Category: Gamification Examples

This article about getting better sleep was written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework by Yu-kai Chou.

“I don’t need sleep.” (Starting a grand Protector Quest of your sleep)

Well, you do (I’m assuming you are a homo sapien.)

To do anything at a high level for sustainable periods, the human body will need sleep. And the mind will need rest.

Most of you understand this already, but want to get a little more value from the time you have allotted for sleep. You’re active, you’re busy, but you still like your sleep.

Overall, I like to think of going on a grand Protector Quest to protect my sleep. Strangely, I can feel the difference between a solid 8 and a solid 9 hours of sleep. I bet you can too. And I bet you’ll really feel the difference between a lousy 5 and a solid 7.

No matter your sleep goals (and dreams), let’s see if some Game Techniques based on the Octalysis framework and the 8 Core Drives can help.

Continue reading A Protector Quest for Sleep: 9 Game Techniques for More Sleep in the Time You Have

Using Gamification to Get People Into Meditation and Mindfulness

Making space for a meditation practice is as difficult as it is to make a space for anything in our lives. If something isn’t valued, it isn’t prioritized. There’s a LOT of word-of-mouth and marketing dollars behind spreading meditation practice.

There’s one interesting part about meditation that makes it similar to relationships and careers: there are no instant results.

In the case of meditation and mindfulness, rewards (if you get any at all) aren’t reaped until one goes further along in the practice.

The argument, then, could be to use gamification and human-focused design to build a habit of meditation and mindfulness so as to progress further along. If one doesn’t build the habit, then he can’t experience the benefits (this is if you are even seeking benefits to begin with–see #5 for an alternative approach to meditation practice).

There are many types of meditation practice, and this article will not go into each. It will simply be a brief commentary on some apps and resources I’ve found as I begin to explore.

I will lightly mention the Game Techniques and the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis.

Continue reading 7 Ways to Get Started in Meditation (That Do and Don’t Use Gamification)

This series was written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework by Yu-kai Chou. 

The Final Countdown, 8 Techniques for Core Drive 8!

This is it! The final push…or should I say, the Last Mile Drive?

If you missed any of the previous articles, here they are:

Part 1: Epic Meaning & Calling

Part 2: Development & Accomplishment

Part 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback

Part 4: Ownership & Possession

Part 5: Social Influence & Relatedness

Part 6: Scarcity & Impatience

Part 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity

Part 8: Loss & Avoidance

Continue reading 8 Game Techniques to Bring Loss and Avoidance to your Life: Part 8 of 8 in Lifestyle Gamification

This series is written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework designed by Yu-kai Chou. 

A little curiosity in your life of gamification

As we continue this Lifestyle Gamification Example series, we’re pushing onward with Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity.

Curiosity is a spice of life.

From Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards, we know:

As mentioned in earlier chapters, our intellectual consciousness is inherently lazy, and if tasks at hand do not demand immediate attention, the neocortex delegates the mental legwork to our subconscious mind, or “System 1” according to Economics Nobel Prize winner and psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

So why not sprinkle a little into your lifestyle gamification design? Whether chores or fitness or nutrition or relationships… Here’s a few examples to get you thinking!

As always, refer back to Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity if you need a mental refresher!

Continue reading Sprinkle 7 Game Techniques into your Lifestyle Gamification Design: Part 7 of 8 in Lifestyle Gamification Examples

This series is written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework designed by Yu-kai Chou.

There’s not enough time

There’s not enough time. So we better get started now.

Time and attention might be the baseline resource we are all playing with.

Apps like Uber and Lyft save us time, removing the impatience of dealing with, say, the scarcity of regular taxi cabs.

But there is a downside to the Black Hat Core Drive 6…and that is burnout. For this Core Drive, the takeaway might be to reduce the amount we use it (or fall victim to it) in our daily lives.

Then again, a little Black Hat can’t kill you.

Moderation in everything.

In this post, I’ll highlight how to use 10 Game Techniques to boost various areas of your everyday life! Let’s press onward valiantly and impatiently.

Continue reading 8 Game Techniques to Effectively Use Scarcity and Impatience in Your Life: Part 6 of 8 in Lifestyle Gamification Examples

This series is written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework designed by Yu-kai Chou.

How to Live with and through Others

How to live is a question that’s been debated through the ages.

Our world is changing. We’re changing with it.

So far, we’ve touched epic meaning & calling, accomplishment & development, empowerment of creativity & feedback, and ownership & possession, each in respect to lifestyle gamification and the Octalysis framework.

That is to say, we’ve investigated how our 8 Core Drives play into human-focused designs for our lives in totality. No small task!

Part 1: Epic Meaning & Calling
Part 2: Development & Accomplishment
Part 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
Part 4: Ownership & Possession

We’ll continue now with Part 5: Social Influence & Relatedness.

Continue reading How to Inject Social Influence and Relatedness into Your Life: Part 5 of 8 in Lifestyle Gamification Examples

This series is written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis framework by Yu-kai Chou

Ownership and Possession

If you missed them, here’s the first three articles in the series:

Part 1: Epic Meaning & Calling
Part 2: Development & Accomplishment
Part 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback

Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession is a useful Core Drive to understand and apply in your Lifestyle Gamification design.

Here’s a refresher from Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards: 

Ownership and Possession, the fourth Core Drive in Octalysis Gamification, is based on the principle that because you own something, you want to improve it, protect it, and get more of it.

This Core Drive is related to elements such as virtual goods and virtual currencies, but it is also the primary Core Drive that makes us want to accumulate wealth. Also, on a more abstract level, if you have invested a lot of your time to customize something to your own liking, or a system has constantly been learning about your preferences and molding into something that is uniquely yours, you generally will start to feel more ownership towards it.

Owning things help improve life. A collection of knives eases the preparation of food. A set of books encodes knowledge to be learned.

But we also like collecting things for the sake of collecting. Whether friends on Facebook or a freedom from work in number of hours.

I want to in this article investigate and explore the range of ownership and possession as it relates to improving our lifestyle design and Lifestyle Gamification.

Continue reading How to Add Ownership and Possession into your Life: Lifestyle Gamification Examples 4/8