value

Three Rules for Meaningful Rewards in Gamification

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Rules of rewards Three Rules for Meaningful Rewards in Gamification

Rewards can be very powerful, which is why I have spoken about them so many times! I already wrote about the three keys of rewards (Relevant, In-Time and Meaningful). However, I wanted to just blast out a quick post on the meaningful bit of that! 1 and 2 are essential, 3 is a very big nice to have!

They have to …

  1. be earned
  2. have intrinsic value
  3. have extrinsic value

Feeling that you have earned a reward is much more satisfying than just being given the “I pushed a button” reward.

If the reward has some level of personal value to the user, like it represents the end of a tough journey to mastery, then it will feel much more meaningful. Read More ...

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Excel Template to Calculate Activity Value

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Score calc Excel Template to Calculate Activity Value

A while back I wrote an article about how you have to balance the reward value of activities against the value to the client, user and effort.

The basic idea was that if a user has to work hard to get a reward, it had better be worth something. At the same time, if the value of the activity is high to the client, the reward should also be worth having.

At the time I wrote that, I developed a simple spreadsheet to help me calculate reward values for activities for a client I was working with. I thought I would share that with you to help you with your projects as well. Read More ...

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Gamification, delayed gratification and rewards

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Reward vs investment Gamification delayed gratification and rewards

There has always been this common thought that if you have to work harder for something or you have to wait for it, the reward will be all the greater in your mind. Now for the most part. that is absolutely true. The anticipation of some sort of reward 1 is a massive trigger for dopamine and can make the reward all the more… well, rewarding – which we like!

The Marshmallow Test

However, not everyone is able to wait for a reward. There was a fantastic experiment in the 70s now referred to as the Marshmallow Test 2. The set up was that children were sat in a room and a marshmallow was placed on the table in front of them. They were given an offer. Eat this one marshmallow now OR wait until I come back and you can have two marshmallows. It is worth watching the videos if you need a smile! Read More ...

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Indirect Incentives: Good or Bad in Gamification?

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Red pill blue pill1 Indirect Incentives Good or Bad in Gamification

First things first, what do you think of the new blog theme? Playing with the Hueman theme to see how it goes. I have also removed a large number of poppy uppy things!

Recently I heard an interesting idea on how to indirectly incentivise employees to do a particular voluntary task. The plan was that every x percent of people who did the task would translate into a charitable donation from the company to a charity voted on by the employees.

My first thought was “great, they finally get that you should stop trying to incentive everything with competitions or gift vouchers!” However, after I thought some more, I began to feel that this was still a bad idea… Read More ...

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