Gamification

Gamification Check-lists for Implementation

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1280927 ticked checkbox Gamification Check lists for Implementation

Now that you have all read my little eBook (sorry, could resist the plug) or have at least read my previous blogs, you should have an understanding of what Gamification is and why you may want it.

You will also have recently seen my post Gamification Gone Bad, which shows you a few pitfalls. The next step is to actually start to gamify stuff. First, I thought I would make you do some work and ask you a few questions.

First Phase

1. What is the exact task or process you want to gamify?

It’s all well and good saying “I want to gamify X, Y or Z”. The trouble is, what part of it do you want to gamify? If it is a single task, that’s fairly easy. If you are looking at a process as a whole, then it gets a little trickier. Most likely it is just one or two tasks that you wish to gamify to improve the engagement or motivation needed to achieve those tasks. Read More ...

Gamification gone bad

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To move on I want to look at how you can easily get Gamification very wrong. When it goes bad, it goes really bad. What you think makes something entertaining and engaging can actually have the exact opposite effect. This is especially true with online learning materials, or e-learning.

Just because you add pretty graphics and you’ve added some animations doesn’t mean you’ve created a good gamified piece of e-learning. If what you’ve added actually makes it harder to complete the e-learning module then you failed. Read More ...

Gamification: Why Aren’t Badges Enough?

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Recently I wrote a piece about the fact there was more to gamification than just trophies, but I never really explained why. A few people have asked, so I thought I would have a go at explaining.

Just Because You Build It, Doesn’t Mean They Will Come

The first reason is simple, but one that I never really thought of until I started using them on my site. For trophies and the like to actually start to work – you need the people you wish to keep engaged to actually be registered with you. When you are in a company and are using it on an intranet, that is simple, as they all have to be registered to use it. However, when you are trying to use it on your website or blog, it is not quite the same. Very few people will register just for the chance to earn badges on your site! So here it goes back to the same old thing, content. If the content is good and there is some reason to join (comments, ability to add reviews, competitions etc.) then you can use badges to help to keep people engaged. On Yet Another Review Site I use them to encourage a little competitions between the editors and the reviewers. Experience points, badges and public monthly leader boards are all used to help encourage them to do more on the site. Read More ...

Gamification: You May Already Be Using It!

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Right, so back to gamification.

I thought I would take a quick look at a couple of gamification techniques you may already be using on your website or blog, but not realise that’s what it is!

Exploration and Engagement

First up, that little box that slides out of the corner of the page and says “RECOMMENDED FOR YOU”. On WordPress there is a great plugin called “The Slide” by SimpleReach. It is there to try and keep you on the site a bit longer – to increase your engagement – and is actually very good at doing it. It shows you another story on the site that is related in some way to the one you have just been reading thus, encouraging you to look a bit deeper into the site. In gamification terms, it would be called Exploration. You are giving the reader a simple signpost to help them explore the site and discover new content. You are influencing their behaviour. On this blog I noticed that rather than people just staying on the one page, they averaged three pages per visit. Read More ...

Social Reach: Grains of rice on a chessboard

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In a recent blog post for my company’s blog, Gamification for your company, I made brief mention of evangelists and social reach. The general gist was that in this world of social media, a few enthusiastic supporters or evangelists could be worth more than a mediocre marketing campaign. Social reach can be a much underestimated, but very powerful way to spread brand awareness.

To explain, I will make use of an old legend (deep huh!).

This legend has been given roots in both India and China, but the upshot is the same. A powerful man offers (King or Emperor) offers a wise man a reward of their choosing. In china this is for the invention of chess, in India this id for beating the king at a game of chess. The wise asked for grains of rice as his prize, given in the following manner. Starting with a single grain of rice on the first square of the board, each subsequent square should contain double the amount of the last. Therefore, the second would contain 2 grains, the third 4, the fourth 8 and so on. This seemed simple enough. Read More ...

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