From Points to Power-Ups:

How Gamification Can Level Up
Your User Experience

A Presentation for Fleurix Lite 2021

Braelyn Sullivan

Games are Universal

The first thing I think it's important to understand is that games are a universal experience. It would be impossible to know for sure how all 7 billion + people on the planet feel about games, but it's very likely that everyone enjoys a game in some form. It's possible to make this assumption because we have examples of games dating back over 5,000 years and spanning cultures across the world.

Games come in many shapes: video games, board games, card games, brain teasers like crossword puzzles - there's something for everyone and they all share some common ideas.

You wouldn't think Candy Land, Sudoku and Call of Duty have anything in common, but each has it's own set of rules with specific conditions for success, enough variability that the game won't be the same every time you play, and opportunities to modify the difficulty to fit the player's preferences.

This assumption is relevant to what we're talking about today because gamification essentially means taking your application and making it more like a game. Some people hear that and immediately think it is going to discourage some users from participating. I don't believe that's true. It all comes down to how you implement it.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the process of applying game mechanics to any non-game activity.

Game Mechanics

Non-Game Activity

Game Mechanics

Points
Leaderboards
Achivements
Levels
Competition & Challenges
Power-Ups

Spectrum of Activity

Gamification can be applied outside of tech solutions, but that's not what we're focusing on today.
Every digital interaction can be placed somewhere on a spectrum from game to non-game.
Where an application lands depends on the main goal & design:
- Recreation - games are meant to entertain
- Education - it's safe to fail & learn better/faster
- Motivation - real world consequences, not safe to fail, boost engagement and deliver results
- Function - don't care if it's fun or pretty
Let's look at an example of gamification to understand how it works.

Pain Squad

This is an app called Pain Squad, which was created to replace the standard pain diaries children undergoing treatment for cancer are asked to complete.

Pain history and management are essential pieces of treating childhood cancer so these records are very important, but it can be really difficult to get children to regularly fill out these logs. (Real World Consequences)

A user is prompted to complete reports as if they were a detective investingating a case. They are rewarded for completing these investigations with badges, leveling up and messages delivered by popular TV police.(Worst case - a distraction, best case - motivation :: win-win)

How Gamification Works

Intrinsic rewards for progress and performance
Creates feedback loop of achievement
Distraction from tedious tasks

Extrinsic rewards like more money and a better office only work to a point. One way gamification works is by leveraging intrinsic rewards like happiness and subjective well-being by promoting a sense of accomplishment.
When we achieve a goal, these positive feelings reinforce our positive behaviors - creating motivation to continue.
Another way gamification can help is by creating a distraction for tedious tasks like manual data entry. If you can make it entertaining, it won't lead to burnout which can actually improve overall quality.
A note: The principles of gamification are based on real human psychology and the goal of gamification should never be addiction. You want to be really careful about encouraging or rewarding negative behaviors, i.e. blindly rewarding weightloss. This is yet another reason why increasing diverse perspectives in tech would lead to better outcomes.

Other Examples

Foursquare
Duolingo

When should I Gamify?

The application has:

Real-world outcomes & consequences
Tasks and processes that already exist
A need for engagement or motivation

The defining characteristics that make an application a good candidate for gamification are:

It is not safe to fail. There are real-world consequences and measurable outcomes
The tasks or processes have to (or should) be done anyway. We're not creating tasks for the sake of gamifying them
Those completing the tasks would benefit from additional motivation or boosted engagement

Technical Considerations

Design, Develop & Test

Designing Gamification

Keep the game elements relevant to the task
It doesn't have to be elaborate or difficult
Account for the learning curve

You'll want to make sure you keep the context of your application in mind when deciding how to gamify.
Make sure you really understand your users because relevance to their interests can make or break your efforts.
Doesn't mean you can't have fun with it - just keep the context in mind. Quick tasks should have quick stories, save the longer plots for ongoing efforts.

You can reap the rewards of gamification without developing an over-the-top, fully animated and silly experience. Particularly if you're gamifying in a corporate context, you don't want to make your users think you don't take their jobs seriously.

Gamifying an existing application doesn't mean you can skip the training. While you don't want to change the way a user performs the tasks, you can't expect them to immediately understand the rules.

Screenshot is Zombies, Run! - gamifies exercise by providing audio queues that make you think you're being chased by zombies and completing a mission.

Developing Gamification

The Good News: You can use a lot of the same development skills you already have to build gamification.

The Bad News: Things like page load, performance speed and well-structured code become much more important.

Testing Gamification

Higher reliance on manual testing
People are going to try and cheat the system
Beyond usability and functionality, you'll also be evaluating repetability and fatigue

QUESTIONS?

Thank you!

To Contact Me:
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Game Development

JavaScript

Matter.js Phaser

Mobile

Apple GameKit Android Game Services

3D

Unity Unreal Engine

Continued Reading

Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards

Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech

Actionable Gamification - has all the info you need to get a deeper understanding of game mechanics and the psychology behind it

If you're interested in making a transformation in your business, I can connect you with some of my very talented CapTech colleagues who have done a lot of this work with me in the past.

To learn more about building tech for good & avoiding common exclusionary design pitfalls, I cannot recommend Technically Wrong highly enough.

From Points to Power-Ups:

How Gamification Can Level Up Your User Experience

A Presentation for Fleurix Lite 2021

Braelyn Sullivan

Games are Universal

What is Gamification?

Game Mechanics

Spectrum of Activity

Pain Squad

How Gamification Works

Other Examples

When should I Gamify?

Technical Considerations

Design, Develop & Test

Designing Gamification

Developing Gamification

Testing Gamification

QUESTIONS?

Thank you!

Game Development

JavaScript

Mobile

3D

Continued Reading

How Gamification Can Level Up
Your User Experience