Points, levels, badges, challenges, and leaderboards oh my!

Having played games much of my life, I’ve thought their function was to entertain us (although education is also possible).

Whatever the purpose is, one has to acknowledge that people enjoy interacting with systems and routines that challenge and reward them. From this psychological perspective then, there are lessons to be learned from game theory and mechanics, which can be applied to marketing, behavior change, and interaction design.

In reading Gamification by Design, the authors do a great job describing various types of games people play, motivations that keep them engaged, and how to employ tactics for doing so. In 109 pages (core topics) it’s an excellent primer that will help dispel many myths and biases against using game techniques.

Note: O’Reilly Media offered me a review copy of this book. While it was enjoyable, I recommend buying it from Amazon at $12 from 3rd party resellers. Alternatively, someone told me that Gabe’s other book, Game-Based Marketing, was a great book. So that may be of more interest to you.

For those of you who don’t care to explicitly make a game someday with such prominent features like points and badges, I still recommend reading and keeping it around for reference. For those very interested in gaming however, this book will be lite-fare, introductory material.

The more we can imagine ourselves as participants in designed interactions, the better we can build and adapt them for long term use and effectiveness. As an excellent complement, I suggest reading Emotional Design by Donald Norman.

Nathan is one gent that I take inspiration from for bringing together complex big subjects and distilling them down into categorized topical hierarchies, frameworks, insights, case studies, and strategies. Here he tackles systems thinking and resilience…

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Having met Donald at a recent BarCamp NYC unconference, I was intently listening to the presentation he gave and am delighted to be able to share his slides online.

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Great ideas from the “man” himself…

“William McDonough needs no introduction for anyone with an interest in environmental design: he’s been exploring sustainability through architectural practice for some twenty years now, and his insights are more relevant than ever. In this edition of Sustainability in 7, Bill discusses the notion of “Cradle to Cradle,” covering everything from reversing entropy to butterfly hatcheries.”

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Great interview with a luminary…

“How to introduce one of the most influential designers of the 20th century–one whose clear visual language has not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of design’s potential and function?
‘Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams’ book”
gestalten.com/​books/​detail?id=ceafb21a24b0f7bc01250bc3ef290067

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Renowned scientist and the author of Biomimicry, Janine Benyus speaks about the topic in 7 key ideas along with questions like, “How does a peacock feather inform new display screens? How do we use mother nature’s polymer architecture to think about new materials?”

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I like the design. Here’s quick draw summary from the press release. The video below says it better though

“The introduction of PUMA’s innovative packaging and distribution system will reduce the paper used for shoeboxes by 65% and carbon emissions by 10,000 tons per year — the remaining packaging materials used will be fully sustainable by 2015. PUMA partnered with designer Yves Béhar, of San Francisco based fuseproject, to rethink the way the millions of pairs of shoes that it sells each year are packaged…”

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So earlier this month, I attended the MFA Interaction Design Festival, which showcased Masters of Fine Arts student theses projects at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. In all, I was taken away by the high amount of humanistic ideas put forward by the students. This post covers the first of four themes: Discovery.

Orbit

Clint Beharry gave us Orbit, “an application for researchers to explore the universe of their data and discover new ideas. Most research apps today are built around boring spreadsheets and lists, with no engaging exploration of data, and no support for creative ideation. Theorizing beyond those constraints, Orbit renders an immersive 3D planetary system based on your research websites, videos, images, and documents. Exploring the planets of media reveals content similarities and differences, potentially sparking new ideas in your research.”

Visit the link to see how the solar system looked like. Neat thing was wearing these 3d glasses to see it all in action.

Postgeist

Kristin Gräfe explained her app as follows. “The large amount of digital data we leave behind can possibly exist for eternity, raising questions of curation, ownership and storage. With “Postgeist” the user is collecting a digital legacy to bequeath material and immaterial things to their family and close friends to create long-lasting memories. The heirs are encouraged to explore those pictures, thoughts and stories through objects, place and time. A digital legacy will be built and becomes a bridge to connect family generations over time.”

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Hobnobber

Angela Huang presented Hobnobber as “a service that encourages individuals who acknowledge shyness and social anxiety to practice social skills by experiencing face to face social situations. Individuals can choose from levels of social activities to complete on location, at events, or anywhere they feel comfortable. They will be notify by Hobnobber when practice opportunities arise. By self-reporting, individuals can also track their progress and receive rewards. Mostly, the system helps them with actionable goals and making small improvements on weekly bases. Upon accomplishing these activities, they may be more confident and comfortable in offline setting.”

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This one showed us the potential that therapy-oriented interactive mobile software can have. That market is freakin’ HUGE! Whether for substance abuse, couples therapy, or DSM (mental disorders), mobile applications that provide educational material, guidance, games, and more for personal use or in conjunction with a specialist, can be super beneficial and make a LOT of money for the publishers.

Story Forest

Gene Lu‘s application allows users to turn their city “into a forest of experiences by sharing and replaying your memories where they were made.” Features & benefits include: Record photos, text messages, and audio; Immersive, location-based storytelling; Tag your family and friends.

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When it comes to sustainable materials, Andrew knows what to ask and look for. In this video, he provides us 7 key ideas for a balanced consideration of a product design or process.

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To rehearse:

1. Transparency & Honesty – Knowing yourself and being honest with others is the only way to progress forward.
2. Biopolymers – In an ideal world they’d be ubiquitous. Utilize them where their performance, cost, and system effects can warrant them.
3. Rethink Waste – Look for non-virgin material inputs and consider how manufacturing waste can be reused, repurposed, or sold.
4. Ask Nature – Efficiency and zero waste is nature’s modus operandi. Ask “what would nature do?”
5. Quantification – Only a Life Cycle Assessment will tell you what the lowest eco-impact on different indicators will be. Use it where possible.
6. Integrate into your Entire Process – To save the most money and generate the best product concept, start early.
   
7. Never Assume – Don’t judge a product or material by its properties or form, and don’t trust what a manufacturer says it is. Think for yourself based on knowledge and sound judgment.

An interesting subject emerging over the last couple years in therapy and behavior change is Games. Whether we’re talking any range of them based on skills, intellect, or chance, good ones keep people engaged and interested. And these last two user states is what we marketers love! So, there are definitely elements of game play that can be deployed throughout the user experience design of products and services.

Can you imagine perhaps how banks could reward you with points for certain behaviors you’ve taken, that may also be in their interest? I think in subtle ways, games can be all around us. But just like in product development, most will fail. A few will succeed. And since brands’ business isn’t in selling games, their incentive to trial, measure, and improve will be low.

So I found this neat presentation about this subject by a gent I follow on Twitter, shown below. Next week I’ll be at a meetup regarding this topic as well, and hope to bring back some neat insights.

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