The world of gamification is huge and it will only barely fit in Hermione Granger’s backpack!
This post is here to help you navigate it.
You will find what you’re looking for and, hopefully, you will also discover something new like the Strategy Dashboard to help you on the project you’re working on right now. Keep exploring with Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity, and never give up because your knowledge of gamification and human-focused design will define the potential of the human race!
Have fun! Remember, together we can achieve our potential.
This page will GROW over time. It was started in Feb 2018 and who knows where the world of gamification will take us!
If you’re new here, START with ‘How to Use the Ultimate Guide to Gamification: Past, Present & Future’
How to Use the Ultimate Guide to Gamification: Past, Present, & Future
This guide is separated into major content sections.
Use the Table of Contents (^^^ up there!) to guide you.
The guide begins by asking questions. These questions lead to beginnings of answers. The gamification space is huge, and these short questions and answers are often the best place to start. Try hitting ctrl or cmd + f and typing “What are common misconceptions about gamification?”
That question will get you started on how gamification is understood by Yu-kai Chou, the creator of the Octalysis Gamification Framework.
Good luck! (You have some exploring to do.)
Gamification in General. Definitions, Misconceptions, and What Gamification is Good For
What is Gamification?
Yu-kai, who is considered a pioneer in the gamification space, provided an in-depth article about what gamification means to him.
Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and addicting elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities. This is what I call “Human-Focused Design” as opposed to the “Function-Focused Design.” It is a design process that optimizes for the human in the system, as opposed to pure efficiency of the system.
What are common misconceptions about Gamification?
From Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, & Leaderboards:
There are several primary misconceptions about Gamification. This is why I prefer the term, Human-Focused Design.
To me, Gamification includes many areas, from gameful UX, to motivational psychology, to behaviorial economics, to persuasive technology. I have built Octalysis Prime to showcase Human-Focused Design’s broad-reaching capability, from product gamification to lifestyle gamification. It truly touches all areas of design and life.
When Gamification became a popular term in the business world, its definition began to be ‘pinned down’ by various experts. Some people wanted to limit it, others to expand it, others to use it for their own needs. I wrote an entire chapter in my book, Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, & Leaderboards, to address this very question. However, you can note that by the title itself I was eager to move past these limited language games into the utility and dare I say power of gamification when applied to design.
When did Gamification start?
Motivation and goal-oriented behavior is built into the human brain.
Here is how Yu-kai got started: he considered a pioneer in the gamification industry.
Why is Gamification broken?
Such a question requires definitions of what gamification is and what is meant by broken.
Since humans are goal-oriented creatures, incentivizing motivation will likely continue to be important for many years.
When you play a game, you are not compelled or forced to play. You are impelled. You can’t help it. But it is voluntary.
Using gamification or gameful design to assistant the creation of motivation experiences will likely continue based upon how success games have been in making us want to play them.
Gamification in the Workplace and Business
Yes, gamification can and is being used in business. Every day.
How Can I Gamify Seller Motivation?
Managing and motivating salespeople is one of the most important tasks for a sales manager. Leaders in the field are saying seller motivation needs a makeover.
How Can I Gamify Sales Managers?
But what about motivating the sales manager themselves? Here’s how to do it, thanks to Jonathan Palay.
Hard Community Questions
This section is exciting!
How to use this section
Use this section to see some of the most thought-provoking questions posed by members of the Octalysis community, including questions from Octalysis Prime members.
“What happens when two contradicting cognitive biases appear at the same time?”
Question details: Like how do you find out when the paradox of choice moves one towards more or less choices, or if lowering the friction of purchasing by giving stuff like full refunds, free swaps, and so on, will be better than utilizing the concept of synthetic happiness by making it impossible to change your decision?
How can startups use gamification techniques?
Question details: Gamification techniques for startups in tech. Having worked in tech and developed my various products, I’ve come to see a clear pattern why some startups work great while others collapse thanks to the Octalysis framework. As an example, take fitness applications on the IOS store. Most fail, simply due to poor onboarding and CD2 feedback. 7 Minute workout is one of the few that does well simply becuase they really segment the workout and do well in terms of making users feel accomplished.
Here is a tough one, how to apply gamification to enterprise software. Boom! 🙂
Which factors determine when a Feedback Mechanic is going to have a positive or negative effect?
Get mentored by Yu-kai Chou
Every week I hop on a conference call to teach, answer questions, and give feedback to members of Octalysis Prime. If you want to take your Gamification practice to the next level, then come join us.