driven design method for building gamification system. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 112–124). Springer, Cham.
- Rajanen, M., & Rajanen, D. (2017). Usability benefits in gamification. GamiFIN, 87, 95.
- Tondello, G. F., Wehbe, R. R., Diamond, L., Busch, M., Marczewski, A., & Nacke, L. E. (2016, October). The gamification user types hexad scale. In Proceedings of the 2016 annual symposium on computer-human interaction in play (pp. 229–243).
- Webb, E. N. (2013, July). Gamification: when it works, when it doesn’t. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 608–614). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
- Images by storyset on Freepik
