Go back 10 years and ‘gamification’ was one of the most searched for terms on Google. Now, not so much. Is that because it’s no longer relevant? Let’s see if we can answer that…

What is Gamification?

First, let’s make sure we understand what we are talking about. It is a term which is often misunderstood. When we talk about gamification we mean the application of game design methodologies or approaches to things which are not games. Games are generally not gamification. Gamification is where something has many features of a game would but in itself is not a game.

Let’s go back a step…

The games industry is huge. In 2020 it was worth an incredible USD$150B globally. It has now overtaken the movie industry and the music industry combined. Whilst there are many big players in the games industry, there are far smaller to medium businesses. As a result, the industry as a whole is incredibly innovative. Innovative in fun and entertainment, innovative in commercialisation and business models, innovative in human psychology and user engagement, innovative in technology and data and how they are used.

This innovation drives the success of the industry.

Many people still think that gamification is just games. Others think that it is as simple as adding points of some kind to their app or web site. We see it slightly differently…

When we talk about gamification, we mean the application of approaches that have been successful in the games industry to software which is not a game. Most typically, business software.

How is that different from good UX or application design?

Traditional UX Design or Experience Design tends to focus on the ‘needs’ of the user. Often the focus is about making the experience simple and lean and fast. The needs of the user are very important in software design, obviously.

Game designers tend to focus on the ‘wants’ of the user. They focus on making the experience rich and rewarding, fun and engaging with plenty of reasons to come back for more.

If we take an email client, like Gmail, for example. It has been designed to make handling email as easy and as fast as possible. It is a great application with lots of features which make handling your email activity as easy and as effective as it could be. Or is it?

As game designers, we might approach it a little differently and would consider adding some more game-like features, such as…

Feedback - how about keeping track of the emails you replied to each day and letting you know how you are performing at that. In fact, you could pull some fascinating stats from your email activity: average word count per email, words per day, average target age of your writing, longest words, most used words, the busiest day of the week, etc.

Rewards - now add in a virtual reward system, which could be ‘points’. This could be designed to encourage quick response rates as well as the volume of responses. It could also be a virtual currency that could access to a shop full of virtual items.

Levels and Progression - allow users to progress through a series of levels, demonstrating how good they are at the app and how active they are. We know that status can be a big motivator when done well.

Challenges - we know we are all busy and don’t need extra challenges, but well-designed challenges could be just what’s needed to motivate us to go the extra mile in Gmail and get more done.

These are just some examples of additional features that we might consider as game designers. Whilst we know this is not for everyone, we also know from experience that this could really drive engagement and increased use of the app. For many users, it would add a level of fun to their day and really differentiate Gmail from other apps.

Perhaps the most important thing to recognise is that the innovation in the games industry is constant with new ideas and approaches arriving all the time. This means that gamification is not just something you add-in once and forget about. It should evolve and develop alongside the app itself.

So is Gamification relevant today?

To be frank, making software that only addresses the needs of the user is probably not going to cut it these days. Of course, every situation is different, but in most cases, business software can really benefit from the application of game design methodologies. Why wouldn’t you want to learn from the successes? Done well, it will drive engagement, enjoyment and use of the application. If it’s a digital product, then that can be the difference between profit and loss.

But maybe now is the time to come up with a different name, something other than gamification?

Ideas anyone?