How to make your business work better

Putting gamification
to work
By Playa
© 2019 Playa All rights reserved
Introduction

All the guide you’ll ever need

We’ve designed this guide for people looking to motivate, engage

and reward their customers, channel partners and employees.

We want to help you gain a better understanding of gamification,

and the behaviour science behind it. We also want to show you how
you can apply gamification in business. Because, it has to be said, a
lot of people are getting it wrong.

So, consider this your go-to guide for all things gamified. You’ll see,
we’ve created a series of helpful reader tools, from big take-outs to
real-world examples and checklists for successful implementation.

Let’s get started!

INTRODUCTION
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Contents

Gamification’s evolution
Towards a new understanding of gamification
Clearing the canvas

Where gamification is going

Welcome to the new age of gamified design
Rewards and their role in motivational design

Gamification design 101

Designing your gameplan

In this guide, you’ll learn:

How gamification can improve business results

How to leverage extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

How to distinguish between extrinsic and

intrinsic rewards

How to design gamification effectively

Gamification’s evolution

Future forward
Towards a new
understanding of
gamification
Define, undefine, redefine

Around 2011, a new buzzword lit up the internet and,
more particularly, the world of business: Gamification.
Seen as a magic bullet for any number of business
challenges: Employee motivation and engagement,
recruitment and retention, learning and development,
performance management, compliance, customer
loyalty; it seemed there wasn’t a problem gamification
couldn’t solve.
And, in our opinion, it was a good thing. Because
people missed the point. Gamification is design. And
design is a specialised skill. Also, to be clear, we don’t
mean design in the ‘make it look pretty’ sense. We
mean it in the design-thinking sense of creative prob-
lem solving. So, in this context, what is gamification?

Until 2014 that is, when true to Gartner’s prediction

that by then 80% of all gamified solutions would fail
due to poor design, gamification hit the

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proverbial wall.

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Roman Rackwitz, CEO of Engaginglab and partner at
Enterprise Gamification Consultancy called it when he
asked that people:

“Please take into consideration that there is still an

ongoing debate around the world - concerning
Gamification is design: It requires specialist skills.
gamification’s definition.”
Gamification is design that motivates people towards
But this isn’t especially helpful when you’re trying to specific measurable behaviour change.
wrap your head around gamification. So, here’s what
we say: Gamification is design that motivates
people toward specific, measurable
behaviour change.

Real-world example Real-results

McDonald’s McDonald’s
till training reaps rewards
The global fast food giant turned to a learning-based A revenue impact of £23 million was attributed to the
game, complete with countdowns, challenges, points, success of the game-based learning.
leaderboards and feedback.

Employees were able to learn in an environment

that stimulated their work, but without the fear of

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performance failure. Learning made fun.

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Clearing the canvas
Gamified solution design Playful points

PBLs. Points. Badges. Leaderboards. They’ve been used (and
abused) for years. Don’t get us wrong, PBLs have a place in
gamified design. The trick is to give them a rightful place, as
mechanics that bring meaning and relevance, and that elevate
the design experience.
A random points system slapped onto a product, process
or project doesn’t make for good gamified design - integrating
points into the narrative of the solution, does.
Integrating points into the narrative
of your solution design makes for
an engaging and immersive
player experince.

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Real-world example
Todoist points amount to
peace of mind
Todoist is a productivity app that helps people track
their personal goals. Players gain karma points for
every task completed, while points are lost for not
completing projects in time.
As players collect karma points, they progress through
levels, from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Enlightened’. People can
share their karma score on social platforms, inviting
encouragement and support from friends and family.
Real-results
Record registration
Now in its 12th year, Todoist has over 10 million
registered users and an estimated annual revenue of
$5 million. What makes Todoist a great example of
gamification, and points use in particular, is that the
karma score system - as just one design element - is
integral to the player’s experience.
As a gamification mechanism, the karma points drive
people towards achieving their goals in a profoundly
rewarding way. Because the points result in peace of
mind. And who doesn’t want to have more of that?
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Motivation-boosting
badges
Badges fulfil a two-fold funtion in gamification. They mark the
milestones of players’ personal journeys, since they are visual
symbols of accomplishment, skill, merit or quality. And secondly,
they function as potent, short-term rewards.

Designer badges are highly

collectable and can increase players’
desire to acquire them.

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Real-world example Real-world results
Fitbit badges fuel the The value of a
brand’s success story social network
Fitness tech company, Fitbit helps people to reach In 2017, Fitbit’s active users grew to more than
their personal health and fitness goals by tracking 25 million. More than 20 million people use its
their daily exercise, activity and food social network and in 2018, Fitbit reported
consumption data. revenue of $1.6 billion.

There are over 100 badges in Fitbit’s suite of rewards,

each one recognising a specific achievement – from
steps taken to floors climbed to kilos shed. They are
given in recognition, not only of major milestones, but
of the smallest of victories, too.

The badges are shareable on social media,

encouraging support and even friendly competition
from friends, family and co-workers.

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Leaderboards we love
Leaderboards have long been used to create competitiveness in the workplace
- with mixed results. Why? Because it’s demotivating being anywhere but at the
top of the leaderboard. The trick is to focus, less on target setting, and more on
behaviour change.

Design your leaderboard around individual

behaviours and in relative proximity to
others, based on community, not competiton.

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 Real-world example
United Nations
‘My World’ Global Survey
Integrate points into the overall narrative and design of
In 2012 the United Nations and select partners ran your gamified solution.

the global ‘My World’ survey, asking users to select six

Badges mark personal milestones in people’s journeys,
issues relating to the Millennium Development Goals
so design them uniquely.
that would make the most difference in their lives.
Avoid leaderboards that measure performance against
After voting, users received personalised feedback targets; instead measure behaviours.
relative to the response rates and issue selections
made by fellow voters in their country of origin. This A personalised leaderboard creates a richer context of
meaning and relevance.
gave users a sense of national and global citizenship;
together working for positive change.

Real-results
The value of a
social network

FUTURE FORWARD
To date, over nine million people have voted in the
‘My World’ survey from 194 countries.

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Paul Lawrence
Nitin Nohria

Daniel H. Pink

B.F. Skinner

Abraham Maslow

E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan

B.F. Skinner
Where gamification is going

Let's hear it for

motivational design
Welcome to the
new age of design
Motivational design

In recent years, we’ve seen design thinking

revolutionise the world of business. Once thought
Human-centred design
to be the preserve of creative organisations, such begins with an understanding
as ad agencies, fashion, film and publishing
of human beings and, more
companies, design thinking has permeated dozens
of industries, as diverse as agriculture, healthcare particularly, what motivates them.
and finance. At its core, design thinking seeks to
solve problems creatively, by focusing on the But how did we get here? To answer this

people for whom the solutions are intended. question, we need to look at the history of

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

Enter: human-centred design. motivation science.

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 It was breakthrough thinking at the time, in that
it demonstrated how rewards (and punishments)
can be used to change human behaviour. Today,
Skinner is regarded as a pioneer of behaviourism,

E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan

giving rise to the school of psychology known as

Yu-Kai Chou

B.F. Skinner
behaviour modification. And Skinner’s insights
Abraham Maslow

didn’t end there. Another of his findings revealed

B.F. Skinner

that novelty is a powerful motivational tool.

Daniel H. Pink

He observed that the brain’s pleasure-and-reward

circuit responds most strongly to what he called,
BF Skinner ‘intermittent reinforcement’. Essentially, the more
unpredictable the delivery of rewards, the more
pleasure an individual will derive from them.
The motivational theory that underpins
gamification dates as far back as the 1930s, when
an American psychologist, BF Skinner developed a
behavioural system called, ‘operant conditioning’.
This system is based on Skinner’s observation of
lab rats in experiments using food as rewards.
The fundamental idea of operant conditioning is
that an individual learns to associate a particular
Human behaviour is conditional.
behaviour with a consequence.

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

Human behaviour can be shaped using rewards.
Typically, behaviours that
Rewards work best in a random, rather than a
are positively reinforced predictable, continuum.
tend to be repeated, while
behaviours that are punished
tend to be discontinued.

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 Abraham Maslow

Another theorist whose work has impacted

gamification is American-born psychologist,
Abraham Maslow. Maslow is best known for
developing his ‘hierarchy of needs’; a theory of
human motivation that highlights a sense of
belonging, self-esteem and the realisation of
self-potential, as primary. Within every well
designed gamification solution, you’ll find
echoes of Maslow’s hierarchy – albeit on a
smaller scale – as participants journey towards
a state of self-actualisation, be they learners or
salespeople or contact centre agents.
Abraham Maslow

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

Maslow was the founder of humanistic psychology.

Maslow's theory of motivation focused on a hierarchy

of needs: psychological, safety, love, esteem and
self-actualisation.

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 EL Deci and RM Ryan
Still another ideology from which gamification and
motivational design draw substance is what is known
as self-determination theory, made famous by
American psychology professors, Edward L Deci and
Richard M Ryan. Together, Deci and Ryan identified
competence, relatedness and autonomy as
fundamental human needs. They also outlined the
differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan
B.F. Skinner
Abraham Maslow
B.F. Skinner
Daniel H. Pink
Daniel H Pink
Fast forward to 2009, and the publication of a book
entitled, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What
Motivates Us by Daniel H Pink, which delivered a
fresh, new context for our understanding of human
behaviour. In his book, Pink proposes that human
motivation is largely intrinsic, and identifies three
aspects of intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery
and purpose. In Drive, Pink demonstrates why the
old-school system of carrots-and-stick – essentially,
extrinsic motivation – fails, particularly in the
workplace, where employees long for a sense
of meaning and purpose.
Pink’s three-way formula for successful
engagement speaks to the intrinsic motivators
of autonomy – experienced as the drive for
self-management and self-direction;
WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING
mastery – as the drive to keep improving and
to accomplish something of importance; and
purpose – as the need to contribute to something
bigger and more profound in the world.
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Deci and Ryan identified competence, relatedness and
autonomy as fundamental human needs.

Deci and Ryan define the differences between extrinsic and

intrinsic motivation.

Daniel H. Pink posits that human motivation is mostly intrinsic.

Pink identifies autonomy, mastery and purpose as our

principal motivators.
Yu-kai Chou

Around the same time as Pink’s book was receiving

critical acclaim, Yu-kai Chou, a globally-recognised
thought leader in gamification, created the
Octalysis framework.

Octalysis is a unique framework that maps out a

structure for gamification design, based on Chou’s
analysis of eight core drives motivating people to
perform actions.

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

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Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning and Calling
Users believe they are doing something profoundly
important and that they have been especially selected
as ‘the chosen one’.
Core Drive 2: Development and Accomplishment
Users make progress, develop skills, and eventually
overcome meaningful challenges.
Core Drive 3: Creativity and Feedback
Users are engaged in a creative process in which they
have to figure things out, and try different combinations
of actions to make progress.
Core Drive 4: Ownership and Possession
Users are motivated by their power of ownership: wealth,
properties, data and collectables.
Core Drive 5: Social Pressure and Relatedness
Users feel connected to others through shared
communication, mentorship, acceptance, social
responses, companionship, and through ‘black hat’
motivators, such as competition and envy.
Core Drive 6: Scarcity and Impatience
Users are driven by desire; of wanting something because
it is rare or because there is some kind of obstacle in the
way of accessing it.
Core Drive 7: Unpredictability and Curiosity
Users want to find out what will happen next; this is the
feeling of expectation.
Core Drive 8: Loss and Avoidance
Users focus their energies on avoiding something negative.
Source: octalysisgroup.com
WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING
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The eight core drives mark out a distinct octagonal According to Chou, white hat core drives give people a
structure. On the left are the drives that demand sense of control, leading to feelings of fulfilment,
methodical thought, logic and analysis, while on the right satisfaction and accomplishment. Black hat core drives, on
are the drives that require imaginative thought, creativity the other hand, cause people to experience a loss of control,
and social interplay. ‘White hat’ drives take their place at resulting in feelings of anxiousness, alarm, and even fear.
the top of the structure, and ‘black hat’ at the base.
Chou points out that failing to include a blend of white and
black hat motivators in gamification design weakens the
overall experience, for only black hat motivators can instill
a sense of urgency. As catalysts for action, black hat
Meaning motivators are essential.
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consideration … “to how they want users to feel as they

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perform actions and tasks”. Today, Yu-kai Chou’s

Social Influence
Ownership

human-centric approach to gamification design is applied

by designers around the world striving for deeper
engagement and effective results.

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WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

Chou identifies eight drives that motivate people to perform actions:
Epic Meaning and Calling; Development and Accomplishment;
Creativity and Feedback; Ownership and Possession; Social
The Octalysis Framework: A human-centric Pressure and Relatedness; Scarcity and Impatience; Unpredictability
gamification design framework and Curiosity; and Loss and Avoidance

developed by Yu-kai Chou White hat drives give people a sense of control, leading to positive

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feelings, while black hat drives cause a loss of control and induce
negative emotions.
 E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan

B.F. Skinner
Abraham Maslow
Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria

B.F. Skinner
Daniel H. Pink
In 2010, another model of motivation emerged, this one
a collaborative effort between Harvard Business School
professors, Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, and
the school.

Called The Four Drive model, the theory is that human

beings are motivated by four, core biological drives.
According to Lawrence and Nohria, at any given time
Paul Lawrence
Nitin Nohria

some combination of these drives determine an

individual’s behaviour. Because these drives are rooted
in powerful emotions, which influence people’s choices
and decisions.

For gamification designers, an artful incorporation of

these biological drives into solution design leads to
deeper engagement with the content.

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

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 Aquire Bond The four drives are:

Drive to Acquire: stuff, status, assets, resources and reputation

Drive to Defend: status, stuff, ideas and relationships

Drive to Bond: belong to and help cooperate, collaborate, and

Driven to acquire stuff, Driven to engage, cooperate,
status, resources fit in socially form communities

Drive to Create: learn, produce, and improve individual and

collective contributions

Choice Across these many theories, we can see a broad frame of

reference for gamification. Also, a subtle shift taking place,
as gamification moves into the realm of motivational design.

Driven to defend status, Driven to create better self,

stuff, ideas, relationships team, organisation, world

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

Underpinning each of the four drives identified by
Defend Create Lawrence and Nohria are powerful emotions, which
influence decision-making.

Appealing to people’s inner motivational drives, and

the emotions underpinning them, leads to

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deeper engagement.
Rewards and their role This helps us understand the relationship between
motivation and rewards. It’s our desire to get the

in motivational design
The difference between intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards
To understand the relationship between motivation
and rewards, and the difference between intrinsic
and extrinsic rewards, first, we need to turn to
neuroscience, and learn more about how our brains
interpret rewards.
reward (which, as we’ve said, is really the desire to
end our craving for it), that motivates us to act. And
that’s why all rewards – intrinsic and extrinsic – are
extrinsically motivating.
So, what is an intrinsic motivator? It’s when we are
moved to do something simply for the love of doing it
– in and for itself. See the difference?
Next, let’s address the difference between intrinsic
and extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are easy to
understand because they’re visible and, most often,
tangible. Think gift cards, vouchers, merchandise and
travel trips.

Wired for pleasure: What neuroscience tells us

The human brain has a powerful, in-built reward

circuit. What’s interesting is that this circuit activates,

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

not when we receive a reward but beforehand, in
anticipation of the reward, and what actually drives
our reward-seeking behaviour is the desire to satisfy
our craving for the reward.

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Extrinsic rewards: I want
However, extrinsic rewards are not always tangible.
A digital badge of, say a trophy, is an intangible reward.
The trophy isn’t a physical trophy; it’s a visual symbol.
Yet it is registered by the brain as a reward, as
something desirable, so we strive to get it.
Intrinsic rewards: I feel
Now what about intrinsic rewards?
Two words: Thank you.
Studies conducted by Harvard Medical School have
shown that when we hear the words, ‘thank you’, our
brain releases the reward neurotransmitter,
dopamine. Who knew? A simple ‘thank you’ is
a reward – an intrinsic reward.
Other intrinsic rewards include things like time off
from work, or time in the company of someone we
admire, or learning, which delivers a series of
intrinsic rewards, such as respect, knowledge,
skills and self-worth. Rewards are powerful
activators of human motivation, and their role in
motivational design will always be a leading one.
Motivations and rewards are different: Motivations
are the reasons we act; rewards are the results of
our actions.
WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING
Rewards are extrinsic motivators because our brains
register them as external to itself.
Intrinsic rewards resonate internally, and link to
powerful emotional experiences.
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Real-world example
Discovery Vitality
Wanting to incentivise and reward members for
being physically active and maintaining a healthy
lifestyle, Discovery Vitality launched the Active
Rewards Program. It sets members a weekly points
goal and, once achieved, members have the freedom
to redeem their mobile rewards at a range of popular
retailers, from coffee shops and grocery stores to
movie outlets.
Real-world results
Healthy bottom line
Active Rewards has seen a consistent, high double
digit weekly redemption rate across all reward
partners. Most importantly, gym log-ins have increased
by an average of 25%.

WHERE GAMIFICATION IS GOING

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Gamification design 101

Let’s do this
Designing your gameplan
Five steps to success
Gamification is all about motivation; specifically, motivational design.
Unless your design motivates people to change behaviour, it’s not doing
its job. Here are the steps you can follow to design a motivational solution
that delivers the results you want.

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

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Step #1
What’s the objective here?

Without a clearly defined statement of the

business objectives for your gamified solution,
you’ll get nowhere fast.

Find out what the specific motivational challenges

are that have made people think gamification is
1
the solution.

Next, map out the metrics that will measure your

players’ behaviour. These metrics indicate whether
your solution is working. Doing this upfront
provides a sanity check throughout
your design and implementation process.

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

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Step #2
It’s all about the players

Good gamification design begins with a deep

understanding of the players; be they your
customers, channel partners or employees.

2
Undertake ethnographic research. It provides a
‘whole-person’ perspective of your players: insights
into their needs, values, aspirations and attitudes.
Also, their environmental realities: where they live,
how they travel, speak, eat and socialise.

These nuanced perspectives will ensure that

your solution stays real and relevant.

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

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Step #3
Design the player experience
3
Create a story and build a narrative structure around it.

Avoid the mistake of reducing your player journeys to

simple, linear steps. Remember, your players bring different
levels of aptitude to your challenges. Also, as they make
progress, they gain more skills. So, you want to introduce
activities that serve to pique players’ interest and that
challenge their problem-solving abilities.

To eliminate boredom, design player journeys that

incorporate multiple decision trees. This introduces
unpredictability, and makes the solution immersive
and engaging. It also gives players the freedom
of choice: a key feature of deep engagement.

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

Set count-downs and time limits to create a sense
of urgency. Keep feedback brief but consistent.

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Step #4
Nail your reward strategy

The choice is yours: To incorporate monetary or

non-monetary rewards into your solution, or to use a
combination of both. What’s really important is that your
design incorporates activities that players find intrinsically
motivating, and that trigger their desire to learn and grow
and improve.

4
When players complete these activities, a blend of extrinsic
and intrinsic rewards is ideal. So, a learning module, for
example, can end with the intrinsic reward of mastery and
new-found finesse, as well as an extrinsic reward, such as
tickets to a special event or digital vouchers.

Also remember to balance your rewards. Mark the points

in your solution where you want to see evidence of players’

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

behaviour change. These points should feature special
reward moments. And get creative with your rewards. Often
it is creativity, and not the actual cost of the reward, that
attracts widespread participation and involvement.

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Step #5
Testing, testing 123

Don’t go live until you have tested every aspect of your

gamified solution. Be sure to test on a small group of
people from your intended target audience of players.
Then, listen to the feedback. In fact, never stop listening.
Every piece of feedback is another opportunity to adapt
your design and deliver the results you want.

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

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Gameplan checklist
Define the business objective

Define the current behaviour(s), desired behaviour(s),

and the change between these two states

Map the metrics between current and

desired behaviour(s) That’s a wrap
Determine timeline to achieve desired state In this guide, we’ve helped you to see that
gamification, and motivational design, is not a fad.
It’s here to stay, and its future is looking brighter
Describe the players
than ever. Because, when gamification is grounded
in sound motivational science, it is a powerful tool
Design player journeys, including challenges, activity
loops and decision trees to engage, motivate and reward people for achieving
goals and, in the process, your business objectives.

Develop reward strategy

Test on a player group

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

Deploy the solution

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At Playa, we focus on what we do best: Creating gamified
experiences that change behaviour. Everything you need to win the
engagement of your customers, channel partners and employees.
Get in touch and let’s unlock the full potential of your business.

Email: info@getplaya.com

Phone: +27 21 700 5201

GAMIFICATION DESIGN 101

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