Erik Mechelen - Yu-kai Chou

Where to Start Your Gamification Journey

This post is written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen.

Gamification has evolved

As Yu-kai discusses in Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards, gamification has been around and has evolved to the point that many professionals have heard about or even engaged with at least elementary gamification material.

Some people immediately see the advantages of human-focused design in the creation of products, particularly web or mobile apps. But we know gamification as defined by human-focused design (thanks for this distinction, Yu-kai!) is applicable to so many other areas, like:

marketing gamification
lifestyle gamification
workplace gamification

We’re also seeing gamification taught in universities and online programs. With so many courses and books to choose from, it’s hard to choose what will be right for you.

Right for you might mean most applicable to achieving your goals of improving your lifestyle, whether your health or relationship with your kids. If this was your aim setting out, you might have fallen into the trap of a self-help book about fitness or parenting, so good for you for checking out gamification instead!
It’s so important to know yourself and know what you’re looking for.

In this post, I’ll start with my learning journey, then discuss a few options to starting or continuing your gamification journey. Who knows, it might last a lifetime!

Continue reading Where to Start Your Gamification Journey

How to Create a Gamified Chore App with Octalysis

This article was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen.

Kids don’t like chores

Getting kids active and participating in household chores has many benefits, but have you ever had trouble persuading your kids to help out around the house?

I know as I kid I wasn’t easily persuaded to do things that weren’t my idea. In Gabon, when I was four, my parents couldn’t even get me to try a single slice of pizza! (Eventually, I tried it and thought it tasted amazing.)

Chores felt like work, which was worse than homework. I’d finally finish my homework, be ready to play, then BAM, my mom or dad would show up with a chore to do. (Chores often are work.)

My guess is a lot of parents don’t bother with getting their kids to help out with household chores. These parents probably have excuses like:

“Too much effort to keep them motivated.”
“The kids will just whine and complain.”
“It will be faster to do the chores ourselves.”

But these parents are missing a great opportunity to implement lifestyle gamification to motivate and reward their kids for helping around the house. Busy parents, take note!

Continue reading How to Create a Gamified Chore App with Octalysis

Implementing Gamification in Your Organization Part 1/4: Getting Buy-In from Your Boss

This article was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen, based on knowledge shared by Yu-kai Chou.

Workplace gamification interest is growing

We recently asked you why you were part of the Octalysis Explorers Facebook group or joined the Kickstarter for Octalysis Prime. The largest segment of responses fell into this category:

“I want to implement gamification in my workplace.”

Maybe this is even a goal for you in 2017. With this feedback, we’ve decided to kick off a series about implementing gamification in the workplace. This is part 1 of a 4-part series. (If you’re a manager yourself, you might have noticed this, although it is very specific to using Level II Octalysis for manager-employee relationships.)

Continue reading Implementing Gamification in Your Organization Part 1/4: Getting Buy-In from Your Boss

Why You Should Create Year-END Resolutions

This article was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen.

Why You Should Create Year-END Resolutions

Have you started thinking about your New Years’ Resolutions yet?

If you haven’t, you’re likely to be tempted by the torrent of articles written this time of year on the subject.

But you know better.

New Years’ Resolutions don’t really work.

I’ve been talking with Yu-kai, and he prefers something different: Year-END Resolutions.

In this post, I’ll:

Take a moment to summarize why New Years’ Resolutions don’t work.
Explain what Yu-kai means by Year-END Resolutions
Show you how to get started (and finished) with those actions before Jan 1, 2017.

Let’s go.

Continue reading Why You Should Create Year-END Resolutions

Fitbit, Peloton – Do Fitness Apps Really Work?

This post was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen and edited by Chief Editor Angel Cheng.

Do Fitness Apps Really Work?

Health and well-being and fitness are hard to quantify, yet we can see health and well-being when we see it.

Even stronger, we can feel it.

We definitely feel it when things aren’t going well.

Awareness, energy, decision-making, even happiness. All these attributes increase when we are healthy. And decrease when we aren’t.

In this post, I’ll look at how positioning our wellness from a place of White Hat motivation will help us succeed in the long-term.

I’ll also discuss the pitfalls of Black Hat design in approaching a game like health and wellness. In doing so, we’ll take a look at Fitbit Blaze and Peloton Bikes in supporting our health goals.

We’ll also take a look at procrastination and short-term vs long-term thinking in routine-building for health and well-being.

With luck, you’ll learn something going into your New Year’s Resolutions…but stand by for next week’s post, because thinking about Year-End Resolutions is much more powerful.

Continue reading Fitbit, Peloton – Do Fitness Apps Really Work?

Gamification Analysis: How Snapchat Launched Spectacles

This article is written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen along with Yu-kai Chou.

Making moves

Snap Inc. is making moves.

First, it built a cool mobile-only camera and messaging app with millions of engaged users. Snaps are ephemeral and the app opens on the camera.

The founders famously turned down a $3-billion offer from Facebook.

Snap Inc. continued improving the Snapchat product and attracting new users, rising to the most-used teen app in 2016 and making big dents in the over-35 age demo, too. They want to change the way we think about cameras and storytelling.

What’s next for them?

The short answer is Spectacles, a pair of Snapchat glasses, a foray into territory where Google Glass seemed to fail and where others like Vue aren’t quite making it yet.

In this article, I’ll use Octalysis glasses to investigate the Spectacles launch and speculate on Snap Inc.’s future plans for augmented reality.

Continue reading Gamification Analysis: How Snapchat Launched Spectacles

Why Commissions Hurt Productivity and Job Satisfaction

This article was written by Contributing Writer Erik van Mechelen

The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Goes to…

Contract theory is evolving. This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences went to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström for their contributions to contract theory.

In the 1970s, Holmström’s informativeness principle helped define how a contract should link an agent’s pay to performance-relevant information. In the 1980s, Hart made contributions to a branch of contract theory known as incomplete contracts.

Together, their body of work helped us better understand multi-tasking, moral hazard, and simply put, how to best design contracts for desired outcomes. Multi-tasking tackles the problem of short- vs long-term thinking, while moral hazard refers to actions taken that do not serve the benefit of the contract (but that the contract does not deter).

Sound familiar? Octalysis is all about understanding human motivation to best drive desired actions.

In discussions with Yu-kai and through videos he’s shared on Octalysis Prime, I’ve learned and come to share the opinion that we are very early in the quest to understand human motivation and apply this understanding to our lives and work.

New research is starting to suggest commission-based compensation frameworks actually reduce productivity and job satisfaction, especially in the long run.

In this article, we’ll examine these new findings from an Octalysis perspective. So get your Octalysis Glasses ready! Continue reading Why Commissions Hurt Productivity and Job Satisfaction