When you look at how gamification has been used over the years, I personally have seen the greatest successes coming from short term “interventions”.
Use gamification to improve onboarding into a product
Use it to make a learning module, or course more interesting
Use it to learn a few words in another language
Use it to help build better excercise habits
Use it to build better medication routines
All of these have great success stories, but by their nature are short interventions being used to either reduce the barrier to entry, create short term engagement or help to build intrinsic habits.
I ask you this – who has become fluent in a language using Duo Lingo?
However, gamification experts (myself included) always talk about gamification being better used as a long term strategic change, rather than a quick win enabler?
So is that true? Can you really change your life, or change long term behaviours with continuous gamification, or does the game has to end eventually?
It is an open question I would love to hear your thoughts on.
Personally, I think that the longest changes happen when you change the attitude of people to become more gameful – or dare I say it – infuse them with the Ludic Spirit!
So, Gurus Unite – I want to hear what you have to say!!
Yeah, a bold title – but AI told me it was true and ok to use!
Over the years I have looked at various behaviour change models and have used them in varying degrees. Early on, if you look at my blog and books I used BJ Fogg a lot. These days it is referred to as B=MAP; Behaviour = Motivation * Ability * Prompt. It used to be B=MAT – T being trigger. I think prompt is better as it covers more ground.
More recently I have been using COM-B model for behaviour change. This was created by Susan Michie, Maartje M van Stralen, Robert West. I liked this model because there was a lot more behind it and it introduces capability and opportunity, splitting out ability into “Can you personally do it” and “Is it possible to do”. I then adds this to motivation to create a flexible model.
However, I have increasingly found myself mixing these two together to create a model that fits my needs better when I discuss behaviour change with clients. That is where the Gamified UK Change Behaviour Model has come from (I could call it MANK-B, or KNAM-B I suppose, but I won’t!)
Gamified UK Behaviour Change Model
The Model
Let’s break this down first, then talk about how it all comes together.
Motivation
Motivation is the first and probably the most important “pillar” of behaviour change. It’s about understanding your “why”—the underlying reason for wanting to change. A strong motivation can make up for gaps in other areas. For instance, if your ability or knowledge is low, a strong sense of motivation can push you through challenges. Conversely, if your motivation is flagging, you might need to boost your ability or knowledge to keep moving forward.
Knowledge
Knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions and strategise effectively. It’s about knowing what to do, why it matters, and how to do it well. If your motivation is high but your knowledge is lacking, focusing on learning and preparation can bridge that gap. Similarly, if you’re less motivated, having a clear understanding of what’s required and why it is important can make the task less daunting and easier to start.
Ability
Ability refers to the physical, cognitive, and emotional resources needed to perform a behaviour. If your ability is low, you might need to compensate by increasing your motivation or knowledge to push through. For example, if exercising feels physically challenging, breaking down the activity into smaller, more manageable steps—or learning techniques that make it easier—can help you keep going. It is worth noting that sometimes, no matter the levels of motivation or knowledge or anything else – if there is a true reason for the ability not being present, the behaviour will likely never be possible.
Now matter how motivated it is, a fish can’t be a rabbit.
Nudge
This one is a little more nuanced. Nudges act in a slightly different way to the other 3 pillars mentioned here. Nudges are subtle cues in your environment that guide you toward the right behaviour without forcing your hand. Think of them as boosts or multipliers. While a nudge alone might not carry you through a challenge, it can tip the scales when things are balanced. For example, if your motivation, knowledge, and ability are in place but you’re struggling to stay consistent, a well-timed nudge—like a reminder notification or a supportive message from a friend—can give you the extra push you need.
Bringing it all together
As you can see, I’ve basically simplified the language and mashed Fogg and COM-B together. There is a good reason though and it is based on practical experience using both over the last 10 or so years.
COMB-B separates knowledge and ability, which I think is extremely important for conceptualising behaviour change. However, Fogg includes Prompts, which I feel is missing in COM-B as a highlighted concept. I went with nudges as I think that can cover more ground when thinking about behaviour, as prompts conjure up images of phone notifications and buzzing fitness watches. Nudges can be much more subtle, or just as in your face when thinking about them in solution design.
Balance and Examples
The image shows a circle connecting the four pillars together, with arrows pointing to behaviour. This is not just a design element, it is central to how all of these come together to help with behaviour change.
It is not about just having one element, you need all of them working in harmony (the circle), especially Motivation, Ability and Knowledge. The arrows then depict that these all then go towards changing the desired behaviour.
As I say in their descriptions, you can balance them out by increasing one where others may be low. For example. I want to get fit, but I am over weight and can’t run very far (which is true). So my ability is low. However, my knowledge about why I need to get fit is high and my motivation is somewhere in the middle. So right now, I am not tipping the balance. I can’t really increase my knowledge, and ability is contingent on me actually changing the behaviour. So I need to increase my motivation. In my case, getting out of breath climbing the stairs, not fitting my clothes and having fatty liver disease! Yeah – that should do it.
However, even then, it is not easy. Time is against me, I work, I have kids, I gig. So when I want to do excercise, it may not be the right time. This is where nudges help. It could be a well timed reminder, at a poitn where I am not doing other things, to just do some press ups. It might be the kids saying “Dad, shall we go for a walk” when I am sat watching TV. The nudge acts like a multiplier, boosting the motivation in this instance.
Another example could be adding products to cart on a website. You have a client who has low add to cart on mobile and is wondering why. When you look at it, their motivation is high by then (they made it to cart). They obviously had the knowledge needed to get them to cart. So it must be ability or timing of reminders to finish their cart journey. You look and the messages come out at a great time of day – so it has to be ability.
When you dig into it and go through the user journey – you discover that on mobile devices with certain screen dimensions – the add to cart button does not display! So they don’t have the actual ability to add the product to cart no matter how motivated they are!
As ever, I welcome your thoughts and comments! I hope this has been interesting and let me know if you want to know more about it.
Oh, also a little shout out to my youngest for helping me with the colours for this 🙂
For the first time in a while, I have a sort of new product for you! The Solution & Gamification Design Lenses Card Deck!
Basically it is a series of cards that contain questions related to various frameworks I use in my life as a solution designer. They cover ground from the User Type HEXAD, to the COM-B behaviour change model and lots in between – including the “What’s the worst that could happen” card!
Available through DriveThruCards, they come as a deck of 44 cards – which is actually 2 decks of the 22 cards, just to try and make them better value for you. I am also providing a downloadable deck for you if you want that instead.
One of the things you often hear around talk of gamification is the term “Behaviour Change”. At one time, gamification experts and platform providers began to get nervous of the word gamification and started to talk about “Behavioural Science” and “Behaviour Change Platforms”. I remember writing a post somewhere about what would happen if you could not use gamification as a word and even suggested behaviour change as one of the options.
However, over the years I have realised that this is probably a bit naive and possibly arrogant. Behaviour is a complex thing and one that does not change easily, especially when you are trying to do it with nothing but shiny trinkets with a cut and paste bit of JavaScript!
What follows is a very brief overview from a non-expert. Use it as a base to start your own research into the topic!
What is a Behaviour
First things first, what is a behaviour? As it happens, this is an area of some contention in the scientific world. As I did my research, I even came across an article called “Behavioural biologists don’t agree on what constitutes behaviour” [1] in which the researchers did an analysis of 174 expert responses to the question of “what is a behaviour” and got huge variation! They proposed a somewhat cumbersome meta definition of behaviour:
behaviour is the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli, excluding responses more easily understood as developmental changes
However, I very much like the definition offered by Hobbs Campbell, Hildon & Michie [2]:
“anything a person does in response to internal or external events.”
For our purposes, we would add the following as well
“For a behaviour to occur there must be a trigger, a process and an observable response”
Those of you who have read my blog for a few years will notice that last part is very, very like my definition of a game mechanic!
Behaviour
The trigger could be environmental, internal, deliberate or pretty much anything that, within the context of the behaviour, could induce it. The process refers to the various mechanisms involved in the behaviour occurring. This could be voluntary or involuntary. The responseis the behaviour physically occurring, it is what can be observed or at least measured in some way.
Context is key for all of this to happen, it is not random!
An Example
A simple example of a behaviour would be this. A person drinking an alcoholic drink.
Let’s break that down into trigger, process and response.
Potential Triggers: Offered a drink. Compulsion / addiction
Process: The person weighs up the pros and cons of having the alcoholic drink based on the information they have available. Is it appropriate in the current situation or environment? Is it healthy? Is it sensible? Would a nonalcoholic drink be more appropriate?
Response: The person drinks or does not drink the alcoholic beverage.
As you can see, there are a few factors here that can influence the behaviour and this is just a very small, low detail example!
Behaviour Change
Now that we have some idea of what a behaviour is, we can consider how we might be able to change a one. There are two key opportunities to interfere or intervene before a behaviour can occur.
If we consider the previous example, what could we do to prevent the person from having an alcoholic drink? Where can we interfere with of shift the behaviour cycle?
Initially, we can look at the triggers. We are not likely to be able to change the person’s need for a drink of some description, so we can’t control thirst. Compulsion and addiction are too big to go into here. So, let’s look at being offered a drink. We could potentially prevent this by having the person inform those around him that he is not drinking alcohol today, thus reducing the chances of someone offering him a drink. He can educate those around him.
If we cannot influence the trigger for the behaviour, how about the process that is undertaken before the behaviour is finalised? There is quite a lot that can be done here. Initially, we can look to educate the person about the dangers of alcohol. This way, during the decision-making process, they have more information to work with. Understanding the risks, the social norms, what alcohol tastes like etc. could alter the outcome of the process so that they have a soft drink rather than the alcoholic one. However, there may be other factors that may override this, stress at work, social pressure etc.
Behaviour Change Models
There are many things that influence our behaviours and many models that aim to explain this. I have always been a fan of BJ Fogg’s model [3], where he explains that a behaviour occurs when you have the right balance of Motivation, Ability and Triggers. However, I have recently been introduced by Carl Eacott (yep, him again) to the COM-B model of behaviour devised by Prof. Susan Michie [4]. This is a little more complete to my mind where behaviour occurs only when there is sufficient Capability, Motivation and Opportunity to do so. Unlike the Fogg model that indicates behaviour as a pure outcome, and covers Capability and Opportunity under ‘Ability’, COM-B is a bit more fluid and bi-directional. As the existence of behaviour is a good indicator of someone having sufficient capability, motivation and opportunity to do it again. Importantly, for someone to be motivated to enact the behaviour, they must have the capability and opportunity to do it.
COM-B Model
Taken from the original text, Capability, Motivation and Opportunity are defined as follows:
Capability is defined as the individual’s psychological and physical capacity to engage in the activity concerned. It includes having the necessary knowledge and skills.
Motivation is defined as all those brain processes that energize and direct behaviour, not just goals and conscious decision-making. It includes habitual processes, emotional responding, as well as analytical decision-making.
Opportunity is defined as all the factors that lie outside the individual, both physical/material and social, that make the behaviour possible or prompt it.
The model is part of the Behaviour Change Wheel, that not only broadly explains how behaviour occurs, but what form of interventions can be used to influence the COM-B processes that in turn, can lead to changes in behaviour
When considering how to change a behaviour, we must first understand what the target behaviour(s) is, of whom, in what context(s), why it does/does not exist in the first place. We must look to see if anything is affecting capability, motivation or opportunity. If so, what can we do about it and is that all that there is? We must peel back all the layers! It’s not good enough to just try and deal with the symptoms, we must deal with the cause. I created a set of lens cards that can help with some of this and include questions focused on the COM-B model considerations.
It is not just a matter of saying “we will give you a star every time you do something”.
Behaviour change is a big deal and getting this right is not something we should take lightly or assume because we have seen the picture we understand it all!
References
[1] D. A. Levitis, W. Z. Lidicker, and G. Freund, “Behavioural biologists do not agree on what constitutes behaviour,” Anim. Behav., vol. 78, no. 1, pp. 103–110, 2009.
[2] L. Hobbs, R. Campbell, Z. Hildon, and S. Michie, “Behaviour change theories across psychology, sociology, anthropology and economics: A systematic review,” in 25th Annual European Health Psychology Conference, 2011.
[3] B. J. Fogg, “BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model,” BehaviorModel.org, 2008. [Online]. Available: http://www.behaviormodel.org/.
[4] S. Michie, M. M. van Stralen, R. West, J. Grimshaw et al, “The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions,” Implement. Sci., vol. 6, no. 1, p. 42, 2011.
Whilst I spin through a really busy time, I wanted to share with you a minor gamification victory with my daughter.
Anyone who has read my blog in the past, will know that I have been trying to use gamification around my daughters behaviour for a few years now. Not all (any) attempts have been 100% successful. The most gut wrenching failure was the use of the reward chart! However, in March, I decided to try a slightly less rewards based system – the Behaviour Meter.
This was a simple chart that displayed numbers 0 to 10, with an arrow pointing to the value that best described my daughters behaviour at the time. Whenever I felt her behaviour changed, I moved the arrow – simple!
Anyway, fast forward to this weekend.
Daughter: “Daddy, how come I am on an 8 on my chart. I thought I had been naughtier than that”
Me: “Well, generally you have been pretty well behaved”
Daughter “I can’t wait to get a 10 on there”
Me: “That’s great, but you know there is no prize for getting a 10”
Daughter: “I know that, but I really want to prove I can do it”
She wanted to behave, because she wanted to. There was no desire for a reward behind it, she wanted to do it for her – it was intrinsic!
Now, I call this a massive win for fast and relevant feedback vs extrinsic rewards.
The next step is to lay out a few guidelines that she can follow to get her behaviour up to a 10!
