Gamification Design Frameworks

A gamification framework is a guide to help you add game-like elements to non-game contexts. These frameworks can make your interface more engaging and user-friendly. For example, consider a focus app.

Using a gamification framework to enhance the app will help you decide:

• What elements to use (like points, challenges, rewards)
• Where to place them (like in focus sessions, progress tracking)
• When to introduce them (at the start, after milestones)
• How to implement them (for example, immediate feedback or gradual progression)

By following a framework, you make sure these elements fit well with the task and context, helping users stay focused and reach their goals. It ensures that the gamification is meaningful and supports the user journey.

The 6D framework is a model by Werbach & Hunter for creating effective gamified systems that achieve business goals and satisfy user needs.^[1] The first step, defining business objectives, involves identifying what you want your gamified system to achieve. Business objectives can be anything, such as increasing sales, improving user engagement, or getting more customer feedback. For example, imagine a company wants to use a gamified system to boost customer feedback. To define this clearly, the company would:

• List goals: For example, increase customer feedback, improve product ratings, and enhance customer loyalty.
• Rank goals: Customer feedback is the top priority, followed by product ratings and loyalty.
• Justify goals: For example, more feedback helps improve products, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.
• Delete irrelevant mechanics: Identify which game mechanics support your objectives and remove those that don't. For example, earning badges and unlocking levels can encourage feedback. However, adding a complex storyline where users follow a treasure hunt might be engaging, but is irrelevant to the goal of increasing feedback, as it distracts from the primary task of providing product reviews.

It’s important to distinguish between actual business goals and gamification features. A business goal is not something like “create a leaderboard system.” A leaderboard is a game mechanic or a tool you might use to support a goal like boosting engagement or increasing repeat visits. But on its own, it doesn’t represent a business outcome.

The next step in the 6D framework is to delineate desired behaviors. This means identifying the specific actions you want users to take. To define them:

• Be specific: Clearly define what you want users to do. For example, you might want users to complete a certain number of daily lessons in an educational app or participate in quizzes after each lesson.
• Define success metrics: Determine what will show that your gamification project is successful. These metrics should align with your target behaviors. For instance, if you want users to complete daily lessons, a success metric could be the number of lessons completed per week.
• Analytics: Identify ways to measure progress towards your success metrics. Common analytics include DAU (Daily Active Users) over MAU (Monthly Active Users), virality (how often users refer others), and the scope of virtual economy activity (such as points or badges earned). These measurements help track user engagement and the effectiveness of your gamification efforts. For example, tracking the number of lessons completed and badges earned can show how engaged users are with the educational content.

Next, identify who will participate in your gamified activity (your users) and understand their characteristics. Describe them using demographics (age, gender, income, location) and psychographics (values, personalities).

One useful way to further categorize players is by using Bartle’s player types:

• Achievers: These players are motivated by reaching goals and gaining rewards. They enjoy earning points, badges, and completing challenges.
• Explorers: Explorers are curious and love discovering new things. They enjoy uncovering hidden features and navigating through the game environment.
• Socializers: Socializers are driven by interaction with others. They thrive on team challenges, cooperative tasks, and community activities.
• Killers: Killers seek competition and enjoy winning against others. They are motivated by leaderboards, competitive challenges, and direct competition with peers.^[2]

By understanding these player types, you can tailor game elements to engage each group effectively. For example, include leaderboards and competitive challenges for killers, while offering cooperative tasks and social features for socializers. This ensures your gamified system resonates with your audience and keeps them engaged.

The next step involves creating repetitive, motivating structures within your gamified system. There are two main types of activity loops:

• Engagement loops: These focus on individual user actions. They start with a motivator, like earning points, leading to an action, such as completing a task. This action generates feedback, like seeing points earned, which then motivates further actions, creating a continuous loop of motivation and feedback.
• Progression loops: These operate at a broader level. They guide users through a series of challenges, from easy to hard, helping them progress from novice to master. These loops ensure users have a clear path of advancement, keeping them engaged over the long term.

Rewarding users for completing the same task over and over may work at first, but it loses effectiveness as the experience becomes predictable and repetitive. Without a sense of growth or challenge, users may lose interest. That’s why combining engagement and progression loops is key to creating a gamified system that keeps users motivated and invested.

Fun is essential in a gamified system because it is the primary motivator for users to participate and engage. It makes the experience enjoyable and memorable. In short, fun is crucial for creating a successful and engaging system.

According to game designer Nicole Lazzaro, there are 4 types of fun:

• Easy fun (novelty): Fun from exploration, role play, and creativity. For example, a UX learning app might have casual drag-and-drop design games to help understand basic concepts.
• Hard fun (challenge): Fun from accomplishing difficult goals. For example, the app might include challenging design projects where users must create complex user interfaces within specific constraints.
• People fun (friendship): Fun from competition and cooperation with others. For example, the app could offer design competitions and collaborative projects where users can work together and share feedback.
• Serious fun (meaning): Fun from meaningful activities that change oneself and the world. For example, the app might include projects that focus on designing for social good, like creating accessible interfaces for people with disabilities.^[3]

When designing for the 4 Bartle player types (achievers, explorers, socializers, killers), consider incorporating all 4 types of fun to maximize engagement and satisfaction.

The final step of the 6D framework is to deploy appropriate game elements. At this stage, you should have a clear vision of your gamified system. Describe in detail what your system looks like, including the game elements and the overall player experience. For example, in a productivity app, decide if it will be used on personal computers, mobile devices, or both. Explain the feedback and rewards players will receive, such as points for completing tasks, badges for reaching milestones, or progress bars showing their achievements. Ensure these elements align with your business objectives, target behaviors, player personas, and activity loops defined earlier.

Select game elements that best fit your goals and have a positive impact on user engagement. By thoughtfully deploying these elements, you create a cohesive and effective gamified system that motivates and engages users.

The MDA framework, created by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek, helps design engaging video games by focusing on 3 key components:

• Mechanics: These are the rules and actions within the gamified system. For example, in a habit-tracking app, mechanics might include logging daily habits, earning streaks for consecutive days, and receiving reminders.
• Dynamics: This is how the mechanics interact in real-time, shaping the user's experience. In the habit-tracking app, dynamics could involve the satisfaction of maintaining streaks, the motivation from competing with friends, and the feedback from daily reminders.
• Aesthetics: These are the emotional responses the gamified system evokes. Aesthetics go beyond just being "fun" and aim to create feelings like accomplishment, motivation, and connection. For example, the sense of achievement when maintaining a streak, the relief from stress when completing daily tasks, and the joy of interacting with a community all contribute to a positive user experience.

By using the MDA framework, you can ensure that game mechanics lead to dynamic interactions that create the desired emotional experiences, making the gamified system engaging and effective.

The player-centered design framework devised by Janaki Kumar and Mario Herger focuses on putting players’ goals at the center of the design process, similar to user-centered design. It consists of 6 steps:

• Understanding the player: Identify who the player is, such as a customer, employee, or supplier, and understand their context and needs.
• Understanding the mission: Define the mission by examining the current situation and desired outcomes, aligning it with player activities and management goals.
• Understanding human motivation: Learn what motivates people, like achievement, social connection, and competition. For example, using a reward system to acknowledge progress or adding multiplayer options for social interaction.
• Applying game mechanics: Use this understanding to create engaging game mechanics that drive player behavior.
• Managing, monitoring, and measuring progress: Continuously track progress to ensure the project's success.
• Considering legal and ethical considerations: Ensure compliance with laws and ethical use of data, aligning gamification elements with company values.

The Octalysis Framework, developed by Yu-Kai Chou, is a gamification design framework that identifies 8 core drives that motivate human behavior. These drives help create engaging and motivating systems by considering human emotions and motivations:

• Epic meaning and calling: Feeling part of something bigger, like contributing to a cause.
• Development and accomplishment: Growth and achievement through tasks, skills, and habits.
• Empowerment of creativity and feedback: Engaging in creative processes and receiving feedback.
• Ownership and possession: Control and ownership over something, driving the desire to improve it. For instance, users customizing their profiles and workspaces.
• Social influence and relatedness: Social interactions, mentorship, acceptance, and competition.
• Scarcity and impatience: Wanting something rare or exclusive.
• Unpredictability and curiosity: Curiosity about what will happen next.
• Loss and avoidance: Avoiding negative outcomes or losses.

By integrating these drives, you can create systems that effectively engage and motivate users.