More than Points and Badges: Gamification and Meaning

First of all, the Diigo boat is sailing nicely. I haven't quite figured out how to network with other people using Diigo, but I tried searching with the keyword "gamification work" and found a variety of really helpful articles about gamifying applied to work.

I'm also making a better effort to reach out on Twitter and Facebook and I hope to start a conversation about this stuff.

Trending

"Gartner says by 2015, more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes" From a Gartner article.

I found the article from a Gamification Wiki that quotes this source again saying:

"Although gamification is still a relatively new concept for business organizations, analysts are predicting a fast adoption rate of gamification, with the market growing from $100Mio in 2011 to $2.8bn in 2016"

So this is a very relevant, growing idea

Customers
There's also a lot of focus on the other business side of gamifying that I hadn't paid much attention to. Customer loyalty programs are evolving now that better programs are becoming more available to small businesses. Instead of the typical "buy 10 get one free", this article talks about why digital customer loyalty programs can help small businesses grow in a way that was only accessible for big businesses until recently. The short video for this website for a product called "Badgeville" also talks a lot about why giving points and rankings to customers is very effective.

Badges and Points
My favorite find by far was this presentation. It seems to be advertising a business that will help you gamify your workplace, like Badgeville, so I approached it knowing there may be bias. What I like about the points it makes is that it cites a variety of books that talk about what things are going well in the realm of gamifying and what people are doing wrong.

There's a difference between what makes us feel fulfilled on our Xbox
and what will make us feel fulfilled at our 9-5

This presentation points out that we can't approach gamifying the work place in the same way we approach the points and badge systems of a video game. It might not be useful to your team to create a scoreboard showing who is getting the most points. It might cheapen the work and create the wrong kind of competition. It points out that there are already a lot of game elements in the workplace. Systems like bonuses, employee of the month, and awards are used to motivate employees.

In order to make a fulfilling, gamified workplace, you can't just slap on a points system. You have to find things that will really make your employees feel like they're doing something important. Military badges aren't regarded as trifles because they're a lot harder to earn.

The presentation ends by recommending you work with real game designers and have your product very slowly tested and incorporated, then adjusted according to feedback (something we talked about in class). I guess the product is called "Rypple".

I was staring to doubt the ability for games to be used in the workplace because I was mentally seeing the problems that could be created with scoreboards and meaningless achievements. I liked that this article addressed some of those issues and offers more in depth insight. I emailed the guy at the end of the presentation and asked some questions. We'll see if I get feedback!