Gamification techniques applied to a design studio
Written by Irina Spiglazova, content and PR manager of Heyllow Lab.
Before I share personal viewpoints on a real case of our studio let’s clarify some terms. Perhaps, you’ve heard about gamification so much, however, I’d like to articulate some basic things one more time. Gamification means you integrate definite game design elements and game principles into non-game context. What for? To make any kind of human activity more vital and energized as we love playing games exactly for that. Unfortunately, for many reasons, work is not a game but it is still a good stuff for gamification.The question is which elements and principles we can use to gamificate it.
GNS and other matters
Ron Edwards in his GNS theory (I hardly recommend his article) says that people perceive any game in three ways:
- as a competition among participants. It includes victory and loss conditions, both short-term and long-term, that reflect on the people’s actual play strategies.
- as an exploration. Many gamers get fun discovering the possibilities of the world they are playing in. They are being involved in the process via roleplaying characters, passing through situations, investigating system of rules and setting or just immersing into the atmosphere.
- as a narration. The game turns out to be a story-driven activity based on a conflict in the specialized sense of literary analysis. Players are often considered co-authors and characters are formal protagonists in the classic Lit 101 sense.
Gamification techniques also apply these models. Keep in mind that competitive, explorative and narrative elements can be mixed in a holistic game-like system, however, one of these approaches should be basic otherwise you can destroy the system.
The most common and easiest way to gamificate any kind of activity is to transform it into the contest. And here is a real case how to refresh the daily routine of five talented designers who got stuck in their projects.
Dribbble Race
We called this story “Dribbble race” because Dribbble had been chosen as an arena for the internal contest. Each designer one after another had to post on Dribbble one shot on the same topic. In August we sublimated our most secret desires and chose extremely actual one. Yeahhhh, right, that was VACATION TIME! Also we asked our followers to become fair judges to select faves, support juniors and inspire debutants. At the end, we promised to announce the winners (likes spot the victory) and give funny prizes. We launched the project with the sunny task manager from Pavel Novytskyi:
Likes: 74. Views: 1,747. Responses: 4.
However, our Dribbble Race turned out to be a contest of snails. The next shot appeared only in a week. Yet we were obstinate and ambitious.
Likes: 86. Views: 1,828. Responses: 2.
One more summer was over but vacations can happen at any time. On this occasion, Nadia Tiron prepared a lovely set of typical vacation stuff. This shot got into Dribbble debut collection of the week and September collection of best icons.
Likes: 241. Views: 3,144. Responses: 26.
A new wave of creativity brought an ocean breathing shot from Victoria Valigurskaya. Feel salt on your lips and heartquake in your chest. On September 9 the surfboard concept got into Daily UI newsletter as the best idea of the day for e-commerce. Not bad.
Likes: 202. Views: 2,666. Responses: 10.
Audacious Artem Kovalenko offered an experimental concept of self-tuning packing app. Would you trust in self-learning mobile service preparing for a trip? The shot was showcased on IOSUp.
Likes: 147. Views: 2,010. Responses: 6.
Epilogue
Game is an ancient live structure. Sometimes it can naturally transfigure from within without your permission. In this case, just trust it and have fun.
When our contest was over we realized that despite different numbers of likes all the participants defeated themselves. No time for losers ’cause we are the champions of the world!
