Revision as of 11:51, 11 May 2015

1 Overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. Gamification has been studied and applied in several domains, with some of the main purposes being to engage (improve user engagement, physical exercise, return on investment, flow, data quality, timeliness), teach (in classrooms, the public or at work), entertain (enjoyment, fan loyalty), measure (for recruiting and employee evaluation), and to improve the perceived ease of use of information systems. A review of research on gamification shows that a majority of studies on gamification find positive effects from gamification. However, individual and contextual differences exist.

This article explores the development of gamification within an organisation and how bxp can help to deliver against those goals.

2 The Psychology

Classical conditioning became Behaviourism . Rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad behaviour. Gamification uses only half of this, the good behaviour side.

Essentially gamification is the psychological manipulation of people to achieve the goals you want through offering reward. Where salary provides basic reasoning for employment, gamification focuses on rewarding specific performance.

There are numerous articles and proof that getting rewarded in games causes positive chemical reactions in the brain. Here are some interesting articles on the subject:

• http://www.mostdangerousgamedesign.com/2013/08/the-psychology-of-rewards-in-games.html
• http://www.thinkfeelplay.com/theory-of-gaming-motivation/

3 The Primary Questions

The usual application of gamification in a business context requires some preparation.

• What process / procedure are you trying to incentivise staff to accomplish?
  • Attendance, sickness, training progress, quality, compliance, not ready time

• What metrics are you going to use as the primary record of accomplishment?
  • HR report, sickness report, training records, quality scores, quality control output, phone system reporting

Gamification allows for numerous of these metrics to be used. So each of the metrics become enumerated.

The enumeration of the events allows points / values to be gained / lost by users.

• What are you willing to put forward as reward for "winning"?
  • Money, time, access to games, access to exclusive material, internal recognition

With these items answered the rest of the process is very straight forward.

4 The Project

The most important part of justification of gamification is ROI (Return on Investment). As is the constant battle of marketing you are asking the business to invest X with the hope of achieving Y. The same is true for the application of gamification.

Maths. What metric (M) is expected to rise by what delta (D) resulting of increased output worth (W) through an investment of (I).  So long as W exceeds I, the project will return a profit.

So now the project has all the key essentials:

• An ROI calculation
• Metrics to be used
• Processes to be included
• Rewards

Now we can apply bxp to be able to measure and manage all the aspects of the project.

5 Using bxp

5.1 The Data

The first part bxp can help with is getting all the relevant metrics into one place. There are a number of different mechanisms that can be used.

• Quality Assurance: A quality control delivery mechanism
• MetaData: Which allows data from spreadsheets and other systems to be centrally stored (e.g. from Phone Systems, HR systems and other sources)
• Inbound Contact: For data capturing with quality
• Case management: For contact management with timing and case management
• Survey Management: Building surveys to get opinions and feedback

Every user in bxp has a unique id upon which numerous pieces of data can be associated with.

5.2 Presentation of the data

Making part of gamification is to present that data back in a visually appealing way.

• KeyStats can be used to present back very visually appealing ways Module_-_KeyStats#Using_KeyStats_to_deliver_Gamification
• Information Centre can be used to communicate results back in an auditable way
• The bxp API allows any data to be pushed into and pulled from bxp allowing for integration with mobile solutions and even data warehouses

5.3 Managing the rewards

Tracking rewards can also be easily managed through bxp

• Form Management: Allows for dbs of results to be built and centrally managed including central scoring
• KeyStats: Can be used to host / facilitate game rewards with data from the bxp API or live from other sources
• MetaData: Allows the manipulation of data from various sources for presentation or pushing to other systems

5.4 Roll out

The easy of availability of bxp means that bxp can be put in front of numerous users very easily and very quickly. Centralised documentation with auditable scoring means easy roll out is very achieveable.

6 Visual Presentation

How you present gamification feeds towards the psychology. For this end utilising speciality designers and visual experts, especially in User eXpreience Design (UXD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience_design ) can greatly enhance the effect of the project.

All n One work with a number of partners with experience in this areas:

• BlueSun Software http://www.bluesunsoftware.com
• CornerHouse http://www.cornerhouse.ie/
• Courtyards Studio http://www.courtyardstudio.com/