Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards
When stakeholders hear the term “gamification,” the first thing that usually comes to mind is points, badges, and leaderboards. And to be fair, they aren’t wrong—those elements are aspects of gamification. However, it’s so much more than that. The true potential of gamification lies in its ability to motivate users to achieve their goals. I’ve found that Yu-kai Chou’s approach, as discussed in Actionable Gamification, of tying gamified elements to core user drives—such as empowerment, social influence, and accomplishment—is what truly makes a gamified solution successful.
The Film List Case Study
Let’s dive into an app and see how I utilize gamification to drive business outcomes while also enhancing the customer experience. For this example, we’ll look at The Film List, a social app centered around movies. The app offers both free and premium versions that members can sign up for. The premium version includes additional social features, as well as tools that help members curate their own film watchlists, among other benefits.
The Business Problem
Every business has goals, and achieving those goals requires intentional actions—whether through marketing campaigns, new features, or branding strategies. Before planning a gamification strategy, it’s important for me as a designer to understand the desired business outcomes as well as the product expectations. This is a critical step, and clear communication between stakeholders is essential, as the direction and path taken depend on a shared understanding of these expectations and outcomes.
Traditional (non-gamified) Solution
If a product trio (product manager, tech lead, and designer) were given the above business outcome, it’s easy for the team to default to common marketing or product strategies to achieve their goals. While these strategies have their place in relation to the product, they are sometimes limited in effectiveness and don’t always engage users’ core drives to motivate them to take the desired action or accomplish their goals. I often see teams implement these strategies only to find that not only did their key metrics fail to move in a positive direction, but they also ended up degrading the overall user experience in favor of trying to achieve business outcomes.
Tutorial Videos
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with “getting started” or product tutorial videos—they definitely have a place in the product ecosystem. However, my caution against relying on this strategy for retention is that if your product requires users to watch a set of videos to understand how to use it, it’s probably too complicated or inherently not motivating enough to use in the first place.
If you must include tutorial videos, I suggest pairing them with a Daily Quest concept to give users a sense of accomplishment and empowerment. This structure could then be tied to a points-based reward system to further motivate users.
Marketing Emails
I never shy away from a good email, but I never rely on it to drive any product-related business outcomes. People today are inundated with emails and will likely treat yours as just another sales pitch—which, in essence, it is. While an email campaign might capture a few extra premium purchases, it won’t have a lasting impact on the product itself. It’s a quick lever to pull but doesn’t benefit the product in the long term.
Emails should be used sparingly and only to relay valuable information with the intention of driving users back to your product, where they’ll find so much value that they can’t help but return on their own, without prompting.
Locked Features
The infamous paywall. I love dashboards in products, but I’m very cautious about turning them into giant advertising billboards. There’s nothing wrong with highlighting a premium feature to a user if that feature will genuinely benefit them at their current stage in your product journey. What you want to avoid is making your dashboard feel unusable if every tile or feature is behind a paywall. If a user is on the fence, turning the dashboard into an unskippable ad might not be the best way to win them over.
An alternative is to make most features available to the user, with the premium version enhancing these features to help them achieve their goals faster or make their experience so enjoyable that they can’t resist paying for the added benefits.
A Gamified Approach
When I take a gamified approach, I always consider how the feature or element I’m adding ties back to at least one of the user’s core drives. I might connect to their sense of epic meaning and calling or tap into their creativity and empowerment. By intentionally targeting these drives or emotions, I can ensure that the feature aligns with the end-to-end journey and complements the other features or game mechanics already incorporated into the product. There are no limits to what can be achieved with gamification within a product. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the element being added should motivate the user to achieve their goals. If the business aligns its goals with the user’s goals, and the gamified element helps the user achieve those goals, everyone wins.
Empowerment- Points Boosters
Utilizing a points reward system in your product is a go-to solution for retaining customer engagement. However, implementing a points system alone won’t inherently retain users. I try to pair it with other strategies to make it more effective. For example, tying a premium booster to an existing points system allows free users to continue earning points for desired actions or tasks within the product, while also giving users the opportunity to enhance a feature they find valuable and motivating.
Social Influence- Daily Polls
While having a daily poll might not directly encourage users to upgrade to a premium version of the product, it does add daily social value. This feature gives members a chance to share their opinions with a community of like-minded people. It also introduces a sense of unpredictability, with a new poll each day, which piques users’ curiosity and encourages them to return to the app. This type of feature seeks to address several core drives, such as social influence, unpredictability, and curiosity
Epic Meaning- Status Tiers
Status tiers can be used in many different ways within a product. Completing a list of daily or weekly tasks can help members move up the tiers, or points can be associated with reaching certain status levels. This type of leveling-up system provides an opportunity to implement a rewards structure, where users are rewarded for achieving certain tiered statuses. This also lends itself to a high degree of social influence. The status can be displayed to other members, allowing users to share their accomplishments with others.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, any feature or solution can become a gamified element. It all depends on how it’s implemented and whether it engages at least one of the user’s core drives. Motivation is the name of the game. Keeping the user experience front of mind when ideating solutions and implementing them in a gamified way is not only a win for users but for the business as well.