Gamification
Using game design elements (points, levels, challenges, leaderboards) in something that isn’t a game, so it gets used more or more eagerly.
What problem it addresses
Explains why so many language, fitness or work apps have points and streaks, and why they don’t always work.
An example
The same task list for a course, presented in two ways.
Game elements are added, but the task doesn’t become a game. That is why the effect depends on the task and on who does it.
Why it happens
Points and levels make progress visible;
challenges and leaderboards add a goal and a comparison,
and that can encourage people to keep going if the goal matters to the person and isn’t just novelty.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Make progress visible in something people already want to achieve.
Avoid
Adding points and badges to a task that gives nothing to the person doing it.
Don’t fall for it
Measure beyond the first few weeks: part of the effect may be just novelty.
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What the research says
Among the studies with statistical tests, only those found positive effects on everything they measured; the other 13, only partly (Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa, 2014).
Debated evidence. A review of 24 studies. The effects depended on the context and the people, and part of them could be due to novelty.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2011
Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, Rilla Khaled and Lennart Nacke
Defined it as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.
- 2014
Juho Hamari, Jonna Koivisto and Harri Sarsa
Reviewed 24 studies: gamification had positive effects, but they depended heavily on the context and on who used it.
Sources
Original sources
- Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining “gamification”. In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference (pp. 9–15). ACM. View source: Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011)
Academic reviews
- Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). Does gamification work? A literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE. View source: Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014)
Last reviewed: