According to Docebo, the eLearning market size will reach a $ 51.5 billion market size by 2015, with a growth rate of 7.6%. We collected some of our favorite eLearning game examples. While not all of these examples involve gamification, they are worthwhile considering. Game-based learning isn’t necessarily eLearning gamification, since learning through a game (an age-old method that is effective since repetition elements and feedback workout our working memory) isn’t what gamification is about. Gamification is using game mechanics (such as completion bars, counters, badges, leaderboards and many other forms of recognition and feedback) to promote actions. Gamification is known to encourage eLearning, but that doesn’t necessarily mean learning through a game. In any case, here are some great examples of eLearning: McDonalds McDonald’s used a game-based eLearning system to launch a new till system to 1,300 restaurants. It implemented a training game by City & Guilds Kineo that afforded employees an opportunity to learn in a safe environment, to practice, and to learn from mistakes without facing frustrated customers. The game was all things that good gamified eLearning should be: addictive, purposeful and fun. But more than that, by using a simulation of their new till system, the game was pertinent, engaging, it targeted skill and knowledge, and created a memorable learning experience. So much so, that while it wasn’t mandatory, it had 145,000 visits in the first year and is still the company’s most popular employee portal page ever. Thanks to improved accuracy and a 7.9% reduction in service time, the launch of the till system was considered a success. Sony Europe Sony Europe created a state-of-the-art learning portal that would deliver product knowledge to their dealers, resellers and customers in an enticing way. An eLearning tool achieved this and more. How? It created a highly interactive learning experience that encouraged take up and knowledge retention; boosted proficiency in using or installing Sony products through a series of "how to" training scenarios; and it measured success and improved dealer account management through automated tracking and reporting.  The platform is so feature-rich that the learning is sustainable and on-going. Salesforce A year before ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce Marketing Cloud in 2013, Scott Thomas, Director of Product, set out to find a gamified training solution prior to the roll out of their MobileConnect marketing app. He found The Knowledge Guru by Bottom-Line Performance. This customizable, online game platform teaches users through an interactive narrative that requires them to answer questions and challenges in order to ascend a mountain and deliver a "scroll of wisdom" to the Guru (a great example of narrative-based gamification). Each mountain represents a broader subject area with its own learning objectives. The game lead MobileConnect to be the company’s fastest launch in 2 years. Walmart Walmart implemented Axonify’s gamified eLearning platform to reduce safety incidents as well as to improve compliance procedures and performance. The program, which ran for 6 months (an important element of success) saw increased retention; Lost Time cut by more than half; and below industry average Incident Rates and DART rates (Days Away from work, job Restrictions, job Transfers). How? Through training that was fun, fast, bite-sized, personalized (learners with different expertise levels set their own pace as content changed according to their response to questions) and that encouraged learners to experience the thrill of mastery and improvement. The game mechanics included in this gamification of eLearning included friendly team-based competition, points, leaderboards, and game play plus proven scientific methods of information retention thrown in for good measure. The fact that more than 75,000 U.S. Walmart associates still spend a couple of minutes a day receiving safety culture content, often in the form of questions, proves the success of the project. No traditional rote learning, weeks-long course or PPTs (yes, even the one that broke the Guinness Record for the most number of graphs ever) could have such an impact on a learner. An impact, as we said earlier, that motivates employees to learn, engages them, and even inspires them to want to refresh their memories. After all — who ever re-reads (if you even read it in the first place) that colossal document you received day one on the job that was meant to be the sacred writ on all things involving your tasks?  

Believing you are doing a good job is one thing. Getting external validation for that - and achieving the number one spot - is another. Today is such a day for the team at GamEffective. The Enterprise Gamification consultancy, headed by Mario Herger, published its Gamification Platform Leader Matrix for 2015. We are ranked at the very top, and nicknamed a "surprise" by the report’s author. The matrix is part of  the first Gamification Industry Report. The report compares 12 enterprise gamification platforms that are universal (i.e. not directed at just one enterprise gamification vertical such as sales or customer service, but working across many types of enterprise applications). The 12 platforms were ranked across multiple categories. The full report is available here. Looking to define Leaders, Followers and Contenders in the enterprise gamification space, the report plots product and service offerings against the visionary strength of each platform. The end result is clustering enterprise gamification platforms into three distinct groups: Leaders, Followers and contenders. Four companies are recognized as leaders: GamEffective, Infosys, Badgeville and Bunchball. According to the report, the top leader is GamEffective. Bunchball is located in the second place - and there is a tie between Badgeville and Infosys. The report notes that while the most attention in the past several years was given to Bunchball and Badgeville, GamEffective "has quietly executed and delivered with an impressively visionary approach." On the vision level, GamEffective was ranked number one in the report. On the "platform robustness" level, the report ranks GamEffective in the third place. The report’s author, Enterprise Gamification Guru Mario Herger says that leaders were chosen on the merits of being strong in both categories - both vision and platform robustness - with platforms that are both feature rich with the tools to design and operate a gamified system while also demonstrating a strong vision in their approach and platform architecture. Commenting further, Herger said that "Elements that define a strong vision can include the use of gamification design models, new standards, thought leadership in how to use gamification data, or the application of visual and novel gamification design elements".

In 2010, educational technology pioneer Bernard Luskin advocated that the "e" of e-learning should be interpreted to mean "exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, and educational" in addition to "electronic." Dr. Eric R. Parks, Founder and President of ASK International, suggested that the "e" refer to "everything, everyone, engaging, easy." What they are saying is that eLearning isn’t about the method of delivery - through "electronic"- but that it carries the potential of engagement. Gamification is a big part of the potential of elearning. Based on a deeper understanding of human nature, how we learn and what motivates us to do so, it is evident that eLearning that incorporates game mechanics is far more successful. Why? Because people intrinsically love levels, missions and the satisfaction of doing something well. We are even prepared to repeatedly experience the "agony of defeat" to enjoy the "thrill of victory," the feeling of success, that we have mastered something, that we have surmounted a challenge. Given these insights, anything perceived as worth doing or worth learning is a perfect candidate for implementing gamification — whether its learning to play an instrument, learning a new language, learning to use the latest Microsoft Office, or even furthering one’s higher education. In fact, here is a closer look at five examples of successful elearning gamification. Guitar Hero and Joy Tunes: > "If music be the food of love, play on." William Shakespeare Most of us love music; not all of us can play it. However, it often takes years of practice… However, what if the learning curve was shortened and more fun? Guitar-Hero made waves when it offered people the opportunity to learn to play a video game guitar. Instead of frustration at the time it takes to learn guitar, guitar hero gave users immediate feedback and instant gratification. Do you know what the inventors of guitar hero are doing today? They’ve invented hardware that turns treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes - the stuff of training - into devices that are integrated with games. Music learning gamification is about that same thing: providing immediate feedback, gradually increasing levels of difficulty and constructing a manageable learning curve. JoyTunes’ award-winning Piano Maestro app uses the same approach for teaching piano. The app, that combines music methodologies with the latest in game mechanics, works directly with a real music instrument, no wires or cables needed. The app gives immediate feedback on playing, awards stars, and players unlock pieces as they move up in rank. It engages by encouraging children to "Progress up in chapters, unlock new songs and raise their difficulty level along the way. Learn to play songs step by step and have access to practice options and be able to personalize their learning experience" With 4 million users and a million songs played weekly, the app may show a way to make piano practice more fun. Duolingo "To have another language is to possess a second soul." ~ Charlemagne While many would agree with this quote and dream of learning a foreign language, it remains that — a dream. For students who are forced to do so at school, the dream can be more of a nightmare. DuoLingo has found a way around this — students learn a language online for free, while helping to translate websites and documents. They advance through stages of complexity, vote on each other’s translations, receive valuable feedback, are rewarded for success, and many other game mechanics challenge, motivate, and engage them — just as successful gamified eLearning should! Ribbon hero "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it." ~ Theodore Roosevelt No matter how qualified you are in your profession and whether you need it or not, there are few jobs out there today that don’t require proficiency in Microsoft Office. Don’t despair, Microsoft’s epic game Ribbon Hero is here and available as a free download that can teach anyone how to use Office 2007 and 2010. Players are given challenges divided up into bite sized sections, earn points if they are completed, receive short relevant tasks as well as immediate feedback and reinforcement to keep them engaged and interested. The game is not too difficult, yet challenges and provides enough success to encourage further play and skill development. Basically, it hits the nail on the head of our intrinsic love of play, games, missions, fun, and winning. Ribbon Hero is also responsive to a users’ progress and adjusts challenges accordingly. Udacity "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." ~ Benjamin Franklin Mr. Franklin had no idea that he was describing the essentials for effective gamified eLearning. The same essentials harnessed by Udacity — the online university "by Silicon Valley" that offers free courses designed by educators and engineers in order to bridge "the gap between real-world skills, relevant education, and employment" as well as "to bring accessible, affordable, engaging, and highly effective higher education to the world." Why the emphasis on engaging? Because Udacity recognizes that "education is no longer a one-time event but a lifelong experience" and "should be less passive listening (no long lectures) and more active doing." As such, each course consists of several units comprising video lectures with closed captioning, as well as quizzes to help students understand concepts and reinforce ideas, and follow-up homework to promote a "learn by doing" model as opposed to learning by rote. This also stresses the point that even in companies use gamified eLearning to teach new recruits the ropes, the learning should be ongoing and not end abruptly after week one. What do all these examples have in common? They are genius applications of gamified eLearning where the "e" means exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, educational, engaging, easy, and for everyone!

Enterprise Gamification Consultancy’s Gamification Industry Report 2015, by lead researcher Mario Herger- available here - makes for an excellent read about what the future holds for enterprise gamification and what companies should know about it. I believe the report contains many nuggets of useful information, and I don’t believe that just because we got a favorable mention in the report’s Gamification Platform Leadership Matrix. The report covers in detail twelve platform providers and makes excellent comments on the state of the gamification market. The report (focusing on enterprise grade gamification, engagement and behavior modification platforms) reviews the state of the gamification world in 2015, marking its long-expected maturation from the novelty or exotic into a mainstream offering by large software vendors. Since I’ve been following Mario’s work for a while, and since I think the report has some valuable points to make, here are five take-aways from the report: Take Away 1: Enterprise gamification isn’t over and surely isn’t in the trough of disillusionment - in fact, it is just beginning to take hold in the enterprise Herger predicts that the gamification industry market is set to double within the next 12 months. I find this comment truly indicative of the fact that although the media hype around gamification reached its peak in 2012, the understanding of enterprise gamification and what it can do to employee performance and engagement is maturing just now. Herger makes the point that the entrance of new players, and especially SAP’s entry into gamification, signals a new phase in the market’s development. According to Herger, the entrance of such a dominant software vendor into the gamification market is a signal to corporate clients that gamification technologies are now moving from obscurity and novelty to the mainstream. Herger foresees that other large software vendors will enter the market within the next 12 to 18 months, and also expects a wave of consolidation. Take Away 2: Niche gamification vs universal The report focuses on universal gamification platform providers - such as gameffective, badgeville, bunchball, Infosys, SAP and others. Herger defines "universal" as gamification platforms that apply to more than one gamification use case - not just platforms for sales gamification, customer service gamification etc. The point here is that in realistic enterprise implementations, gamification needs to work across several enterprise apps, and can’t be relegated to just one use scenario (inside sales reps for instance). The whole point of gamification is an ability to give almost real time feedback on performance, so that employees can react and self-reflect. This requires good integration - and the addition of other integrations, such as elearning, is also a great need in the deployments we’ve seen at GamEffective, regardless of whether they are in the sales, customer service or other applications. Take Away 3: A gamification platform isn’t enough; customer success practices and game designers matter too. While the report places an emphasis on both the vision and robustness of gamification platforms it mentions that the choice of enterprise gamification platform only accounts for a portion of a successful gamification implementation strategy, with the rest accounted for by training, objective definition, game design. We’ve written about the fact that "everyone should know game design" and I truly believe in this vision. Yet fancy game elements and game mechanics don’t tell the entire story. As gamification merges with performance management, Herger makes the point (with which I wholeheartedly agree) that management needs to set good objectives that are well thought out… so that objective setting merges with gamification efforts, creating an integrated process and laying the groundwork for continuous improvement. On this level, I often hear from companies that they prize gamification for the fact that it made them focus on communicating objectives and KPIs clearly and tracking them on a real time basis. Take Away 4: Empathy is a core consideration in gamification design Herger mentions the importance of empathy in gamification design. I couldn’t have said it better. Empathy means considering gamification as a way to improve employee performance by increasing the employee’s well-being, and not by treating the employee’s work as mindless competition. Designing games well requires taking the point of view of the employee - having the employee be the hero of their game and letting their training, coaching and feedback take center stage, as opposed to making employees feel belittled by emphasizing their peers’ performance. Promoting extrinsic rewards or killer-type activity that focuses on employees out-playing their peers in fierce competition, isn’t realistic and isn’t good for both the employees and their employer. Take Away 5: taking a long term view of gamification Herger mentions that "most vendors and customers also neglect to establish a long term strategy for gamification. The focus in most projects is narrow and applied to one project only… without a strategy for sustainable engagement". Gamification in the enterprise should be sustainable, leaving lasting performance changes and not just a "Band-Aid" solution to artificially increase a certain activity. This is the main challenge of the industry and it will be solved by deep thinking about performance, long term engagement, and game designs that are flexible enough to evolve over time, keeping employees engaged.

Yu Kai Chou calls gamification human-focused design. I agree - enterprise gamification isn’t about fun (it never was) but is really about a new type of user experience or interface. Actually, the term "user experience" isn’t precise. Enterprise gamification is about the employee experience. It is about how employees experience and interface with the roles, tasks and behaviors they are expected to perform in the context of their work. It is about how they check on how they are doing and strive to improve it - a fitbit for work. Done well, gamification provides context, calls-to-action and a sense of meaningful work to employees - but the core question remains. How can companies get to the "gamification done well" phase? Some of it lies in good gamification design, using sound principles within the context of an organization or role and the desired employee behaviors. But some of it lies in using gamification analytics properly - and this is the core of this blog post. Analytics is a tool for doing things better If there is one thing that the Internet - or google analytics - has taught the world is the democratization of business intelligence. Many people now look at website (or app) analytics and try to understand how people interact with their site or app. They then use this for continuous optimization of their website or app. Gamification analytics is about that same idea: tracking behavior so that the interaction with the system (website, game or enterprise app) will become simpler, more compelling and more engaging. Let’s use a simple example: you’ve just released a new mobile game. We’ll call it "Sharks Gone Berserk". In this game, Sharks (all of which have gone berserk) are after you. The goal of the game is to run as fast as you can and make creative use of boxes in which you can hide. The game is split into levels which progress according to your level of mastery - just like any game. In the first levels, you are basically taught how the game works (aka onboarding). In the latter levels, you make use of the knowledge you’ve acquired to hopefully blaze through many levels and become a true master. Now let’s say you’ve released the game to the app store, just at the same day as your very best friend released their game - "Tigers gone berserk". After a week, your friend’s game had one thousand downloads. You have twenty. "What could I have done better?" you tell your friend, who is willing to help you despite the obvious rivalry between your sharks and his tigers. "Do you know how your players are doing?" he asks and adds "do you think they went through the onboarding phase and understood the game? Can they be stuck somewhere?" "No" you respond, "I don’t track anything on the game, but I am sure they are doing well. After all, I put a lot of thought in on-boarding and in designing the game levels". Your friend then cracks his laptop open. "Let me show you something" he says.  "I made sure I have analytics integrated into my game. I, too, had thought that the levels were even…. But see what I discovered after a week…". What your friend discovered was that (a) people weren’t using the lesson they ought to have learned in the first onboarding phases - meaning they didn’t "get" part of the game. But the worse thing was (b). Game users went through levels 1-5 fairly easily. Almost too easily. But only 1% of them managed to get past level 6. "What did you do?" you ask, trying to think what went wrong with your berserk sharks. "I changed level 6" he responds. If you want to optimize behavior, you need to optimize and analyze gamification This is exactly the point about gamification and analytics. If gamification is supposed to drive behavior at work - and the way people make use of enterprise apps - and is also supposed to be a "fitbit for work" - how can it be used if the game designer or game manager doesn’t know how it’s used. Imagine you include an eLearning module in a customer service gamification project. If you don’t measure it, how can you tell whether it is working? If you design a game with a dashboard showing whether an employee is "in the green" or "in the red" - shouldn’t you know if it is too easy to be in the green or almost impossible to stay out of the red? That’s why we’ve been putting a lot of thought lately into how we use (and offer our customers to make us of) gamification analytics. The stakeholders of gamification analytics A diagram prepared by Mika Nadel, our Strategic Projects Manager, drives the point home: Mika identifies the stakeholders that should care about gamification analytics: Game designers should track analytics to do their jobs well. They can use it to segment gamification users and target the right game rules and mechanics for them. They should be able to use gamification to see the difference between optimal game engagement and poor game engagement and more. The gamification owner at the customer is the person who chose a gamification project to complement performance. What matters here is the ability to view and control how the gamification experience improves users’ performance in the most effective way. We can drive each employee to improve his performance in a different way, and this can be done using gamification analytics to give visibility to track performance and act accordingly to be able to boost employees’ performance. Game administrators also use analytics - but they are more focused on tracking that everything is on track and on optimization. Last but not least, the gamification vendor uses gamification analytics to see comparative performance across games and customers, by segment. Here’s another great diagram by Mika, summing it all up: Using gamification analytics for long term engagement You began using analytics for "sharks gone berserk" to make sure people like your game, shared your game, bought your game and kept coming back to it. The sustainability of use and the integration of gamification into work are the main point of success in gamification. A one-month "challenge" to make people work a little harder to get a badge (an example of poor game design) just isn’t going to cut it for the future of gamification. Gamification needs optimization and a deep understanding of player segments, activities, levels and more. Only the use of analytics can ensure this really happens.

April 20, 2015: GamEffective, an enterprise gamification company and a narrative-based gamification pioneer, announced today it has raised a $ 3 M series A round. GamEffective offers a comprehensive gamification platform to support sales, customer service, social collaboration and employee training and elearning. The company is focused on the enterprise, and its platform uses game mechanics and game rules to grow employee engagement. GamEffective goes beyond badges or leaderboards and uses rich game narratives to give employees clear calls to action that encourage on the job mastery and leave lasting organizational change, reflecting corporate objectives and performance goals. GamEffective’s platform uses rich graphical narratives that range from fantasy sports to racing; and is easy to implement due to its no-code integration. Employee engagement is measurable, providing analytical insight into employee behavior and assisting employees in decision making - balancing corporate sales goals, for instance, with customer satisfaction. The investment round was led by Verint® Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT), a global leader in Actionable Intelligence® solutions and existing private investors that include 2B Angels and Shaked Ventures, Lipman, Chomski and others. The company’s seed round was led by 2B Angels and Shaked Ventures. "Gamification will become a staple of enterprise software UX, transforming corporate performance management and how goals and objectives are set and measured. ‘Game rules’ can direct employees to the right behaviors and cue them in rich, non-simplistic ways. This is the future of setting corporate and personal goals in the workplace," said Gal Rimon, Founder and CEO of GamEffective. "We are seeing an enormous interest in gamification of enterprise apps, our typical implementations leave lasting performance changes in organizational behavior". "Gamification is an important technology for the enterprise and further complements Verint’s customer engagement optimization portfolio of solutions," said Oren Stern, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy, Verint. "We are delighted to be working with GamEffective, as the organization is a proven provider of gamification solutions."

What is gamification about? Is it a long term or short term project? Is it about just getting people to use enterprise software - so it won’t lie idle - or is it about something deeper? Gamification as a cure for low usage rates of enterprise software I sometimes see people describe gamification as a short-term "fixer" for enterprise software adoption. In this scenario, the enterprise just invested in new software - for the sake of this example, we’ll say the enterprise invested in an enterprise social network. Since employees don’t seem to use that enterprise social network as they should have - not logging in at all, or logging in but doing very little, gamification has been called to the rescue. From now on, says the gamification vendor to the enterprise, gamification will encourage behaviors associated with adopting the enterprise social network. Usage rates will grow. Gamification elements used will range from the tried and true (but somewhat limited -see here) points, badges and leaderboards, to more effective next-generation game mechanics. Gamification can even be part of the design of the enterprise social network. Reading a recent article in computer world, "Can gamification solve enterprises’ engagement problem" leads to this conclusion. Here is what it says, quoting Steve Sims, founder and chief designer at Badgeville’s behavior lab: "One of gamification’s best uses in the enterprise may be simply getting people to use the software the company has invested in. "There are many benefits of gamification for enterprise software, but if I had to pick one, it would be adoption and engagement with the software itself," Sims said. … Usage rates for enterprise software often aren’t much better than 50 percent, he pointed out. By tapping into the right motivations, gamification could increase those numbers considerably. I still must raise the question of whether employee engagement equals software adoption (and no, I’m not discussing badgeville vs gameffective here…). I don’t think it does. My belief is that although software adoption is important - after all you want to make your technophile employee and the legacy employee use the same software and speak the same language - it isn’t what gamification is about. People can use the enterprise social network but not improve their performance, their team’s performance or the enterprise’s performance. Additionally, the case study presented above strikes me as horribly short-term in its outlook. It doesn’t tie enterprise social network use with performance. In that, it not only risks rewarding behavior that doesn’t impact the organization, it also risks rewarding activities that shouldn’t be rewarded, like excess posting or logging in - a case where gamification rules were sloppily defined, resulting in an opportunity for some players to game the system. Gamification isn’t just short term projects Is there are better way to describe the interplay between gamification and software adoption? I believe there is. Gamification should begin by looking at software adoption, for sure, but evolve into a longer lasting game with a more intricate view of performance. In this case, software adoption will be accomplished using an initial onboarding game (gamification, onboarding and elearning fit together well, since gamification rewards completion of learning tasks in a way most people find compelling). Afterwards, gamification will be used to drive performance, not adoption or use. It can, for instance, rank social network posts by their relevance and usability, tie the social network into knowledge sharing, or encourage certain employees (based on gamification analytics) to do something differently on the network. Gamification isn’t about software use; it is about what users do with the software What’s important to note is that a longer term project will last in setting and communicating performance goals and getting the employee to think about them. For instance, in a customer service setting, gamificaiton can help state complex goals that can cancel each other out - speed of service vs customer satisfaction (for instance), teaching employees to balance the two and acquire the skills to do so, giving them real time feedback to adjust their work, and giving them recognition for a job well done. Gamification isn’t a cute veneer on otherwise ugly to use software Darian Shirazi writes in Forbes ("The Consumerization of Enterprise Software") A few years ago, I remember that I tried using Salesforce for the first time. When I first interacted with the product, I felt like I was driving a Honda Accord: it was efficient and got the job done, but it wasn’t all that enjoyable to use or aesthetically pleasing. To my amazement, most enterprise software followed this trend: functionally sufficient, but poorly designed and often times difficult to use. He’s making the argument that Enterprise Software should be taking the track of becoming as pleasing and as intutitive as consumer-facing software. I fully agree. Slack’s success is great proof of this. In this respect, it is important to understand that gamification isn’t a walkme over otherwise ugly enterprise software with a cute "game-like" veneer. Gamification is about first encouraging behvaiours, but more importantly it is a way to set performance goals and manage them.

Swarm, a mobile app that continues the original Foursquare application of past fame, is a social check-in app. Foursquare was well known for its pioneering use of gamification, yet the initial launch of swarm omitted most of the gamification elements that had made Foursquare famous in the first place. Now, the new release of Swarm brings back a lot of the gamification fun that the original Foursquare once had. As I wrote several months ago, Foursquare is a great case study to try and understand what works and what doesn’t in enterprise gamification design, and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of points, badges and leaderboards. When Foursquare started out in 2009, gamification was a big part of its success. Users could get points for checking in some location, earn badges, and even achieve mayor status if they checked into a certain venue on more days than anyone else in the past 60 days. With time, social networks caught up with location based check-ins and Foursquare’s popularity began to decline. At a certain point Foursqaure even stopped using its famous points and badges system, which made it so popular in the first place. Foursquare explained this by saying that the game mechanics that worked when they had 50,000 users a day were not effective anymore once they grew to their current 50,000,000 users a day. People don’t want to compete against a mass of other people, and everyone that isn’t at the top of the leaderboard gets de-motivated quickly. As I mentioned in my previous post, what we can learn about gamification from Foursquare’s story is that gamification mechanics are powerful and can drive user behavior; yet they can’t work in a void. The gamified behavior has to contain an intrinsic value that is not tied to the game mechanics. Otherwise, the novelty will wear off. In other words, gamification isn’t an end in itself, but a design choice intended to drive real value for the user. The fact that Swarm has now decided to bring back gamification features, gives us the opportunity to reflect on what works and why: the modifications they made are telling and applicable to enterprise gamification. Leaderboards Leaderboards can be tricky. On the one hand, everyone likes to win and leaderboards tend to drive engagement. On the other hand, leaderboards are set up in a "winner takes all" manner that drives away everyone except the select few that are vying for the top spot. This is important - since coaching helps the middle 60%, not the top or bottom performers, and good enterprise gamification is a lot like coaching, since it implies the next best action. To make gamification work best, everyone has to have the feeling that they count. If not, you’ll find your users giving up early on and not engaging. It seems like the guys from Swarm have taken notice of this insight while avoiding leaderboards with too many participants. Swarm has the option to create a small leaderboard between friends as well as a one player game within the world of stickers. These smaller leaderboards may have a higher chance of working for several reasons. Firstly, the smaller number of participants enlarges the chance of finding yourself at the top of the board. Secondly, these small leaderboards leave room for the creation of a feeling of a "team" between a group of friends, whereas anonymous leaderboards create alienation instead of connection. In addition, the option for a single player game enables users to experience their progress in relation to themselves. The user becomes the hero of their game which creates a lot more engagement with the gamification mechanism (Swarm in this case) and much more enjoyment for the user. Collecting badges and stickers People have been collecting things as a hobby for centuries. Stamps, cards, memorabilia; Badges and stickers are the digital evolution of this habit. Users tell us that they feel that their badges and stickers are a great way to express something unique about themselves that enriches their online profile and presence. Although we emphasize the importance of encouraging intrinsic motivation, this method (which in essence is a form of extrinsic motivation) can be a good supplement to intrinsic motivators.  Users can send a message about their achievements, and in the case of Swarm, of the places they frequent and favor. Research also shows that the scarcity of an item (as in the case of the badges and stickers in swarm) enlarges its desirability. It will be interesting to see how Swarm’s return to gamification mechanics affects their popularity and how it assists them in returning to the engagement level that was enjoyed in the past by Foursquare. We’ll be watching, so check out the blog for updates!

A screen shot of posture.io credit: techcrunch One of the benefits of gamification is the immediate feedback it can give people about performance. I believe this is one of the more salient points about gamification, but it is nevertheless often missed as people imagine looking at their leaderboard position at the end of the day, but don’t get the compelling immediacy of gamification and its power of real time feedback. What gamification offers is that instead of a too-late discovery - "oh, I’m not performing well today", which immediately dampens enthusiasm for the remainder of the day - performance can be reflected as feedback immediately, effectively indicating the next best action. Gamification can be used to immediately tell people how they are doing and give them the auto-corrective measures to do so. That’s why we’ve compared gamification to fitness trackers such as fitbit and even wrote about the quantified self becoming the future of HR software. I’m always on the lookout for great examples of how gamification and feedback work well. One of the better known examples is Target’s use of gamification and feedback for its cashiers. Another example I just discovered, through this TechCrunch article, is posture.io. So, gamification feedback examples, here we go: Target as a case study - Feedback-centric gamification turns work in to a game for younger employees Target has quite a well-known gamification mechanic for its cashiers - you can read about it here. The cash register monitors the time it takes the cashiers to handle each client and gives them simple and immediate feedback on their screen. Employees see one of three letters (G, Y, and R for green, yellow and red), which indicates whether they have met their speed requirements on the last transaction. In this case, if they inadvertently slowed down, they are immediately notified. If they are doing well, they can see that too, and feel accomplished.  In addition they can see an indication of their average speed for the last several transactions - a personal benchmark for achievement rather than an external one. Interestingly, the different Target employees have differing views on the practice. While the older employees feel that this is a simple way for Target to monitor employees and send them a message about the need for efficiency and speed, the younger employees feel quite differently. Having grown up with video games and various gamification engagement features in all walks of life, younger employees see the target feedback in more of a positive manner. One employee even said that it "makes work feel like a game". The point of the feedback here is that it is constant, giving cashiers an immediate indication of their performance. The interesting side here is whether the positive cue given by meeting the requirements is enough of an immediate "brain" reward to make checking performance a habit. Is craving that reward a driver for cashiers to pace themselves and perform better?.  To me it seems that this is the case. As millennials start comprising more and more of the workforce, gamification will become more and more acceptable and natural. After all, these are employees that were born in to a world where internet exists everywhere, everybody owns a laptop or tablet, and smartphones are an essential tool. As a result, they are much more experienced in interacting in a playful way with machines and technology and in sensing emotional achievement while doing so. Posture.io - a hack to sit up straight   "Sit up straight" is what teachers and parents tell children. Kids slouch at tables. They are reminded to sit up straight. This is a feedback mechanism of sorts. Posture.io is this same feedback mechanism, and is the brainchild of developer Joe Heenan, which was presented at the recent Techcrunch Disrupt NY event. Using simple and affordable hardware (the device’s total cost is around $30), Heenan has invented a device which connects to the back of the wearer’s belt and detects whether they are slouching or sitting upright. The interesting part is that the user’s interaction with the app is through a posture score, and as Heenan says "your goal is to keep your posture score as close to 100 as possible". Immediate feedback - here we come! A hack for training through gamification Another way to raise your posture score is by doing a series of hand gestures over the motion gesture controller which is part of the device. These gestures are similar to those recommended by physiotherapists to patients developing hand problems as a result of overuse.  This game mechanism is really a way of letting the player make up for poor performance by undergoing additional tasks and training. In enterprise gamification we use this mechanic for the lesser performing players, which can choose to undergo training or micro-learning in the system to make up points. Rather than punishing performance, this approach gives the player new tools and better training for better future performance. Habit forming and gamification Posture.io is another example of how gamification is being used to change people’s habits. Habit formation is also an important aspect of gamification. For all of us, having better work habits could be extremely beneficial. Research shows that the average employee is only productive for three hours a day (!). The problem is that even when the best intentions exist, it isn’t easy for any of us to change our habits. That’s exactly where gamification, and the constant feedback that it brings, can really help to make a difference. As mentioned, gamification software is all about telling us how we’re doing, sometimes without us even realizing that that’s what is happening. This feedback can be the first and essential step on the road to formation of new habits. We can expect to see such feedback mechanics integrated in to more and more areas of our lives as technology infiltrates every aspect of our existence. People have always had a desire to know how they are doing, be it regarding their work, their health, their popularity or any number of other areas. It seems like the combination of technology and gamification will make this possible even more. We will all sit up straight, and if we’re cashiers, we will work really fast.

We live in a world that idealizes the genius innovator. From Henry Ford to Steve Jobs, we find it incredible that a single person could see the world entirely differently and then make that difference happen.  It also helps that the stories of inventions and the characters behind them are great storytelling material. We accept that Jobs’s knack for details and design was a natural gift that couldn’t be taught or replaced and that Ford’s understanding of the innermost desires of the American consumer came to him naturally. These notions may very well have some truth to them, but with the introduction of technology and the connectedness that it brings with it, we all may need to be prepared to open up to a new way to arrive at creation and innovation. Gamification for innovation and the wisdom of the crowds In contrast to this idea of the ‘individual genius’, the last few years have seen the rise of the notion of ‘wisdom of the crowds’. Countless crowd powered platforms have become immensely popular. Be it in the field of art production (Kickstarter, indiegogo), question-and-answers (like Quora), or medicine (crowdmed), it seems that there’s a business trying to incorporate the wisdom of the crowds in to every possible sector. There is an understanding that although the idea of a single innovator has a certain romantic appeal to it, there may be a much more efficient way to go about it, which is actually almost completely opposite to the way we’ve gotten used to thinking about innovation. Obviously, the thing that all these platforms depend on is the involvement of their respective crowd. Waze wouldn’t be worth much if not for its enthusiastic community, which allows us to know the state of traffic on the road like never before, and nobody would think of turning to Kickstarter to try and get their music album out, if they didn’t know that there were enough music fans on the platform who may decide to back the project. In many of these platforms, gamification mechanics play an important part in bringing the crowd to participate and engage with the platform. They use variations on karma point and other forms of gamification mechanics for recognution. In addition, gamification is many times responsible for motivating and focusing the innovating activities of the community that is created around a platform. It can create clear objectives, rules and rewards for those who take part in the creation process that the platform is undertaking. Driving innovation in the enterprise The role gamification plays in innovative processes is not limited only to these platforms. Many organizations are using gamification mechanics to foster innovation within their firms. Many social and collaboration gamification projects are intended to foster information sharing and, as a side effect, innovation. Since people are naturally creative and eager to express themselves, sometimes all that is needed is a framework which motivates employees to do just that, and which enables them to do it easily. A great example of this comes to us from one of the best known brands in the world - Coca Cola. The company has recently created an app that enables users to mix several existing Coca Cola drinks to create a new one, name it, and then share the new drink with their friends on social media. Afterwards, it is possible to actually drink the newly created beverage at a FreeStyle machine, which is a new generation of fountain dispenser that the company has invented for this purpose. Through gamification mechanics, the company is able to engage in a new way with younger customers that have come to expect a consumer experience which enables them to easily relate their thoughts about a product. For this to be a meaningful experience that achieves its goals, it must have enjoyable and playful aspects to it which make the customer want to use it again and again. While enterprise gamification is mostly directed at coaching people to work well - through a deep understanding of their roles and a growth of engagement - and is used less for innovation per se or for the knowledge workers, it can learn from great examples of gamification, such as those used by Quirky or Barclaycard. It seems that the way we arrive at innovative ideas is undergoing a major change and that gamification is destined to play a major role in this change process. Companies and organizations can now utilize gamification mechanisms which enable, motivate and guide employees in the course of the creative process.