A detailed introduction to gamification - Brisbane Web Design Meetup

http://www.flickr.com/people/8473570@N02
November 2012 September 2013
Gamification - defining, designing and using it
Zachary Fitz-Walter - Mobile Innovation Lab

Sep 19 - International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today’s missions >>
1. What is gamification?
2. Designing gamification
3. Gamifying websites

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramblingtraveler/3544734138/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5463240793/

Odenplan, Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.thefuntheory.com/piano-staircase

The Fun Theory
http://www.thefuntheory.com/piano-staircase

Gamification
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danieltack/2013/01/02/world-of-warcraft-gearing-up-at-level-90

Gamification is a special word

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Web search interest in gamification
trends.google.com

“By 2015, More than 50 percent of organizations that
manage innovation processes will gamify those processes”
Gartner Press Release - 2011
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1629214

http://www.gamification.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Gartner-2012-Hype-Cycle.jpg

And gamification became a buzzword

http://www.bogost.com/blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml

“80 Percent of Current Gamified Applications Will Fail to
Meet Business Objectives Primarily Due to Poor Design”
Gartner Press Release - 2012
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2251015

http://www.redherring.com/internet/gamification-platform-badgeville-raises-25m/

http://laportecreative.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/nerdyrevenge.jpg
The average gamer?

Video games have become mainstream

92% of Australians live in a household with
at least one device used for playing games
Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, 2012
http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DA12FinalLinkVideo.pdf

The average age of a gamer is 32
(And 43% of people aged 51 or older are also gamers)

Gender
of Australian gamers
53%
Male
47%
Female

Video games have become big business

The video game industry in Australia
netted $1.161 billion in revenue last year
http://www.igea.net

In the US consumers spent $24.75 billion on
video games, hardware and accessories in 2011.
Entertainment Software Association, 2011 - http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp
The Numbers, 2011 - http://www.the-numbers.com/market/
(More than double that of theatre takings for the same year)

Video games have become mobile

Mobile phones are used to play games in 43%
of game households, tablet computers in 13%

Video games have become social

1 in 5 gamers play social network games
1 in 10 play massively multiplayer games

Wait... this is just like work

12 million subscribers in 2010

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Eve_Online_-_market_browser_%28Trinity%29.jpg
http://img.brothersoft.com/screenshots/softimage/e/egrid3_com_add-in_for_microsoft_excel-59184-1228807074.jpeg

Most games boil down to solving a problem...

• Find a way to kill 3 boars
• Find a way to get more points than the other
team
• Find a way to get to the finish line before the
other players
• Find a way to complete this level
• Find a way to destroy the other player before
they destroy you
Examples are from The Art of Game Design, Jesse Schell, 2008

"Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of
comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes
games fun. In other words, with games, learning is the drug”
- Raph Koster
A Theory of Fun, 2005

Hang on, if games are so engaging...

...could we use them to make other
things engaging?

http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/files/ReaderRabbit/ScreenGrab_1/reader_rabbit_shot.gif

With our powers combined...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28122162@N04/4968733873/

Billie Weiss, Original uploader Rschuman at en.wikipedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zombie_Chase.jpg

Fitbit
Runkeeper
Zombies Run
Chore Wars
Foursquare
The Email Game

Framing real activities and tasks like a video game, in
order to make them more engaging and motivating
Gamification

http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Sustainability - Nissan My Leaf
Sustainability Nissan CARWINGS

Sustainability Bottle Bank Arcade

Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo, 2012, https://vimeo.com/46304267

•Points
•Badges
•Leaderboards
•Levels

•Points
•Badges
•Leaderboards
•Levels
= Rewards
}

Behaviour + Rewards = Fun!Behaviour + Rewards = Fun!

So how can we design for
engaging experiences?

Motivation
Extrinsic Intrinsic

Extrinsic Motivation
http://2bgr8stock.deviantart.com/art/Money-Cash-113445826

Behaviour + Rewards =
Extrinsic
Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation
Tim Pierce http://www.flickr.com/photos/48439369@N00

Intrinsic Motivation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonjohnstonn/6332963681/

So what makes a game
motivating to play?

• Autonomy - choice to play and choice over
actions
• Competence - ability to optimally challenge
players
• Relatedness - connection with others

Flow
Nooshin Beik http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock_climber_Dennis_George.JPG
Proposed by Csíkszentmihályi

• Intense and focused concentration
• Merging of action and awareness
• A loss of reflective self-consciousness
• A sense control or agency over the activity
• A distortion of time
• Experience of the activity as being intrinsically
rewarding
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow theory and research. In C. R. Snyder & S. J.
Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 195-206). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Factors of a flow experience

• A clear goal
• Clear progress
• Clear and immediate feedback
• Balance of challenge and skill
Conditions for flow

Based off a graph proposed by Csíkszentmihályi

These are important factors to consider
when trying to design a game.

These are important factors to consider
when trying to design gamification.

Gamification Design Framework
1. Identify the activity and gamiﬁcation goals
2. Design the gamiﬁcation experience
3. Obtain feedback and iterate the design

1. Identify the activity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoteldelapaixgeneve/5726470040/

Do you really need gamification?

• Have you got an engagement or motivation
problem?
• Ask yourself is this a problem that can’t be
improved in any other way?
• If motivation is lacking... looking towards game
elements and theory might be worthwhile.

Why is it boring? What’s missing?

• Clear and interesting goals
• Feedback
• Interesting and playful mechanics
• Challenge
• Progression and Mastery
• Aesthetics and Narrative

People
http://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/syllabus/

Think of your users as players
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonjohnstonn/6332963681/

http://bizfest.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/bartle.png

Design like a game

3. Test and iterate

Cheating
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cheating.JPG

Ethics and real life dangers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/6050529448/

Young drivers aged 17-24 years are at a risk of
death and injury from road crashes due to their
age and inexperience on the road.

Driver experience is an important part of driver
safety therefore it is important that Learner drivers
undertake a wide-range of practice while learning
to drive.

As of 2007, QLD Learners are required to
undertake 100 hours supervised learning practice

1. Identify the activity and gamification goals
1.1. Identify the goals and sub goals of the
context that are lacking in engagement/
motivation
1.2. Translate these goals into metrics
1.3. Work out how to measure and enforce the
metrics

• Encourage learners to spread the practice over
the entire learning period
• Practice beyond the mandated one hundred
hours have been logged
• Encourage learners to drive in a variety of
difference circumstances
Goals

•Sensing available on the devices include:
•Location, Distance Speed: GPS
•Text: Number, Letters
•Weather: Yahoo API
•Need to work on, Skills: supervisor
Sensing

2. Design the gamification experience
2.1. Understand the player
2.2. Aesthetics, Story, Technology, Mechanics

Design Challenges
• Using a phone while driving is illegal
• We don’t want to encourage dangerous driving
habits, so competitive game elements need to
be designed carefully
• Cheating could be an issue if it encourages them
to log false hours

3. Obtain feedback and iterate the design
3.1.Usability, playability, and field testing

Have you got an issue with
engagement or motivation?

Research
• Talk to users, see what they like and don’t like
about your website, or if they’re having issues at
certain points
• Surveys
• Usability studies
• Focus groups
• Interviews

Some general issues
• Getting users to sign up
• Purchasing a product
• Providing information (e.g., user profiles)
• Engaging with the website content
• Engaging with other users
• Finding specific information

Adding gamification
1. Use a gamification platform or plugin
2. Develop your own gamification solution

Gamification Platforms
•There are a range of different gamification
platforms available for websites:
•Badgeville
•Bunchball
•BigDoor
•Gamify
•Gigya
•CaptainUp

Badgeville game mechanics
• From the Badgeville website:
• Contextual Rewards
• Missions
• Social Rewards
• Advanced Point Systems
• Levels
• Context Leaderboards
• Instant Notifications

Badgeville Business Results
• From the Badgeville website:
• 50% increase in community loyalty
• 4x customer advocates
• 400% more customer reviews
• 85% increase in training completion times
• 70% increase in employee engagement
• 5x increase in social sharing

Platform benefits
• Established service
• Support
• Relatively easy to set up
• Proven results

Downfalls
• Expensive
• CaptainUp (Free to $999/month)
• One-size-fits-all
• Gamification blueprint:
• Levels
• Badges
• Leaderboards
• Points

Joomla Extension AlphaUserPoints

Joomla Extension Gamiﬁcation Platform

Platform benefits
• Free
• Easy to implement
• Extensible

Downfalls
• Support
• May not do what you need
• One-size-fits-all
• Gamification blueprint:
• Levels
• Badges
• Leaderboards
• Points

Platform benefits
• Tailored to your users and problems
• Go beyond the gamification blueprint
• Can be as small or large as you like
• Nothing out there like it

Downfalls
• Can be expensive
• Time
• Money

Wrapping it all up
• Gamification is around to stay
• More than just badges - design
it like a good game
•It’s easy, so start trying it!

http://www.meetup.com/
Brisbane-Gamification-Meetup/

•Name: Zac Fitz-Walter
•Class: PhD Candidate from QUT
•Abilities: Research, Teaching, iPhone Development
•Weaknesses: Cats and Mangoes
Zac Fitz-Walter
•Newsletter: http://gamificationweekly.com
•Web: http://zefcan.com
•Email: z.fitz-walter@qut.edu.au
•Twitter: @zefcan

A detailed introduction to gamification - Brisbane Web Design Meetup

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