Gamification
Gamification is the application of the elements of a game in a situation that is not a game in opposition to it so as to increase user involvement, motivation, and participation. It is the use of rivalry elements, awards, and challenges of driving behavior and areas of problem in the experience of people in different fields like schooling, marketing, and work-related productivity.
Duolingo's language learning app demonstrates gamification as one of the ways of using the features in the app.You can learn different languages of your choice. It, however, is not the only field where gamification can be effectively applied. Another platform where points and badges are used for motivation is Duolingo. Also, Nike employs a similar way to promote health and brand loyalty by adding a gamified feature to their apps. In addition to that, companies make use of the gamified training modules to develop employee skills and increase involvement.
Gamification is a tool that makes user engagement fun and rewarding tasks is it is it fulfilled. Inserting devices like points, leaderboards, and challenges, users feel more driven to explore the content more frequently and with greater depth. For instance, the exercise application, which rewards users with virtual badges for carrying out the workouts, can make them feel a sense of accomplishment and be part of a community, which in turn will increase their activity level.
The psychological theories related to gamification are the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Engaging in activities just for their own reward is called intrinsic motivation, and in contrast, extrinsic motivation is getting things done for the attainment of outside rewards. The technique of gamification is based on these concepts of motivation by presenting rewards, feedback, and the feeling of achievement which drive people to continue their activities. For example, being able to receive rewards in a learning app can reward the studying activity more.
Some main difficulties of introducing gamification are to check if the game pieces correspond to the objectives of the actions, prevent the situation of excessive rewards which can cause lack of motivation, and create activities that support different user experiences. Besides, bad design can also result in negative experiences like frustrations or not being involved. The few successful cases like Starbucks Rewards have managed to bring together both the element of entertainment and the essence of real engagement thus keeping their users consistently interested.