Gamification

Gamification is successfully used worldwide by companies and governments for training and marketing purposes, to stimulate innovation or change behaviour. The British gamification agency Growth Engineering recently published that the total gamification market will increase by more than 20 trillion dollars in 2025 compared to 2021. It is not surprising when you consider that gamification appears everywhere in our daily lives. For example, think of speedometers that show a smiley when you drive safely. But what is gamification? And why is it so popular? In this session Manon Beurskens explains how game mechanics work and what effect they have on our brain. She uses practical examples to show which goals you can use gamification for. And she teaches you how to work with game scientist Yu-Kai Chou's Octalysis Framework. After this session you will understand why gamification is a technique, not a game. And you can immediately put your first learnings into practice.

During the expert session, Manon Beurskens explores the concept of gamification and its application in various tools through interactive methods. She engages the audience with real-life cases like Toyota's "Glass of Water" app and LinkedIn, using Q&A sessions and live demonstrations to clarify objectives (game, organizational, and player) and their interplay. Manon employs Mentimeter for an exercise where participants guess the game tool in LinkedIn based on its objectives.

• Harnessing the Power of Gamification: Discovering how tools like Toyota's "Glass of Water" app and LinkedIn use game elements to engage players and achieve organizational goals is crucial for effective application in various contexts.
• Motivating Users through Gamification: Understanding the role of ownership, empowerment, social pressure, meaning, and accomplishment as motivation triggers in gamified tools can lead to successful user engagement and achievement of both player and organizational objectives.
• Intrinsically Engaging Users with Gamification: Emphasizing the importance of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, such as empowerment, social pressure, and meaning, in creating effective gamification experiences that sustain long-term engagement.

In this expert session, Manon Beurskens delves into the intriguing subject of gamification and its impact on various tools, using Toyota's "Glass of Water" application and LinkedIn as examples. The discussion revolves around the interplay between game objectives, organizational objectives, and player objectives.

 

Manon begins by exploring the concept of Toyota's "Glass of Water" app, where the game objective is to keep water in the glass without spilling it. However, the real value lies in its organizational objective - promoting eco-friendly driving behaviors - and the player objective, which could range from competitiveness to task completion. These objectives work synergistically; as players achieve their personal goals, Toyota's goal is simultaneously met.

The conversation then shifts to LinkedIn, a professional networking platform with game elements such as notifications and social rewards. Manon asks the audience to identify its hidden game objective. Although the specific objectives for LinkedIn aren't explicitly stated, it's clear that people collect connections (player objective) to achieve status and be part of larger groups, which is essential to their motivation to use the platform.

 

Manon proceeds to discuss the significance of gamification in engaging players to accomplish organizational goals. By incorporating game elements like competition or progression, organizations can successfully motivate players, leading to a win-win situation. Toyota's "Glass of Water" app and LinkedIn are prime examples of this concept.

 

Manon shares an insightful case study from a Toronto hospital that employed gamification through the Pain Squad Mobile app to encourage children to keep pain journals. The app allowed children to report their pain levels and earn badges as rewards, creating a sense of ownership, accomplishment, and social pressure. This approach was effective in encouraging children to engage with the tool, helping healthcare professionals better understand and address their patients' pain needs.

Five motivation drivers were identified from this study: ownership, empowerment, total pressure, meaning, and accomplishment and social pressure. The game mechanics that primarily triggered these motivators were control over the reporting process (ownership), rewards (accomplishment), social interaction with other users (social pressure), and being part of a squad working together to manage pain (meaning).

 

Manon emphasizes the importance of understanding motivation triggers in gamification. She explains that emotions, associations, creativity, and rational thinking are influenced by both sides of a tool - the emotional/creative right side and the logical/rational left side. In games, extrinsic motivators like accomplishment, points, badges, and leaderboards often drive external motivation. However, removing these triggers can result in losing motivation. Instead, focusing on intrinsic motivators such as empowerment, social pressure, and meaning is essential for sustained engagement.

 

Manon concludes her presentation by sharing a case study using the OPAALIS model to illustrate gamification's application in various contexts - learning skills, marketing, experimenting, and innovating. 
 

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