Lots of discussion about this new-fangled thing called Gamification. The gamification of something is the act of using game mechanics in everyday applications and situations to boost engagement, fun and good behaviors.
Gamify argues:
Reward programs are perfect to generate engagement and loyalty for your brand. They are good incentive for your users to come back to your product, be rewarded for positive and meaningful actions, invest more time in your application.
Margaret at Hide&Seek has this to say:
Points and badges have no closer a relationship to games than they do to websites and fitness apps and loyalty cards. They’re great tools for communicating progress and acknowledging effort, but neither points nor badges in any way constitute a game.
I’ve been wrestling with this notion for years and I think they have it both right. Here’s the rub: Gamification will get applied in the wrong way to a lot of things. Just like the days when everyone wanted to get a “viral video” out there – it will get misused and misunderstood.
If you offer a badge for completing a behavior that is no fun – you’ll lose. Having a lame website is not healed by adding a ranking system for frequent visitors. We approach it in the same way we would approach a game design.
- Set goals.
- Make sure the goals are fun to achieve for the visitor.
- Give the visitor more options for achieving those goals.
- If they do well, give them a cookie. … lil web joke there…
Stay tuned for a release from Graphite Lab May 5th with these principles in play.
What’s your take on Gamification? Seen it done well anywhere?
