Gamification should have a narrow, focused goal and a clear starting and ending date

Interview with Elena Bertozzi, IEEE member and Associate Professor of Game Design and Development at Quinnipiac University

1. What is gamification? Why has it become essential for businesses?

Gamification is the process of using game strategies and mechanics (means of engaging, measuring and rewarding players) to motivate people to achieve their goals.

Given the success of many games in leveraging social media, badge and point-based reward systems, and in-game economies, many businesses are now implementing similar systems either to motivate employees or customers. Businesses can use gamification platforms to foster constructive competition among employees or brand loyalty among customers, for example.

2. What are the global trends on gamification?

Gamification strategies are being implemented in enterprise systems for example.  Airlines are at the forefront of creating branded reward systems for providing ranked access to their services based on customer involvement in rewards programs.

3. How has gamification evolved in recent years? Where do you see it in next 2-3 years?

Gamification was significantly over-hyped and many implementations of it were poorly designed and actually produced negative effects.  Many now find the process of boarding a plane to be much less pleasant given that it has now become a hierarchical system whereby those who have bought themselves a higher ranking either by traveling more or paying for “gold” status are treated better than customers who simply bought a ticket. This has the effect of alienating the client base. It is important to implement gamification strategies in a way that does not have this effect.

4. Apart from marketing, which are the other business verticals to look at for gamification?

Gamification that simply serves as a way to manipulate customers into doing something that provides more revenue for business is likely to end badly and make the customer wary.  Good gamification strategies align the customers’ desires for good experience with the company’s desire to make them happy.

5. What gamification techniques are there in the market?

There are many gamification techniques in the market. They range from workplace pedometer challenges to efficiency or productivity-based competitions within businesses to awarding points and rewarding customers for brand loyalty and brand engagement. Games are by definition limited in time and scope. This is true for well-executed gamification initiatives as well. They should have a narrow, focused goal and a clear starting and ending date.

6. What is the scope of these techniques in SMBs? How challenging is to bring SMBs on board

Given the availability of low cost tools such as Badges in Mozilla, there is no reason why SMBs cannot design and implement gamification interventions as long as they are done in ways that align the interests of all parties.

Generally if there is a specific goal a company wishes to accomplish (increase adoption of a particular strategy or communicate information about a new product to the client base, for example) a gamification intervention can be designed to accomplish this. It is important to choose a qualified practitioner who understands the process and the pitfalls.