Gamification: Story, definition and methodology

‍Por Omer Paz

If you work with digital products, at some point in time you might have heard the word “gamification” and the value that this might add to your products and experiences.
Recently, we faced a work challenge where we understood that gamification could be a fundamental key to achieving business objectives and a better user experience. However, “play” is still a word that causes trust issues in clients.

Throughout this process, I came to realize the stigmas that still exists when it comes to games. For example, how we consider the word “play” an antonym for “work”, and “work” a synonym of “boredom”. We also keep relating games with kids or immature people, and don’t yet understand how powerful this tool can be.

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But first, lets have a brief introduction into gaming:

‍Games have accompanied humanity for many years, we as people have the need to play since the beginning of time, and this doesn’t seem like it will change anytime soon. The oldest game ever known was the "Senet", a boardgame that Egyptians practiced, and which rules are currently unknown. Man has innovated gaming tools throughout history, from the invention of dice, which have been around for over 3.000 years, following Domino which is 2.900 years old, up until Chess strategies, to cards, and lastly videogames.

Electronic games first appeared in the US long before the invention of the computer, back in 1950. These games were played exclusively by engineers or people within the area of electronic development, since the hardware was extremely expensive and never saw the light of public. Contrary to popular belief, Atari was not the first video game console. It was, in fact, the Magnabox Odyssey, made in 1978. From then on, videogames turned out to be so popular that we’ve all played one at least once in our life.

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Gamification could be a fundamental key to achieving business objectives and a better user experience.

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Gamification, the art of adding game elements to an experience

‍Now, what is gamification? Gamification is the art of adding game elements to an experience that would, otherwise, not involve games or fun. That’s not to say that we, as designers, are going to trivialize or not take things seriously on a business strategy. On the contrary, the idea is to make these important subjects even more interesting for the user.

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How can we do that? There still isn’t a perfect recipe to achieve this, since it is a fairly new discipline. However, there is a methodology developed by Janaki Kumar and Mario Herger called "Player-Centered Design" that basically consists of the following points:

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1. Know your player
2. Identify your mission
3. Understand human or user motivation
4. Apply the three M’s (manage, monitor and measure)

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Now that we understand the basic concept and methodology, we can start by debunking some myths.