When we think about video games, most of us see it as a pastime and nothing more than a good way to keep our kids entertained. However, the gaming industry is huge, and according to the latest research, nearly 70% of people in the USA play video games on at least one type of device.
If you don’t make video games, you can still benefit from this craze – by using gamification. Taking design elements from games and putting them in non-game contexts, you can make even the most boring of actions into pure entertainment. With gamification, app users perform various tasks and get rewarded with badges, points, level increases and much more.
Gamification is nothing new and companies from various industries have successfully used it to engage with their users and market their products and services
Here are a few great examples of how gamification can be used in different ways and in different industries.
Gamification for education
Although this title sounds like the name of a rap song, it’s by far one of the best things that ever happened to the world of learning. Education on its own is fun for very few people, so putting some game elements into it really boosts the appeal of learning, especially for children and young adults.
Udemy
Udemy is a well known online platform where anyone can put up a course that people can sign up for, learn from and take tests. So, what kind of game elements does it have? If you’re a student taking courses, you get a bar to track your progress as you advance through the course, as well as a trophy for completing one.
Image source: Udemy
As a course creator and owner, you get complete freedom in structuring your course and setting these milestones for your students.
Sololearn
This is a platform where you can learn how to code in different programming languages, such as Java, HTML5, C++, and others. It may seem like a boring topic, but Sololoearn makes it immensely fun.
Image source: Sololearn
You can take lessons and pass tests to see if you’ve retained the knowledge from those lessons. Then you can enter into a coding challenge with another member, stacking up your code against each other. The winner takes the experience points and moves up on a leaderboard. It’s a fun learning experience that can drive interest in programming among people of all ages.
Duolingo
This is probably the most famous platform for language learning, with over 300 million users worldwide. There are two reasons for this: it’s completely free and it’s great fun.
Image source: Duolingo
Through daily challenges and games, you get to earn experience points and set your own goals. You can track your weekly progress and see how you stack up against others on leaderboards for different languages. If you happen to make too many mistakes, you run out of lives and have to wait before you can continue learning. For anyone struggling to learn a new language, this is a fun and completely free way to gain language mastery.
Gamification in productivity apps
The modern age gave us the gift of fast internet, social media and the ability to watch Game of Thrones on demand from anywhere. Unfortunately, it also brought us so many distractions that staying focused and getting work done is now harder than ever. Productivity apps are popping up every day and some of the best ones use gamification to help you get more work done.
SuperBetter
This app is proof that anything can be gamified. No matter what you’re working on, you can use SuperBetter to turn it into a fun game instead of a chore. You can set major goals (writing this article, for example), divide it up into quests (finding reputable sources) and even designate bad guys (YouTube playlist with puppy videos) who get in your way. It needs a little bit of time setting up but once done it’s easy to use.
Fitocracy
Besides making myself write every day, another thing where I need an extra push (pun intended) is getting a proper workout. There are plenty of apps that help you get in shape and Fitocracy is one of the most widely used.
You can use it to log your workouts and get points, as well as earn badges for unlocked achievements. See how well you’re doing using interactive charts and always have a birds’ eye view of your fitness goals. You get all this for free, while a paid plan (starting from $1 per day) gives you a personalized meal plan as well as a personal coach.
Thirty
Picking up a new habit is easy. Sticking to it for longer periods of time? Not so much. Thirty is a clever app for creating 30-day challenges for changing your habits, whether it’s breaking old ones or creating new ones. For example, you can quit junk food, start reading more, stop spending so much time on your phone etc.
Image source: Thirty
What Thirty adds to the mix is the ability to track your progress (using videos and photos), say how you’re feeling about the challenge, and share all this with your friends. Once you’re done, it gives you a video of your 30-day effort, combining all the photos and videos into a coherent story.
Gamification in sales apps
Love it or hate it, sales are an incremental part of any company. Unlike any other job, sales requires a specific mindset and employees who are hungry to close more deals, generate new leads and destroy their quotas. However, sometimes the monetary incentive is just not enough, and this is where gamification comes into play.
MindTickle
On the face of it, MindTickle is an onboarding tool that any department can use, but it was built specifically for sales. Instead of a standard onboarding process, sales professionals are given a board where they move around as they learn about their company and role. Employees are given points based on their activity and managers can see who needs some extra training to excel at their role.
Image source: MindTickle
LevelEleven
Besides competing with yourself, you can also stack your sales team to compete against each other in a team chat app, and LevelEleven makes this possible. Pick a KPI, invite your team members, fire up the app and let the games begin. Whether it’s the number of calls, generated leads, booked demos, emails sent, you can measure anything and watch your sales team compete on the leaderboard.
Conclusion
Even if you’ve never been a gamer, you can’t deny the appeal of video games. Whether you want to learn something new, increase your productivity. get fit or motivate your sales team to perform better, you can do it more easily while having fun through the use of gamification.
