Presentation from Teresa Colombi's talk at gamification education workshop in Gamification World Congress 2014

1. Psychological basis of Gamification:
how to use motivation and persuasion
techniques to influence human behaviour
T. COLOMBI 05/24/2014

2. 1. Why we play games?
2. Psychology of the player
3. Psychological mechanism: the basics of motivation
4. How to implement gamification
Overview

3. Why Psychology Motivation How
Why we play games?
 First Human activity
 Innate activity
 Playing is a really serious activity for a
baby
 Playing is the best way to discover
the world and learn

4. Why Psychology Motivation How
… finally, what is a game?
Everything can be a game if:
 there is a system of rules,
understood by the user
 the user has an objective
and some means to achieve
it
 it is adapted to his/her
characteristics/skills
 there is a “challenge”
 there is a good “flow”
TODAY OBJECTIVE:
Treat at least 12 cases
Yesterday score: 11 in 7h
Total
points:
321
2 3

5. Why Psychology Motivation How
The power of “playing”: an example
Washburn (2003)
Experience Game
20% of
H
80% of
X
Such a small difference can generate significant consequences related to
the playful situation  gamification is always possible

6. Why Psychology Motivation How
How to keep the user in the good “flow”
 Clear objectives
 Immediate feedback after the actions
 Good trade-off skills/challenge
 Good knowledge of rules and User
Interface
Results:
 frustrations of everyday life are
forgotten
 loss of self-consciousness, distortion
of time perception
 Great user experience
Csikszentmihalyi (1975)

7. 1. Why we play games?
2. Psychology of the player
3. Psychological mechanism: the basics of motivation
4. How to implement gamification
Overview

8. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several reasons:
To change his/her mind
Why we want to play

9. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several reasons:
To test their own limits
Why we want to play

10. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several reasons:
To learn something new
Why we want to play

11. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several reasons:
To exchange and cooperate
Why we want to play

12. Why Psychology Motivation How
Each user is sensible to one or more these aspects, but in any case we
learn a lot from playing:
 organisation
 planification & strategy
 self-respect
 trials and failures
 collaboration
 ...
From a business and/or a pedagogical point of view, it is useful that
people play games!
Psychology behind the behaviour

13. Why Psychology Motivation How
PEOPLE LOVE TO PLAY GAMES
… so, Gamification can be a great tool!
+
IT IS USEFUL THAT PEOPLE PLAY GAMES
+
VIRTUALLY ALL MAY BE CONVERTED INTO A GAME
=
GAMIFICATION

14. Why Psychology Motivation How
Through fun and pleasure, the gamified product
aims to :
 deliver a message/knowledge
 change users opinion
 influence users behaviors (shopping…)
The frontier between gamification and
persuasion (and even manipulation) is often
thin…
Use gamification with caution and under a
psychologist supervision!
The final aim of gamification
POSSIBLE
MANIPULATION

15. Why Psychology Motivation How
Gamification is a mean to increase the persuasion,
which is the ability
 to get someone to be convinced of something, to
believe something
 to get someone to do or to want to do something
Gamification and persuasion
“Positive/good persuasion” = the final goal is profitable for the user
(learn, achieve goals, improve skills…)
“Negative persuasion” or Manipulation = the final goal is profitable
only for the source, which exercises control and influence user’s
attitudes and behaviors

16. Why Psychology Motivation How
 Reciprocity
○ If you give, you will obtain something back
 Commitment and Consistency
○ If the user say “yes” now, he/she will be consistent in the future
 Social Proof
○ If other people do that, I should do it (consensus)
 Authority
○ if the source is respected / known, it deserves to be heard
 Liking
○ if my friends join/like/do, I should do it too
 Scarcity
○ if it is rare, it's worth
Cialdini’s key principles of persuasion

17. 1. Why we play games?
2. Psychology of the player
3. Psychological mechanism: the basics of motivation
4. How to implement gamification
Overview

18. Why Psychology Motivation How
The “fuel” of gamification is the human
motivation.
Several ways exist to motivate the users, for
example show them:
 that they have something new to discover
 a challenge to face
 the way to create a social link with other users
 the possibility to obtain something very
special and customised
 …
Gamification is all about motivation
MOTIVATION
Try to raise internal motivation (I do it for myself) rather that external ones (I
do it to have a reward), for a better engagement

19. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several mechanisms possible:
 create a “scenario” (characters, goal, situations…)
 let the user be “someone else”
 mark clearly the user’s progression and path to guide him/her
 put enigmas and difficulties on the path
 Unlock contents/bonus according to the progression
Useful in Health for :
 better empathy with patients and understanding of contexts
 good anticipation of critical situations
Create an interest: discover

20. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several mechanisms possible to stimulate competition and
achievement:
 scores
 badges
 leaderboards
 Challenges and rewards
Useful in Health for :
 better performances
 task needing optimal reaction time
Create an interest: challenge

21. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several mechanisms possible:
 emulation/copying other’s behaviour
 reward the information sharing and cooperation
 challenges solvable only in group, with different skills
Useful in Health for :
 team building
 clear team member tasks and objectives
 develop respect for the others (colleagues and patients)
Create an interest: social link

22. Why Psychology Motivation How
Several mechanisms possible:
 choose characters, goals, paths, options…
 customise the interface
 give different feedbacks according to user’s choices, parameters
and setting
Useful in Health for :
 try different solutions and understand interpersonal differences
 better anticipate the results related to interpersonal differences
Create an interest: customisation

23. 1. Why we play games?
2. Psychology of the player
3. Psychological mechanism: the basics of motivation
4. How to implement gamification
Overview

24. Why Psychology Motivation How
Motivation is a necessary ingredient for a great user experience in a
gamified product, as the need to have the good abilities and skills to
succeed
Ok, we have fuel. But how to start the engine?
Activation threshold
Here triggers work!
But Fogg’s behaviour model emphasizes the need for triggers

25. Why Psychology Motivation How
To gamify something in the right way, first of all it is necessary to
understand what is wrong about
 Motivations
○ The user has understood the importance of this application? How to improve
the engagement?
 User’s abilities
○ The user has all the required skills? The app can be simplified (smaller and
simpler tasks)?
 Triggers
○ The user is aware of them? He/she understand them? Right time/place?
The problem can be also related to the user’s journey in the product
Understand when something is wrong

26. Why Psychology Motivation How
User experience and user’s journey
Novice
Expert
Master

27. Any question?
Teresa Colombi
teresa@ludo-tic.com
@colombi_teX
Thank you and see you in the
workshop 