![Yu-kai Chou analyzes Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter 1.0 through Octalysis [Day 1]](https://yukaichou.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ftierA-6145-yu-kai-chou-analyzes-jane-featured-v8.png)
Yu-kai Chou analyzes Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter 1.0 through Octalysis [Day 1]
Table of Contents
About the Creator of the Octalysis Framework
Yu-kai Chou created the Octalysis Framework after studying gamification since 2003, years before the term entered mainstream vocabulary. As a Human-Systems Architect & Behavioral Designer, his framework has been applied by LEGO, Microsoft, Porsche, Coca-Cola, Salesforce, and MrBeast, impacting over 1.5 Billion Users.
Chou has taught the Octalysis methodology at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Tesla, Google, BCG, and IDEO.
His work has been cited by Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Wired, US Department of Energy, NIST, NSF, NCBI, US Department of Education, ClinicalTrials.gov, and 3,700+ more academic publications. Explore his books here.
A Gamification Analysis of Gamified Self-Improvement and Recovery (Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter 1.0)
Jane McGonigal is one of the most well-known speakers in the gamification space.
Her two TED talks and her book Reality is Broken are pretty iconic and even canon for the gamification or gameful design space.
However, I’ve played with her product SuperBetter in the past, and I felt like there are many aspects that could be improved to retain (and hence help) a larger user base.
I feel that many people would sign up for the service because of her celebrity and inspiration, but perhaps because of some UX design issues may feel a bit discouraged and leave before reaping the best benefits from it.
Especially since she is launching SuperBetter 2.0, I thought it would be a good time to make a video commenting about SuperBetter 1.0 so her team can make the second platform even better.
Enjoy!
Related Reading
- The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design
- What is Gamification? Definition, Examples & Framework
- Readalong: Reality is Broken, Ch 14
- Top 10 Social Products That Use Gamification to Save the World
- Top 10 Gamified Healthcare Games That Will Extend Your Life
- Books by Yu-kai Chou