What is it?

Gamification is the process of using game-like elements in a non-game context to achieve a goal.  

The idea is to use fun game elements like competition, rewards, achievements, and progress tracking in education, marketing, and employee training.

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Why use it?

Well, gamification increases user engagement, boosts motivation, fosters learning, and encourages desired behaviours.  

Let’s go back to our example of LinkedIn progress nudging. Every time you complete a stage in your profile, you are congratulated and feel a sense of achievement. Then, LinkedIn regularly reminds you to complete your profile so that you can get the desired outcome: being noticed by potential employers or employees. This motivates you to complete your profile and before you know it, you’re done!  

What would normally be a tedious task (I mean, nobody likes spending hours filling out profile details), becomes fun and engaging.

You see, gamification uses our natural love for winning, competition and being acknowledged to make us more engaged and perform better.  

In fact, research shows that gamification aligns with the brain's functions, triggering the release of dopamine, which boosts motivation and pleasure in players.

Gamification in Education

“If employers can find a way to make work feel like a fun game, they can increase their employees’ ability to learn new skills by 40%” - Gabe Zichermann, founder and CEO of Gamification.Co

It’s a known fact that we learn best when we are also having fun. We also learn best when we have goals, targets and achievements to reach – just like in an epic adventure game.

Now this is the backdrop to which gamification is applied. To progress, we need to develop our capacity; to increase our knowledge. But with such a short attention span, that’s becoming shorter still, we need to apply radical methods to encourage learning and retention.

Gamification ‘makes the hard stuff more fun’, which motivates learners and makes them more engaged with the subject matter.

How can we use it?

According to Yu-kai Chou, an entrepreneur and experience designer, to gamify something successfully, it must connect with one (or more) of 8 core motivations that drive people:

Chou calls it the Octalysis framework which he outlines in his book Actionable Gamification. Summarised, it says when a gamified activity taps into one of these human instincts, it will feel like playing an engaging video game.

We will take a deeper look into Chou’s Octalysis Framework in part 2 of this gamification series. For now, let’s look at an example of how gamification can be applied to learning.

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An example of gamification in Learning

Let’s say you want to learn a language to beef up your resume. Learning a language can be hard because it challenges your mind to learn new things and takes a lot of time and practice to master.

But, if the learning process has gaming elements, you can achieve your learning goals in an enjoyable, and less tedious way.

Duolingo language app is one example of gamified learning.

First, it allows you to set your daily target. So, you can choose the amount of time you want to spend learning the language every day.  

Say you want to learn beginner’s Spanish; it teaches you simple words using colourful flash cards. And for every correct answer, you are congratulated! (Development and accomplishment)

Then as you progress through the lesson, you can see how far you have come and how much more you must learn. The more the progress bar fills up, the more you want to complete this level (get closer to your goal)

Also, you will be attentive in the lesson, because while you start with 5 hearts, each mistake costs you a heart. It’s sort of like losing a life in a game - and nobody wants that (loss and avoidance).

Before you know it, you’ve completed the lesson for the day and have earned points which you will add up to your total at the end of the level. It hardly felt like a lesson, but you came out of the lesson with basic Spanish vocabulary.

In conclusion

Gamification works because it evokes strong human emotions like happiness, excitement, and accomplishment. Many companies and brands worldwide are using gamification with fantastic results.

Read Gamification: Octalysis Framework to understand more about how we can use gamification to bring out the desired result to our customers and learners.

Further reading:

Gamification in Education: It’s Time Education Leveled Up [Infographic] (takelessons.com)

Gamification in Education: What is it & How Can You Use It? | True Education Partnerships

Gamification For Learning: Strategies And Examples - eLearning Industry

'Gamification' Techniques Increase Your Employees Ability to Learn by 40% (businessinsider.com)

Gamification: What It Is and How It Works (With 8 Examples) | Built In

Average Human Attention Span By Age (Statistics) (totalcareaba.com)

Gamification Education - Octalysis Framework