Gamification now and the in the future
How often do you think about what the future holds for your industry?
Like really sit down and think about it.
I’m talking a cosy arm chair, warm fire, and pipe kind of think.
I did it recently and can highly recommend it (although I could only get my hands on the cosy arm chair part of it).
Yet it’s easy to forget to take time to reflect on your work and the larger industry. I find that often I can just plow on, head down, and focused on everyday work tasks.
But taking time to regularly review, research and track how your work and industry is changing is super important. Doing so can help you work better, faster and give you access to new tools, technologies and processes that might lead to more business, new opportunities, or improved productivity.
Luckily an email I received recently prompted me to stop and sit down and have a think.
The email was an invitation to contribute to an annual gamification report from Growth Engineering alongside some other great thought leaders in the space of gamification that included Karl Kapp, Toby Beresford, Monica Cornetti and Dr Kat Schrier.
I love contributing to these types of reports.
Not only because it does it provide me with a chance to critically review the gamification industry, but more importantly I also get to read different perspectives from others in the space. This for me is super important because… shock and horror... I am confident I do not (and will not) know everything there is to about gamification (thank you Dunning-Kruger effect).
But I do know some things!
So, if you’d like to read my thoughts on the gamification industry you can find a copy of them below.
AND if you want to read the excellent responses from the other thought leaders, you can get your hands on a copy of the full report here.
Gamification in the ‘new normal’
If there’s ever been a time where an understanding of motivation, behaviour design and gamification is needed, it’s now, and particularly in the online learning space.
At the start of the pandemic we saw a sudden move to remote working and online learning for many people.
As a university lecturer that had to move from in-person to online teaching with only a few weeks notice, I definitely experienced the pressure of this change first hand!
Luckily having some knowledge of motivation and gamification design principles helped me create an experience that was still engaging for my students, despite being online. And we’re seeing more and more of this thinking being embedded in the online tools we now have to use.
With the ‘new normal’ of online learning and remote working, it’s been necessary to rethink the design of these experiences. What worked in the classroom or workplace doesn’t necessarily work online. Some motivators that we had in place when in the classroom or workplace are gone, and the ability to perform certain exercises or tasks is harder.
So using gamification and behaviour design principles can help immensely to provide additional structure and motivation when trying to create new habits and make online learning or remote working more engaging.
Current trends in the space
Gamification is still on top when it comes to search popularity, but the area of behaviour design is gaining popularity as an industry and service.
It’s my belief that gamification is a subset of behaviour design, where game design principles, elements and processes are used to try and change behaviour.
I find it useful to think of gamification as just one tool in the behaviour design toolbox, it's a useful tool for some situations but there are other tools we can use to help us as well.
Gamification practitioners can learn a lot from other areas of behaviour design and a holistic approach to behaviour design can help create even more engaging experiences.
What’s going to happen over the next few years
With technology continuing to evolve we’re seeing more and more exciting ways to embed game layers over the top of the real world activities.
We know big companies like Apple are investing heavily in augmented reality technologies, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple reveal augmented reality glasses in the next few years.
Niantic have released an Augmented Reality Toolkit to make it easier to build augmented reality experiences and companies like Estimote have super precise beacons available for location-based experiences.
I love AR games and experiences as they involve getting out and exploring, while also often encourage exercise.
The same goes for virtual reality technologies.
I think as these technologies become more accessible we’re going to see more simulations and gamified experiences being made to help us learn in a more engaging way.
The future certainly looks exciting and playful!
If you’ve got any thoughts on the future of gamification that you’d like to share with me, drop me a line, I’d love to hear them!
Or take a moment and share this article with someone who you think works too hard and needs a break to reflect on their industry.
