Getting Gamification Right: 22 Best Practices

Getting Gamification Right: 22 Best Practices

1. Clearly identify goals before diving in

   • Thining carefully about the desired outcomes
   • The definitions of succes will vary among organizations

2. Tie gamification to business needs

   • Business needs
     • Training and learning initiatives
     • Should be drive positive change
       • Leverage gamification
         • To help achieve those goals

3. Understand the psychology

   • It's rooted in prinicipal cognitive psychology
     • Spaced retrieval and retrieval practice
   • Delivered in small chunks that are repeated over spaced intervals of time
     • Improve the acquisition and retention of knowledge

4. Keep the game design simple

   • The process of scoring and wining
     • Should be transparent
   • Provide a tutorial level or link
     • To assit confused leaners

5. Leaderboards play an important role

   • Bestow a sense of status
     • Allow users to compare themselves to others players
     • Must display the behaviors and activities
       • The most important to reaching goals

6. But beware of leaderboard limitations

   • Can also be demotivating
     • Players discouraged or demoralized
   • Structuring by departments or territor in order
     • Allow to contribute to company goals

7. Permit personalization

   • Companies are advised to allow workers
     • Engages users and encourages them to personalize their experience
       • Permitting learners to create
       • Provides the anonymity

8. Encourage the freedom to fail

   • Game-based learning, failure is viewed favorably
   • Failing at a game allows
     • To continually review information
     • To continually review information
     • Can motivate to
       • Rethink existing methodologies
       • Reevaluate their approach
       • Attempt a new or different approach

9. Build in countinuos feedback

   • Should provide continuous feedback
     • message of heading in the correct direction
   • Breaking the story arc into small achievable units
     • Employing game levels
     • Other progress mechanics

10. Add elements to delight or surprise users

    • Prevent boredom
      • By varying the length, difficulty, and completion time of the challenges
    • Add unexpected elements to the game design
      • Come unannounced rewards
      • Ability to gift points

11. Distinguish between levels and badges

    • There are key differences
      • Designers should be aware
    • Levels allows to build a training curriculum
    • Learner must complete level and unlock the following
      • Begin by short and easy levels in order

12. Create an initial buzz

    • It's crucial to get word out and get employees on board
    • Marketing department can help to make excitement
      • Promote the launch
        • Social media
        • Personalized email
        • Text notifications

13. Use it as a management tool

    • It's like a fitness tracker for work
    • Tracks relevant key performance indicators (KPIs)
      • Displays real-time data
        • Employees and management can harness
        • Providing a running snapshot of past and present performance

14. It is just one part of the L&D toolkit

    • It should just be part of the mix
    • Organizations have the most success
      • When games are part of a larger, blended curriculum or strategy

15. Different strokes for different folks

    • Can be divided into 6 categories
      • Socializers
      • Free Spirits
      • Achievers
      • Players
      • Philanthropists
      • Disruptors

16. Get Social

    • Games tend to be social experiences
    • Building a community around the solution
    • Encourage users to exchange thoughts and experiences
      • Where can interact and acknowledge the achievements

17. Monitor the system for abuse

    • It's an unfortunate yet inevitable truth
      • After platform has been released
        • Smart employees uncover ways to cheat the system
    • How to prevent
      • Use the backend dashboards to monitor the system
      • Flag and investigate anything that seems out of the ordinary
      • The system should also be monitored
        • To identify employees disengages
        • Seem to have lost interest

18. Extrinsic vs Intrinsic

    • Rewards for completing challenges
      • Generally come in cash or merchandise
      • Companies should know that the prizes don't have to be large
    • Intrinsic rewards are internal
      • Drive individuals to take personal pride

19. Be on point with points

    • Not everything is equal
      • Keep in mind when assigning points to actions
    • Points always means something
      • Require herculean effort receive a compensatory amount of points
    • Assign points in a fair and consistent manner

20. Leverage itthoughout the employee life cycle

    • Can be applied in a wide variety of ways
    • Firms are turning to gamification for everything
    • Can be particularly effective as a recruitment tool

21. Requiere participation

    • Companies make gamification initiatives voluntary
      • Hope the games or extrinsic prizes will be enticing to promote particiaption into workers
    • Employee time is limited

22. Keep it fresh

    • Keep learners engaged
    • Add levels and badges
      • Have something new to strive for
      • Limited-edition badges