how the best apps nailed it
mozza
MOBILE GAMIFICATION

Engaging new users is
tough 😩

Most of them…

Most of them…
1. Don’t understand your product 🤔

1. Don’t understand your product
2. Forget to use it over time 🙄
Most of them…

1. Don’t understand your product
2. Forget to use it over time
3. Discover other apps to replace it 😯
Most of them…

What are the most
addictive apps?

GAMES!!!

What are the most viral
apps?

GAMES

Want to engage your users?

Using your product should feel like
playing a game! 🕹
Want to engage your users?

What does that mean?

1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4

Some of the best apps have successfully
used gamification for growth.

Let’s see how!

1

1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4

As human beings we are naturally driven
when we have a clear goal in mind to
accomplish 🎯
Knowing how far away that end goal is
will keep your users playing.

LinkedIn has nailed the
progress bar.

This is a new user’s profile.

Showing the profile strength
drives people to take steps
towards 100% completion.

Then there is a limited amount
of steps and a progress bar for a
clear goal and the end benefit!

Also pay attention to the
wording

They encourage people to take
action with a simple one-liner:
“get found for opportunity”
' Who doesn't want to get
found for opportunities??

They encourage people to take
action with a simple one-liner:
“get found for opportunity”
' Who doesn't want to get
found for opportunities??
And use the gaming vocabulary:
“Profile strength: Beginner”

Do you know what works even better
than specific goals?

Goals with a reward! 🎁
Do you know what works even better
than specific goals?

Starbucks has nailed loyalty
through mobile rewards

The coffee company has totally
gamified its loyalty program on
mobile.

Clear goals & progress bar 👌

And attractive rewards! 🎁
“Free drink or food” 😋

By employing a tiered reward structure across the whole
experience, customers are encouraged to shop more but also
shop exclusively with Starbucks! 💸

Starbucks uses rewards for user
retention.
But it can also be used for other growth
purposes! 🔥

Tribe’s gamification tactics
for growth

1. Access to address book
during signup
Tribe asked new users to give
access to their contacts in order
to be able to use the app.

2. Access to notifications!
Tribe also gave points to users
who enabled their notifications.

Actually, most actions that could actually improve retention or
virality were incentivized with points! 😲

Now, let’s see how levels & rewards can
improve the overall user experience.

Now, let’s see how levels & rewards can
improve the overall user experience.
In gaming, players generally go through a
tutorial first, and then for days or weeks
after, are given basic missions and slowly
ramped to more difficult ones.

From a Baby user to a Power user
Day 1 Day 7 Day 90

It’s important to treat users differently depending on where
they are in their lifecycle, and to build features and experiences
tailored to a specific segment of that lifecycle.

Duolingo used gamification
to adapt their product to the
user lifecycle

Right after downloading the
app, the user is asked about
their language level.

Whatever the answer is, the user goes through a really simple
test to get acquainted with the product… and starts earning XP!

Then,
the user can either start another
lesson or continue exploring the
app…

BUT they can’t access all the
features yet!

BUT they can’t access all the
features yet!
😱

By locking the bots feature,
Duolingo created artificial
scarcity in order to have a
reward and push the users
towards a simple goal: Level 3!

By locking the bots feature,
Duolingo created artificial
scarcity in order to have a
reward and push the users
towards a simple goal: Level 3!

Another example of
artificial scarcity?

SOUNDS is an app to share
music with friends easily.
With 8 million users 😎

Look how SOUNDS uses
artificial scarcity to boost
virality!

By default, there is a SOUNDS
watermark when you share a
song on other social media.

By default, there is a SOUNDS
watermark when you share a
song on other social media.
Want to remove it?

Then you have to invite more friends on the app! 🔥

SOUNDS also uses scarcity for
monetization 💰

SOUNDS also uses scarcity for
monetization 💰
Want to know who looked
at your profile ?

Then start your VIP free trial!

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Well done guys 👏

Stop making every feature so
accessible🚫
Use SCARCITY to create attractive
REWARDS
Use these REWARDS to drive user
behavior and fuel GROWTH
🎖🎖
🚀
In a nutshell…

2

1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4

Working out has always been
quite a lonely practice.

👫
But there’s an app that
managed to make it social.

Freeletics is an app for those
who want to get in shape.

Freeletics is an app for those
who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different
trainings. As well as a coach.

Freeletics is an app for those
who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different
trainings. As well as a coach.
But the powerful feature is not
the trainings, nor the coach.

Freeletics is an app for those
who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different
trainings. As well as a coach.
But the powerful feature is not
the trainings, nor the coach.
It’s the social network!

Your friends can follow your
performance, write comments
and encourage you!

There’s a social feed where you
can see everyone’s
performance.

And profiles to know how good
your friends are!

And profiles to know how good
your friends are!
✅ Levels
✅ Badges
✅ Followers

Freeletics, just like Strava or Runkeeper, implemented social
features to generate mutual support and competition.

Peer pressure is very powerful
for user engagement 8

That’s why Duolingo as groups.

With leaderboards!

Waze used social gamification to build
a community of 65 million active users!

How did they do it?

Every Wazer has a “mood”.

Your mood reflects your personality on the social map.

As a new Wazer, your mood is
“newbie” 👎

Access to other moods is
limited according to your
activity on the app!

The only way to be rewarded a
better mood is by being an
active participant, helping both
your fellow Wazers and of
course ultimately the app’s
success.

Each time you report an
incident that will help the
community: a fallen tree, a
police speed-check, you get
points.
You even get points for simply
having the app running while
you’re driving!

And just like the other gamified apps, there’s a clear progress
bar, a public leaderboard and teams!

Do you know the best about
these profiles?

They instill a Sense of Ownership

Whether it is a Tamagotchi, a
Farmville Farm, or an in-game
avatar, if players are able to
personalize something, then
they will have a greater affinity
for the product as a whole.
Waze

The switching costs are higher,
as by customizing something
in-game is an investment as
well as an emotional tie.
Duolingo

The switching costs are higher,
as by customizing something
in-game is an investment as
well as an emotional tie.
Duolingo
Who would break a 100
day streak?!

The app triggers the users’
creativity with avatars, and give
them something to feel invested
in so that the switching costs to
a competitor are high.
Remember the Mayor status in
Foursquare?
Foursquare

3

1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4

As you know, rewards can be a powerful tool
to encourage user behavior on your app.
🏆

As you know, rewards can be a powerful tool
to encourage user behavior on your app.
🏆
But it’s not enough!

Remember the points given by
Tribe for all these user actions?

Remember the points given by
Tribe for all these user actions?
They removed them in the last
version!
❌

🤔 WHY?

🤔
First, these rewards didn’t bring much
value to the product.
WHY?

🤔
First, these rewards didn’t bring much
value to the product.
Second, they were too PREDICTABLE!
WHY?

In the 50s, the researcher B.F. Skinner
studied behavior conditioning at
Harvard University.
Back to theory

To understand how rewards could influence behavior,
he invented the “Skinner box”.

The mice would press a lever and sometimes they’d
get a small treat, other times a large treat, and other
times nothing at all.

Unlike the mice that received the same treat every
time, the mice that received variable rewards would
press the lever way more compulsively!
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t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
🧀🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀
t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
🧀
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😱

Humans, like the mice in Skinner’s box, crave
predictability and struggle to find patterns, even
when none exist.
We respond most voraciously to random rewards.
🎲

That’s why gambling and playing the lottery are so
addictive! Every new game is exciting as you never
know what you’re gonna get 😏
🎰

Does it ring a bell ?

User addiction by design

Tinder became the most addictive
dating app ever by implementing
unpredictability at the core of its
product!

How could you ever stop swiping?

How could you ever stop swiping?
Every right swipe is a potential
match!

And every swipe uncovers a new
person!

What if the next person is…

😱
😱
😱 😱
😱 😱
😱 😱
😱😱
😱😱

How Snapchat uses variable
rewards to keep you engaged

Have you ever visited your Trophy
case?

It gathers the rewards you
collected depending on your
behavior.

It gathers the rewards you
collected depending on your
behavior.
For instance:

But it doesn’t tell you how to get a bigger trophy
for a certain action.
??

Nor what are the other trophies to win!

“Variable rewards!”

Snapchat used these trophies to reward
unusual uses of their app:

Obviously shared on social media…

There’s also trophies to reward the most
engaged users:

To encourage users to discover new
features:

And to take boring actions still needed
for user engagement:

Snapchat also uses unpredictability in
their notification strategy.

Instead of pushing a notification
after a friend sent you a message,
it’s pushed while your friend is
typing!

Obviously, this makes you want to find out what will happen
next. If you don’t know what’s going to happen, your brain is
engaged and you think about it often!

4

1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4

Life is hard.

Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.

Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.
They generate excitement through the
competition and rewards mechanisms
that we just studied.

Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.
They generate excitement through the
competition and rewards mechanisms
that we just studied.
But it’s not only about that.

Games create a different reality.

Where you can have fun and
celebrate achievements, whatever
they would mean in “real life”.

Zenly is really good at giving
this game feeling

Look at the experience designed
by Zenly when they ask a user for
their address book.

99% of the applications would have built a flow like that.

But Zenly did it differently.

But Zenly did it differently.
Instead of a blank loading screen, they inserted fun messages.

These are the little details that make a BIG difference!

Houseparty is also really good at entertaining the users on
waiting screens!

As soon as you have added some
friends on Zenly, this what you
get.

As soon as you have added some
friends on Zenly, this what you
get.
While big achievements are
rewarded with something special,
like badges or trophies, small
achievements should also be
recognized, especially when the
user has just started engaging
with the app.

Celebrations create a fun and
comfortable environment for the user 🙏

Celebrations create a fun and
comfortable environment for the user 🙏
And they are also good opportunities to
share the app with friends 🎉

Look how Duolingo does it!

Want to gamify your app?
🚀

We can help you 😉
hello@mozza.io

virality is a science
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