Analyzing gamification in Duolingo
I’ve been using Duolingo for over 100 days now to learn German. I am doing a good job so far and have learned a lot since starting, but the most surprising part is how it keeps me doing exercises every day. The reason behind that is the clever way of using gamification in educational products.
Duolingo is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world, it provides a free and fun learning experience with the use of gamification principles and game-like illustrations, and UI elements.
Gamification is the art of adding game-like elements to experiences that traditionally do not involve fun or games.
— interaction design foundation
It is the application of game mechanics and principles to products that are not intended traditionally to be game-driven. The idea is to make products more engaging, fun to use, inviting, and a bit addictive.
Duolingo checks all the boxes: it keeps learners engaged in the learning process, is fun and easy to use, and makes people around the world practice every single day. I’m one of the people still motivated to keep going.
So how is Duolingo accomplishing its mission?
According to the interaction design foundation, there are four basic principles of fun in a game :
- Goals
- Rules
- Feedback
- Voluntary Participation
Let’s analyze how they apply to Duolingo’s model :
Goals
One of the essential components of fun is feeling pleased, which comes from a sense of purpose — goals are the exact things to include to make users feel that sense of purpose. If you think about it, every game you ever played had a goal/objective, which sometimes changed according to the level you were on. You knew what you needed to accomplish to win — that’s the goal, the purpose of the game.
For Duolingo, the main objective is to learn the language, but it is broken down into levels, and levels are broken down into “chapters”.
So the goal becomes to pass the chapter, then level, and then the whole checkpoint by doing the exercises correctly, which can include pronunciation, spelling, or grammar.
Achieving these educational challenges empowers us with a feeling of accomplishment. Thus, it tricks us into viewing it as a game-like activity and motivates us to come back every day without feeling obligated.
Rules
Rules restrict the means to achieving our goals. They increase the element of challenge. Without a challenge — there is no point in playing. Duolingo’s levels get harder and harder with each completed checkpoint. The app has “lives” with a full state of five, and with each mistake, you lose a “life”. To regain them you either need to wait 4 hours for each “life” or practice additional exercises.
The interesting thing is that the web version doesn’t work on the same principle: you can make as many mistakes as you want without losing “lives”. I found this difference very intuitive and useful. Whenever I practice on my computer, I am prepared and mentally ready to spend more time, take notes, and learn. So in this scenario, I appreciate the ability to make tons of mistakes without having to refill my “lives”. On the other hand, users mostly use the app as a daily quick challenge, and losing lives is a part of the fun and fulfills the need for quick practice.
Feedback
“Players” need to know how they are doing within the context of the rules and the goals. Feedback may include — level scores, progress indications, leaderboards, inside rewards, and many more.
For Duolingo, you receive feedback with every little mission you accomplish. It starts by providing a progress bar during each level — It stays in place if you guess wrong and fills when you guess right. Then, it continues by displaying progress for each chapter or category you finish: it usually happens when you finish 5 levels in each category and progress with a daily Streak and daily XP goal — everything topped with leaderboards and leagues.
Leaderboards are one of the biggest motivations themselves, as they trigger the user’s need and desire to be first. The top 10 from the leaderboard progress to the next league. Many people find themselves working a lot harder and doing more exercises to pass to the next league nearly every time.
People usually don’t like to lose things: friends, points, or achievements — the phenomenon is called loss aversion and it is one of the biggest drivers for users to act.
So we can see that Duolingo provides feedback in a lot of different ways and these little visualizations are essential to keep the “players'” attention and keep them coming back.
Voluntary Participation
So the last principle is voluntary participation:
It’s no fun if you’re made to do something. That’s work. Games are fun because we choose to play together, we choose to agree to the goals and rules, and because we enjoy the feedback from our choices. — interaction design foundation
Users keep coming back to Duolingo because It’s fun. After all, they like learning while feeling like playing and competing, and also because they can clearly see where they are on the path of learning and how they are progressing.
But are all “players” the same?
Richard A. Bartle, professor and game researcher, classified common player characteristics into 4 different player types:
- Achievers
- Explorers
- Socializers
- Killers
How does Duolingo satisfy each type of player?
Some game mechanics are targeted at specific types of users and trigger them in different ways.
For example, Achievers focus on points, badges, and statuses, thus, Duolingo triggers them with level points, XP points, leaderboard places, and leagues. The progress you achieve is visible to other members of the platform and gives achievers a chance to show off their achievements.
For Explorers who are more focused on exploring new areas and don’t care much about the points, Duolingo offers new levels and categories to unlock with each completed level. Duolingo also adds stories that unlock by collecting crowns.
For the Socializers who are always happy to collaborate and achieve goals with others, Duolingo integrated forums, where you can discuss, report, review questions, and exchange opinions. What’s more important, you can follow and track the progress of other learners and your friends.
The last type — the killers are on average 1% of all player types, they are quite similar to achievers: are motivated to earn points and progress, but they focus more on Winning and seeing others Lose. That’s why the leaderboard might be the trigger on the platform for them. The need and willingness to win are satisfied by the special prices for the first three places (need to be the winner) on the leaderboard, and people who don’t take the first 10 places are demoted to the previous league (seeing others lose).
Duolingo’s great application of game principles makes it an example of an addictive product and an example of the successful use of a player-centered design approach.
Duolingo provides a sense of purpose, challenge, and clear feedback along the way and is a fun voluntary way to learn for busy language learners.
