On a seemingly regular morning in 2003, I woke up feeling different. I felt utterly unenthusiastic about the new day. There was nothing to look forward to – no demons to slay, no gears to perfect, no drops to loot and no Excel spreadsheets to strategize on. That was the first morning after I decided to quit Diablo II, a computer based role- play-game (RPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment.
And I felt extremely empty.
Little did I know that I was going through one of the most treacher- ous effects stemming from black hat game design. Something I now call the “Sunk Cost Prison.”
But it was that morning, that I also had the most impactful epiphany in my life, something that propelled me from a slightly-above- average student, to go on to start my first business during my first year of college at UCLA; to become a guest lecturer at Stanford University by twenty-three, raise over $1 million a year later, and finally become an international keynote speaker and recognized consultant in the field of gamification by my late twenties.
More importantly, this deep revelation ensured that I would become passionate and excited about my work every single day since.
I am sharing this with you not to sound conceited (after all, you are already reading my book), but because I truly believe if anyone was to take what I have learned during this epiphany to heart, they would likely do even better in a shorter amount of time, without all the fumbling and stumbling I went through.
This article was written by Erik van Mechelen based on the Octalysis framework by Yu-kai Chou.
Ecosystem influence and convenience
Many are familiar with Amazon’s or Apple’s or Google’s exhaustive ecosystems and their network effects. Amazon’s product offering grows more robust by the day. Using Gmail/Chrome gains you refined experiences. Apple products sync across devices and services like iTunes.
These effects help to create Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance in the eyes and hearts of their consumers. If I leave, I’ll lose the entire ecosystem experience.
Non-intuitive brands like Nike play with this too when they introduced their fitness products: loyal Nike brand followers used their products instead of Fitbit’s offerings because Nike’s products worked with their Nike running shoes and gear. Samsung is doing similar with its camera and recording products.
This article was inspired by Tijs van der Horst, Octalysis Prime member.
Effective design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about forging a compelling user experience. By leveraging the Octalysis Framework’s 8 Core Drives within the 4 Phases of the Player Journey, you can craft designs that resonate and engage users from start to finish.
1. Discovery Phase: Making a Grand Entrance The initial encounter users have with your product or design:
Epic Meaning & Calling: Pique curiosity with a narrative that hints at a larger purpose. What grand journey or mission are users embarking on?
Unpredictability & Curiosity: Introduce teasers or previews that generate intrigue.
Actionable Tip: Engage potential users with compelling marketing campaigns, testimonials, or demos that tap into the above drives.
2. Onboarding Phase: Rolling Out the Welcome Mat The crucial phase where users familiarize themselves with your product:
Development & Accomplishment: Offer easy wins. Celebrate user milestones, even if they’re small.
Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback: Provide avenues for initial customization or choice. Immediate feedback loops, like congratulatory messages or rewards, can be motivating.
Insight: Make tutorials or introduction sessions interactive and rewarding, ensuring new users feel progress and personal connection.
3. Scaffolding Phase: Guiding and Elevating the Experience Users have learned the basics; now, they are diving deeper:
Ownership & Possession: Enhance users’ sense of belonging. Offer advanced customization or loyalty-based features.
Social Influence & Relatedness: Encourage sharing, collaborating, or competing. Building a community or social space can be crucial here.
Scarcity & Impatience: Introduce features or rewards that can be unlocked over time or through certain actions.
Strategy: Keep the user journey dynamic, alternating between challenges and rewards. Offer opportunities for collaboration and competition, ensuring users always have something to look forward to.
4. Endgame Phase: Maintaining Long-Term Engagement For your most loyal and committed users:
Loss & Avoidance: Remind users of streaks, achievements, or the potential loss of status or rewards.
Unpredictability & Curiosity: Introduce high-level surprises or events to keep even the most seasoned users intrigued.
Advice: Regularly update and refresh the endgame content. Consider feedback from long-term users diligently—they are your product’s ambassadors and their insights are invaluable.
Holistic Design: Synthesizing Insights
Iterative Feedback: Across all phases, ensure that channels for feedback are open. Listen, adapt, and refine based on user insights.
Competitor Analysis: Periodically review competitor offerings to identify gaps in your design journey or to glean inspiration.
Stay Agile: User preferences evolve. Be ready to pivot or introduce new features, ensuring your design remains relevant and engaging.
Concluding Thoughts: A Player’s Journey is Never Static
Just as in games, your users’ journey with your design is dynamic and multifaceted. By marrying the Octalysis Core Drives with the 4 Phases of the Player Journey, you can sculpt an experience that’s not just engaging but also deeply resonant. Remember, design with intent, iterate with feedback, and always keep the user at the heart of your creative process.
An introduce of the OP Member who initiated this blogpost: “My name is Tijs. I love to be inspired. To brainstorm and run through ideas. Including my study “industrial design” I have been increasingly interested in the broad sense of design: its process, concepts and its influence on us as consumers. I’m hoping I can use my experience and knowledge to create designs that are compelling, meaningful and enjoyable, and maybe even in itself inspirable again.
This article was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen with content provided by Yu-kai Chou.
Synergetic Motivation
This article is for experienced designers already familiar with Beginner Octalysis and some Intermediate Octalysis who are looking to up their game on designing experiences. We are making the jump from identifying the 8 Core Drives of motivation to using them to build experiences.
‘Synergy’ always makes me think of business school applications (I’ve helped a few friends edit theirs). But it is a real thing.
Google defines synergy like this:
The interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.
For Octalysis, synergetic motivation simply means any time multiple motivations–any of the 8 Core Drives–are at work at the same time.
As you build your own projects and products, or dissect what isn’t working on the same, we will want to pay attention to potential for synergies and drawbacks of them, like situations where our Player might have multiple motivations but we’re only catering to one of them in the design and thus failing to reach the Desired Action.
As always, we’ll use the 8 Core Drives in this analysis.
