The Earned Lunch: Fixed Action Rewards — Technique for Long-term Motivation
⚡ Speed Run Notes Variable rewards win in the short term; fixed rewards win in the long term.…
Work with Yu-kai
The Blog
Ideas on motivation, behavior & design.
Deep dives on the psychology behind why people do what they do — from Yu-kai Chou, creator of the Octalysis Framework. Pick the topic that matters to you.
How to Design Effective Leaderboards That Motivate All Users (2026)
Most companies slap a leaderboard on their product, watch the top 10% grind harder, and wonder why the…
Applying Evil Egg Design to create urgent action
What if doing nothing was the worst decision your player could make? That’s the essence of Evil Egg…
The Spinning Wheel: A Comprehensive Guide to Boosting User Engagement
You know that moment when you’re watching the wheel spin, your eyes locked on the prize you want,…
Streak Design: The 5 Steps Behind Duolingo’s Daily Loop
Streak design is the practice of rewarding a user for repeating one action on consecutive days and showing…
Supercharge Your Gamified System: Boosters for Greater Engagement and Success
Boosters are one of my favorite game design techniques because they solve a real problem in gamified systems:…
Game Design Techniques: the Onboarding Bundle
If users don’t know what to do within four seconds of landing on your interface, they start feeling…