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Comment by Robert Zlokower on January 31, 2012 at 16:17

So do you think Gamification is one of the hot trends to keep an eye on in the design industry in 2012?

Comment by Graham Hill on September 12, 2011 at 7:56

The Business of Social Media Beyond Web 2.0

Design Thinking Gamification for Accelerating Innovation

Teaching design thinking through gamification

Design Ethnography is a discipline which teaches you how to observe what people do in order to identify hidden needs for which you can design new solutions. It’s one of a group of skills that have never been part of the early educational curriculum before. Recent experiments in imparting these skills using “game dynamics” show that it’s astonishingly easy to quickly turn places where learning motivation is often almost unattainable into a hive of surprisingly self-motivated promising design-thinking innovators.

Mickey McManus is president, CEO, and principal of MAYA Design, Inc. He shares examples of STEM SEL Design Thinking in the video.

... read the blog post and watch the videos to see how gamification can help you get the message out about design thinking...

Comment by Graham Hill on September 11, 2011 at 15:33

UX Magazine

A Gamification Framework for Interaction Designers

By Audrey Crane

Gamification is a hot topic. Missed it? On Google Trends it first appeared as a blip in late October 2010 and then took off in January so quickly that it appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition in March. Investors seem interested, and it already has a sold-out conference and a fast-growing list of agencies that will help you “do gamification.” You can even join a quest to become a gamification expert.

As I dove into some reading, a framework emerged that helped me understand gamification generally, and also specifically how (or whether!) to think about it in relationship to projects I’m working on at the moment. This framework also helped to put all the examples and criticisms into a context I could get my head around.

...Isn't it time you understood what gamification could do for our customer experience?...

Comment by Graham Hill on June 12, 2011 at 9:31

Beyond Gamification: 7 Core Concepts to Create Compelling Products

by Amy Jo Kim

Games are infiltrating every aspect of daily life. Early-on, “gamification” meant adding simple game mechanics like points, badges and leaderboards to websites and apps. But that’s not what makes games truly compelling. Good games take players on a journey, giving them something the learn and master. Smart companies are creating game-like digital systems that shape real-world behavior, using a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In this short talk, Amy Jo Kim cover 7 Core Concepts for Smart Gamification, and learn to “think like game designers” so you can develop more engaging products and services.

The 7 Core Concepts:

1. Know who’s playing – design for their social style
2. Build a system that’s easy to learn and hard to master
3. Build fun/pleasure/satisfaction into your core activity loop
4. Use Progress Mechanics to “light the way” towards learning and mastery
5. Design for Onboarding, Habit-Building, and Elder Game
6. As players progress, unlock greater challenges, customization and privileges
7. Give players real power via stats, voting, earned roles, & crowd-sourcing

http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2011/public/schedule/detail/19296

Comment by Graham Hill on June 8, 2011 at 19:48

It's but a small step from... Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set http://j.mp/krzKYE ...to the proper gamification of service. Service designers would be plain STUPID not to use all the tools at their disposal to make service more engaging for customers. And thus more profitable for companies. What do you think?

Comment by Sylvain Cottong on May 31, 2011 at 16:28

I made a basic introductory presentation about gamification in Berlin 2 weeks ago:

http://www.slideshare.net/sylvain/gamification-8024454

Comment by Graham Hill on May 30, 2011 at 14:09

Here's a very simple example of gamification in service design.

The Gamification of Business – Example of Kurasushi in Japan

http://www.ideaeconomy.net/ideas/gamification-business-kurasushi-ja...

How would you have done it better? With or without gamification?

 

Comment by ankush.samant on May 30, 2011 at 10:53

Gamification is to be seen in various forms around us. Another example which jumped to my mind was of a Donation box design.

Objective: To collect funds for an NGO.

A simple collection box is what everyone can think of. But, here in this example the organization used a simple game to make the collections interesting and giving an entertainment source to the users. Some time back I had a blog on this example, sharing it over here:

Donation Box Design

The idea was powerful, since:

1. It attracts users
2. It brings immediate value in terms of an experience 

Ankush.

Comment by Graham Hill on May 29, 2011 at 22:10

Gamification - the application of game mechanics and the underlying behavioural economics - is an important new idea in business. Actually it isn't all that new at all. It has been around since Green Shield Stamps in 1958 and its more modern reincarnation, the airline frequent flyer programme. Today, over 40 million people regularly play the American Airlines AAdvantage FFP. game alone. They have been doing it since 1981. Although gamification isn't really all that new, its reincarnation as a tool in daily business is. Companies like IBM have looked long and hard at what gamification can tell them about how leadership will change in the next decade. And LLoyds TSB has used gamification to increase the effectiveness of staff innovation programmes. There is absolutely no reason why gamification can't have a big influence on service design too. 

Is gamification a powerful new tool for service design? Have you seen it used already to improve service design? What do you think?

Graham Hill
Customer-centric Innovator
@grahamhill

 

Further Reading:

If you are unsure about gamification, here are some resources to get you started: 

Bunchball's Gamification Blog

http://gamification.com/

 

Amy Jo Kim on Beyond Gamification: Designing the Player Journey (Slideshare)

http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/gamification-101-short-talk

 

Serosity's Prof Byron Reeves on Leadership's Online Labs (HBR)

http://www.gameandplayer.net/media/leadership.pdf

 

Gabe Zichermann's Funware Blog

http://gamification.co/