Editor's Guide: The real reason the game is fascinating is have fun. The fun that comes with it is the fundamental reason why games attract us to start and continue to play. Applying gamified design to products requires users to feel the fun of the product. The author of this article has analyzed this and hopes to help you.
We are learning parts of games and their design methods and applying them to the realm of gamification, while also not losing sight of the emotional parts of the game experience.
The real reason the game is fascinating is have fun. The fun that comes with it is the fundamental reason why games attract us to start and continue to play.
Philosopher Marry Poppins once said, "As long as you can find pleasure in your work, work can become a game". When we think of gamification, what should be considered is how can work, social impact, or behavioral changes become as engaging as games? How do you make them fun?
1. What is fun?
The word "fun" is a highly abstract word, we can try to use some words described by behavior, when you complete this behavior in the game, will it produce fun?
1. Winning
The word is the most common and easiest to think of, and many games have a concept of winning or losing.
2. Problem-solving
Like some of the small missions in World of Warcraft, after completing a series of missions, we overcame obstacles and won the rewards after the challenge. It wins or loses, and sometimes it doesn't even have the concept of a winner.
3. Exploring
Opening a new map, picking up rare drops of equipment...Finding something new can also bring us fun, whether they come with some kind of challenge or win or lose.
4. Chilling
Lie on the beautiful sandy beach and sunbathe. Lie on the couch, listen to the sound of the sea breeze, imagine being there.....
5. Teamwork
In modern society, it is difficult for individuals to complete complex tasks alone. People are social animals and are born to enjoy working with others.
6. Recognition
Imagine when someone says "good" to you! Whether this sense of identity creates fun. It's not about telling you that you've won a game by some objective standard, but when you take over that command, it feels great.
7. Triumphing
It's similar to Winning, but it focuses on the process (the fun that comes with beating an opponent), while winning is the fun of focusing on results.
8. Collecting
Some specific kinds of items, such as: stamp collection, antique collection, commemorative coin collection. ... People are born with a persistent love for some items, and voluntarily and continuously do this behavior.
9. Surprise
When encountering unexpected things, such as: rewards exceed expectations, ideas gain market recognition...
10. Imagination
Daydreaming, pondering ideas, or conceiving things, even if they don't happen in the short term (and may never) give you hope for the future.
11. Sharing
Selfless giving is also a pleasure. I have learned a skill that I am willing to share with friends in need; I donate money to help people in need.....this will make people feel good about themselves. Therefore, in the internet communication, altruism theory or gifting techniques are often used to pry some users to share fission, and practice has proved that sharing can indeed produce a kind of fun.
12. Role Playing
This is also a technique we often use, such as "think in someone else's shoes", "If I were....I would...".
13. Customization
Being able to have your own exclusive items is undoubtedly a pleasure. Like Starbucks' custom star cup activities, Nike shoes' exclusive custom design, etc., giving people a "choice" can give people a sense of control over such things.
14. …….
There may be many game field behaviors that can be associated with fun, and everyone can continue to accumulate and expand in the process of practice.
Second, how to apply fun to gamification or game design
These are the behaviors that we as an individual describe in terms of subjective perceptions and are related to pleasure. So, are there fun models related to the field of study that can be systematically applied to gamification or game design?
Nicole Lazarro, CEO of Xeodesign, has done some basic research to explore the real fun in games by tracking human eye and face movements. She summarizes the fun into four categories:
1. Easy Fun
This fun involves venting emotions, passing the time, relaxing, hanging out with friends... Simple fun represents the pleasure of no hassle, the fun of leisure.
2. Hard Fun
Face challenges, solve difficult problems, reverse the situation, overcome difficulties to complete the task... These are fun in themselves. We enjoy it because it represents a sense of accomplishment, a state of overcoming some difficulty.
3. People Fun
This fun comes from communication, teamwork and social activities... These behaviors require the collaboration of others. Maybe the fun will eventually turn into difficult fun (like the multiplayer puzzle solving in the escape room) or simple fun (shopping together to buy birthday party gifts), which is a process fun, and its source is social interaction.
4. Serious Fun
Things like "altruism" and having fun with it, doing meaningful things, etc.; collecting, assembling, and getting a bunch of badges in exchange for some kind of reward in the game are serious in a sense because this act of collecting only makes sense to you, and others don't find it interesting, but for certain groups of people, they do have specific goals and meanings.
Third, the joy of putting it into practice
The theory is laid out, and we combine the actual cases to apply the following:
1. The "Piano Ladder" of Thefuntheory.com
An example of a piano staircase can be found on The Fun Theory 1 – the Piano Staircase Initiative | Volkswagen。 The day after the staff installed the piano ladder, the data statistics surface, compared to the escalator, 66% of users prefer to try the piano ladder.
In addition, thefuntheory.com there are many cases that make boring things more interesting, such as: "The world's deepest trash can", the staff installed sensors on an ordinary trash can, and when you throw garbage into it, you will hear a "Biu" sound, just like you throw garbage into a deep cave. People find it interesting, and it's enough to encourage more people to throw their trash in the trash, and the results are positive.
2. Improve the "Progress Bar"
Let's talk about linkedIn, the originator LinkedIn of the recruitment website, which integrates a little game thinking and produces actual business effects, which is the "Progressing Bar".
Before getting an interview on a recruitment site, you need to fill in personal information, work history, occupation and skills, etc., which helps employers understand your ability to work, so the degree of perfection of the user profile is very important for LinkedIn and for users. Improving the file is conducive to other users searching for you, making it easier for you to build your own social network; linkedIn can also use this information to better search and analyze users, understand the characteristics of their user groups, and accurately push and match.
But the process of filling out the information is boring, how can we make it more interesting?
LinkedIn uses the design of the profile progress bar in the improvement of the profile function, and this simple feature has increased the degree of data completion across the entire website by 20%! This substantial growth, just because of a small progress bar, can't believe it? Is this game design? Not because it doesn't have rules with the elements of these games. So why does it get the same positive feedback from users as the game?
Here, feedback is just a number, some information, and doesn't force you to do something, but it creates a psychological motivation to make people want to complete the progress, it creates a "sense of process" and eventually "problem-solving".
"It's exciting to get this done, or to get this done," the idea of "getting to 100% almost there!" “...... It will have a psychological attraction to people and drive you to carry out the "game" to the end. In a simple way, it tells us the gap between the distance from completion through vision, cleverly and imperceptibly driving us to accomplish this goal.
Fourth, write at the end
The above cases also surface, fun can be designed.
Fun design in gamification doesn't require creating an addictive, focused environment, but gamification needs to find fun in a variety of ways, to find similarities with the game, and to use these clever designs to create an atmosphere (or psychological cue) that pushes people step by step towards the designer's goals.
A series of gamification design articles, welcome to browse and interact:
Gamification Design (1): Why gamify
Gamification Design (II): Think like a game designer
Gamification Design (3): Basic Principles
Author: Li Jingyu, currently the director of operations of Fantai Geek, with many years of practical experience in products and operations. Agree with the concept of gamification, theory + practice of new ideas for user growth; public number: gamification test field.
This article was originally published by @ViWaViWa and everyone is a product manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The title image is from Pexels and is based on the CC0 protocol.