gamification debate at ny tech ux
DESCRIPTION
These slides served as the basis for my position introduction in a debate on gamification at the NYTech UX event on January 8, 2014TRANSCRIPT
Marc ResnickBentley University, ProfessorUsability Solutions, Founder
[email protected]@PerformSol305-443-3765
humanfactors.blogspot.com
We have gone gamification crazy
But most implementations don’t seem to know what they are doing !
“Gartner Says by 2014, 80% of
Current Gamified Applications Will Fail to
Meet Business Objectives Primarily Due to Poor Design”
Just like a great chef can turn basic ingredients into a masterpiece
A bad chef can turn them into a trip to the emergency room
But why do we need to be chefs?
Let’s take just one ingredient . . .
Can’t we motivate everyone with pointsification . . .
Autonomy
Mastery Relatedness
Do we need to consider a few motivational dimensions . . .
Or do we need a whole language of motivation to cover it all?
Relatedness• one to one bonding with a valued
colleague• belonging to the in-group • collaboration with others towards
a common goal• competition with another to show
superiority• nurturing, family, and mentorship• (friends list)
Mastery• successes heralded in song • external validation through public
awareness of your success• internal validation because you
know of your success• (trophies and leaderboards)
Accumulation• collection of sets• (virtual goods)
Competence• physical and mental health• stability, tranquility, and absence of
anxiety• fairness and justice• idealism and honor• (badges, levels, points)
Self-expression• design part of the game world used
by others• design part of the world used by
yourself• design part of the world used by
yourself and in-group
Disruption• fight the power• white hat hacking• (scam the fools)
Let’s break motivation down into its basic components
But each user is motivated by adifferent set of motivators and in different proportions
Community
Competence
Relatedness
Status
Disruption
Mastery
Competition
Strava Cyclist Gamified Social Network
Relatedness• uses can follow anyone (like TW)• users can look for skill-matched
partners to bike with• users can compete within selected
friend group• users can join teams for aggregate
scoring• users can link to mentors for advice• there is an extensively used chat for
collaborative and trash talking• there is a strong member affinity
Mastery• time leaderboards on set segments
are listed, overall and by demo• users can list personal records
Competence• quantified self features
demonstrate extreme fitness• users can link their HR to measure
their “suffer” score• users can compete anonymously• there is an honor code to reduce
cheatingSelf-expression• users’ newly discovered routes can
be added• users have reasonably rich profiles
Disruption• groups draft one rider to jump a
time record• users can log illegal trails for others
to follow
Open Source SoftwareRelatedness• communicating with specific leading
and noted developers• belonging to the open-source
community in-group • working with other developers on
new modules• mentoring new developers as they
onboard to the community
Mastery• status as an expert developer• internal confidence emanating from
the acceptance of code contributions
Extrinsic value• paid bonuses from employer for
contributing• career advancement based on part
on contributions to code development
Competence• being a valued member of the
open source community• having personal contributions
added to the next software build• subscribing to the open source
honor code
Self-expression• expressing one’s software
development style in the code
Disruption• create free software that
competes with established corporate systems
And if we do this with:• X motivations• X player profiles• X processes to cover• X usage scenarios• X time frames
• X learning curves• X feedback mechanisms• X reward types• X customization models• X hardware and software
constraints
We get 6,423,678,124,013 possible combinations (approximately)
businessobjectives
gameelement
gamemechanic UI brain
mechanicST
behaviorgame
dynamicLT
behavior
There is a way, if you know the fundamentals
userprofiles
For Group Discussion
Strengths of Gamification• Long term engagement• Build intrinsic motivation• Focusing users on key
outcomes• White hat hackgamers
Obstacles to Gamification• Short term thinking• Contestification• Distracting users with points
and badges• Disruptors and game grinders