A Practical Approach to Gamification Design

The goal of gamification design is not to transform a user interface into a game. Instead, it's a potent tool for transforming a product from a function-focused to a human-focused design.

Gamification improves learner engagement and information retention in the classroom. And for motivating personnel to finish time-consuming activities or training. Gamification is also used to engage consumers and inspire loyalty in inbound marketing methods.

What exactly is gamification in UX design? We'll break down it all and show you how to leverage gamification to improve user experience with a killer product.

What is Gamification?

The primary goal of Gamification is to integrate work and fun. Gamification can be used to make any non-game perspective more attractive. In layman's terms, gamification is the integration of the current framework with game mechanics.

Essentially, it is taking key elements of games such as design, action or activity, fun, and competition and trying to apply them through gameplay mechanics such as points, badges, and leaderboards.

Gamification in user experience design blends a user-centric mindset with advanced game design. Gamification features are woven into productive activities to push users to complete expected actions. While yet offering a valuable user experience.

Principles Of Design In Gamification

People act in certain ways for a purpose. You can design a successful product if you grasp the "Why" behind their behaviors. Yu-Kai Chou spent ten years developing the Octalysis framework and discovered eight key human urges that encourage people to engage in activities.

The octalysis architecture is built around the eight CORE drivers.

Everything you do in a game is predicated on these eight drivers, which means that if none of these drivers are present, there is no incentive and no behavior occurs.

Significance and Goals

When a person feels they are accomplishing something bigger than themselves, this desire is activated. People investing a significant amount of their time in writing for Wikipedia are an example of this. We know these folks aren't just contributing to Wikipedia to make money or to pad their resumes. They do this because they think that they are defending humanity's knowledge, which is far larger than themselves.

Development and Accomplishment

Development & Accomplishment is the internal motivation for advancement, skill development, mastery, and finally conquering hurdles. It's worth noting that a badge or prize without a challenge is meaningless. This is also the easiest basic motivation to design for, and it is where the bulk of PBLs (Project-Based Learning): points, badges, and leaderboards mostly focus.

Rewards and Creativity

It manifests itself when people are engaged in a creative process in which they continuously figure out new things and experiment with alternative combinations. People require not only means to express their creativity, but also ways to observe the effects of their creativity, receive feedback, and modify accordingly.

Ownership and Possession

Users are driven by ownership and possession when they believe that they own or control something. When a person feels ownership over something, they are compelled to expand and develop it. Furthermore, if a person spends a significant amount of time personalizing their profile or image, they instantly feel more ownership over it.

Social Influence and Connection

The social influence and relatedness factor include all of the social components that inspire people, such as mentorship, social approval, social feedback, friendship, and even competitiveness or envy.

When you see a buddy who excels in talent or possesses something remarkable, you are inspired to do the same. This is further demonstrated by how we naturally gravitate toward people, places, or events to whom we can relate.

If you see a product that reminds you of your youth, your likelihood of purchasing the thing increases.

Scarcity and Impatience

Scarcity and impatience are the primary motivators for wanting something because it is exceedingly uncommon, exclusive, or instantly unattainable.

Facebook made good use of this motivation when it originally launched: it was initially limited to Harvard students, then expanded to a few other renowned institutions, and then to all the colleges. When it was ultimately available to everyone, many individuals wanted to join just because they couldn't do it before.

Avoidance and Loss

This should come as no surprise; it is the urge to prevent anything bad from happening. On a smaller scale, it may be to prevent losing earlier work or to change one's habit. On a bigger scale, it may be to avoid recognizing that all you've done up to this point has been futile since you're leaving.

Also, individuals employ this heavily when chances are passing away since they believe that if they do not move promptly, they will lose the opportunity to act forever (e.g., "Special offer for a short time only!").

What are White Hat and Black Hat in Gamification Design?

A white hat driver gives individuals a sense of power, control, and well-being, but there is no sense of hurry. We want to do these things. We believe that if we put in the effort, we will be rewarded.

A black hat driver, on the other hand, makes us feel urgent, obsessive, and even hooked, but in the long term, it leaves a foul taste in your mouth since you no longer feel in control of your conduct.

Core urges are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. Each provides a distinct function and balances the other. However, for long-term product engagements, it is critical to concentrate on white-hat core drivers. However, this creative flexibility is granted against a backdrop of events that necessitate haste (black hat).

If you just employ White Hat approaches while the user is frequently exposed to Black Hat stimuli from other sources, such as email, appointments, or Facebook diversions, the user will most likely not be able to test out the experience.

Of course, this user will feel bad as well, because they will continue to postpone rather than do things that are more significant and make them feel better. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Black Hat's motivation, they will continue to behave in this manner.

You may begin to examine and forecast the strengths and duration of any incentive system if you understand White Hat and Black Hat game design. If there are no Black Hat strategies, there will most likely be no breakout success; if there are no White Hat approaches, users will rapidly burn out and go on to something better.

Understanding the balance between primary motivations and the possibility of user burnout for a UX designer is critical in designing a long-lasting application.