Flow & gamification: a misunderstanding

CvSoT Flow and other points v3 Flow 038 gamification a misunderstanding

Flow. A popular concept in gamification, goodness knows I have spoken about it often enough – just last week in fact.  It was that article that actually made me realise that there is a distinct misunderstanding of flow as Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes it.

The image below is how we in gamification tend to view it, our simplified version.

We talk about the Flow Channel, the point where skill level and challenge level are in a good balance. So this would mean that Flow could be achieved when you have a balanced low skill and low chalenge. However, when we look at how Mihály Csíkszentmihályi originally described it, that would actually be apathy – not a state we want for our users! Read More ...

What can a toilet teach us about gamification?

20140612 142733 52053113 What can a toilet teach us about gamification

Another talk, another idea. Having just done a really fun talk for KMUK, a new analogy came to mind to illustrate using simple user experience to change behaviours.

One of the things we are trying to do to save the planet, is use less water. The way this is often done is offering the user two options. One is a long flush (for the harder to shift moments of life) and a short, water saving flush for everything else.

The obvious symbology for this is a big button for the big flush and a little button for a little flush. Simples! Read More ...

Lowering barriers with Gamification

732172 48635269 Lowering barriers with Gamification

I did a very enjoyable talk at the Knowledge Cafe the other day. The audience was made up of various interested people, varying wildly in age – but with a majority belonging to Knowledge Management. It stood out for me in two ways. The first was the fact it was the first time I had done a talk with no slides. I gave the audience the option of having slides or not – they unanimously opted not (a lesson to learn here)! The second was that it was the first time I had really spoken about the concept that gamification can be viewed as lowering barriers. Read More ...

A few videos for you and a design worksheet

20140505 144722 A few videos for you and a design worksheet

Hi all. Not got a blog ready yet, but thought I would post a few videos for you. The first is about my User Types. I made it for Victor Manrique’s Iversity gamification design course (he has kindly agreed to let me post it here). The others are some little test videos I have been making recently with the fantastic Adboe Voice.  If you want to be able to create simple narrative driven videos and have an iPad – check it out (it’s free).

Also, I have started to build a worksheet to help you design and plan gamified solutions, The first draft is now available – let me know what you think! gamified uk worksheet v3 (pdf) Read More ...

Points and Badges in Gamification – Not totally evil.

Pb Points and Badges in Gamification 8211 Not totally evil

Over the last few days, the conversation about the use of points and badges has come up several times with several different people.

The stock answer in gamification these days is that points and badges are bad gamification. They are meaningless and we should be looking at intrinsic motivation more – yet almost every implementation you see of gamification will have some form of points system and probably badges.  They may be called experience points and achievements, or gami-dollars and pictograms – who knows – but they still seem to be there. Read More ...