This document provides an overview of gamification and discusses its key elements. It defines gamification as using game mechanics and design techniques in non-game contexts to encourage desired behaviors. It then outlines the main game mechanisms used in gamification, including discovery, motivation, and sharing/collaboration. Next, it discusses important visual elements like notifications, progress bars, leaderboards, profiles and avatars. Finally, it covers common rewards systems in gamification including points, levels, badges, virtual goods and coupons.

1. Gamification
INTERACTION DESIGN
A referential book such as a handbook or manual.

2. Interaction Design: Gamification
INDEX
Overview
Game Mechanisms
Visual Elements
Rewards

3. Interaction Design: Gamification
Overview

4. Interaction Design: Gamification
Gamification is the use of game mechanics
and game design techniques in non-game
contexts.
Typically gamification applies to non-game
applications and processes, in order to
encourage people to adopt them, or to
influence how they are used.
Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by
encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path
to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a
distraction, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological
predisposition to engage in gaming.
The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they
ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling
out tax forms, or reading web sites.
Available data from gamified websites, applications and processes
indicate potential improvements in areas like user engagement, ROI,
data quality, timeliness and learning.
OVERVIEW

5. Interaction Design: Gamification
Game Mechanisms

6. Interaction Design: Gamification
The first and fundamental step is to create
and adopt a mechanism of play that defines
the relationship be- tween the users and
content and offering a fun and positive
experience with the brand.
The Discovery
The mechanics of the discovery is fun because everyone loves to
explore. Be the first to discover something can
be exciting knowing that there
are more reasons for a player to continue browsing. Earn points each
time you discover something or a badge for loyal users to visit with
more often your sites and/or applications.
Motivation
To some extent users want to become more involved with using a
website because all these incentives make sense to them and make
them feel good. As a designer, you can create a more compelling
experience by using simple incentives or game-like scenarios.
There are multiple rewards and incentives throughout the game, to keep
them focused, motivated and excited about the final outcome. In UX
design incentives take the form of badges (Foursquare), scores (Klout),
numbers reflecting popularity (Facebook, Twitter) and usage (Digg),
memberships and experience related symbols or tags (pro, new user).
Sharing and Collaboration
Since prehistoric time, man has always clustered in tribes since relation-
ships with other individuals and active participation in the groups
produces a high degree of satisfaction the human nature.
The active participation of the user in the collaboration process
becomes a strategic choice for every brand.
GAME MECHANISMS

7. Interaction Design: Gamification
Visual Elements

8. Interaction Design: Gamification
The visual elements are part of the
Gamification ecosystem. The audience
aspect these specific of visual elements in
any game mechanism world:.
Notifications objects
The object provides instant feedback for user actions thus involvement
in- creases dramatically. The Notifier informs the user about the points
and badges earned, levels that he/she has reached and all other
information important to the users. The user chooses which informa-
tion to receive and how often to receive it.
Progress Bar
The progress-bar is a simple concept in the process of determining the
gamification. The instant feedback provided by the progress bar
visually motivates the user to complete activities despite of the time that
these require.
Leaderboard
The Leader-board al- lows users to confront each other and create
competition. The Lead- erboard normally includes a variety of formats,
comparing only friends, users of any platform or users who share a
relationship with the player (usually people in proximity to the player)
Profile
The user profile is the “home” user. View the details of his identity, his
badge and more information relevant to show in his stats.
Social
Sharing and invite friends in the same game environment.
Avatar
An avatar is a visual repre- sentation of the player. The avatar can be a
simply picture (like Face- book) or a more structured. Giving a face to a
player is a key factor in engaging with others.
VISUAL ELEMENTS

9. Interaction Design: Gamification
Rewards

10. Interaction Design: Gamification
The reward system is the last element to
close the Gamification process circle. The
aspected form of rewards are:
Points
Points are a reward for players who purchase through ac- tions and are
allocated according to the player’s achievement. Rewarding a player
with more points for specific actions is a method to influence the actions
of the user. The definition of points is one of the first things to do in the
project preparation.
Levels
The levels represent a method for players to show their status and
seniority in a community. The players are motivated to hear what action
they need in the game to earn points necessary to advance the level
and unlock new benefits.
Badges
Badges are the motivation for unlocking and completing cer- tain
actions. The easiness or the difficulty to earn badges are not relevant
but become an attraction to share with friends.
Virtual goods
The virtual goods prizes are virtual or “accessories” for the avatar.
These items add depth to the project and motivate people to socialize
and express themselves. The virtual prizes in the process of
gamifcation can be added late.
Coupons
The Coupons are a sort of special prize for the player’s achievement
and emphasize the connection between the user and the brand.
REWARDS

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Thank you.
Author: Mirco Pasqualini, April 2014