Tuesday, October 09, 2018

Actionable Gamification

I have a new favourite book - Actionable Gamification - Beyond Points, Badges, Leaderboards and Reviews by Yu-Kai Chou.  It may be of interest mostly to me because I am in the process of implementing some of this in a business.

I have been interested in gamification for a while.  In 2008, I was granted a patent on it.

According to Chou.  "Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and engaging elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities. This process is what I call “Human-Focused Design,” as opposed to “Function-Focused Design.” It’s a design process that optimizes for human motivation in a system, as opposed to pure efficiency."

Actionable Gamification speaks of 8 types of gamification (bolded here).  Not all gamification needs all 8.  4 of the 8 are positive but 4 can be bad if not used for the right purpose.  Speaking of purpose - that is the first type of gamification - purpose or meaning

I am a Fitbit user.  Fitbit is a gamified experience.  It starts with purpose - to stay in shape or be healthy.  It also uses some of the other gamification types like social influence.  I am connected to friends so can compete and see what others do.  It also uses accomplishment and empowerment.

I am an Aeroplan member.  It is somewhat gamified.   I am close to 1,000,000 miles.  This appeals to scarcity.  I like the perk of lounge access and being able to get my luggage in first so have some loyalty if all else is equal.

I have a game I sometimes play when trying to get through "volume" work like clearing emails, cleaning, etc.  I estimate the time to complete and try to beat it.  A simple To Do list can be a type of game.

I am thinking about how to get more from life with gamification.   It suits one of the rules in time management around procrastination.  Add reward to a task you want to get done.  With gamification, the reward can be as simple as logging completion or completing a list of items.