Scott Dodson

@Gamebiz

Head of Marketing, Business Owner

Virgin Poker, Gamesys.co.uk

Relationship between Design,

Motivational Design, &

Gamification

Design

Motivational

Design

Gamification

MeMe Me

Me

Chronic Entrepreneur

Used ‘Game Layers’

/Layer of Abstraction

Weren't manipulation

Playful Perception

Mind numbing jobs

Dating

Holding a conversation

Sales – Cold Calling

Raising Angel/VCMoney

Game layers worked.

OMFG

You’re doing it wrong

Copernican Turn

Copernican Turn

Copernican Turn

User

Viewer

Customer

Reader

Customer

Viewer

Media/Brand

Copernican Turn The Media/Brand set the terms of

engagement

Copernican Turn New engagement methods are needed

AppBrand

Property

Site Service

Media

User, Viewer,

Reader Customer

Not just for Readers/Audiences:

Identifying the ‘player’: Who do

you want to motivate?

Readers

Authors/Content Creators

Amplifiers (platforms, influencers)

News organizations/media companies

themselves

And what do you want them to do?

Kick Ass Motivational

Designers

Rest of this talk:

Some Pitfalls

Designing for Sustained engagement

Different User Contract

Using the Flow Channel

Types of Motivation

Intrinsic Needs Satisfaction

Power of Habit

UI & UX

Four Common Pitfalls

To use motivational design most

effectively, remember that:

Pleasure is contextual

No one methodology is a panacea “One

size does not fit all”

Rewards can backfire

Being creepy, controlling or manipulative

has a cost

1. Pleasure is… CONTEXTUAL

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

1. Pleasure is… CONTEXTUAL

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

2. No Single Solution: “Choco-

fication!”

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

3. Rewards can Backfire

The Undermining Effect: Deactivation of Bilateral Striatum as a Function of Rewards in

Subsequent Performance

Control Group

Reward Group

The Undermining Effect: Deactivation of Bilateral Striatum as a Function of Rewards in

Subsequent Performance

Control Group

Reward Group

4. Unchecked, “Data Driven

Design” Can Drive Bad UX

What do I mean by Data Driven

Design?

Developer, Site, Journal

Cherished

Customer

Pitfalls of Behavioral AB testing You can often get someone to do something

once

Why we take action is as key as that we take

action

Discomfort ≠ Sustained

EngagementKill the puppy

Spam my friends

Subtle Language of

Control

Designing for sustained

engagement –fundamental

theories

“Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome

unnecessary obstacles” – Bernard Suits

A Goal

Rules

Voluntary

ObstaclesA Feedback

System

Credit: Jane McGonigal:

Reality is Broken

Designing for Sustained

Engagement I. Establish a different user “contract”

A game is voluntary framework for the user

experience

Obstacles desirable!

In the right context work is highly

satisfying

Designing for Sustained

Engagement II. Design for flow; segment the

experience

Mihalyi CsikszentmihalyiAmy Jo Kim

III. Good UI/UX

—the ‘game-y stuff’ can be subtle

<Ninja Level 11: Cat>

…Subtle and “Domain

Resonant”1 2

366% more people than normal chose

the stairs over the escalator.

+

=

…Subtle and “Domain

Resonant”

Two Types of Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation – Behavior

that is motivated by contingencies

(rewards, punishments) that are

separate from the enjoyment of the

activity itself

Intrinsic Motivation – The activity

itself is its own reward because it is

inherently satisfying. In particular,

humans have specific intrinsic needs

that motivate.

Designing for Sustained

Engagement IV. Motivational Psychology

Shift from purely extrinsic thinking

Why People do things

Taiichi Ohno’s (Toyota): ‘Ask “Why?” 5 times and the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.’

Avoid or Relieve Pain (easy one)

Experience Pleasure (trickier)

But as humans, we have a *need* to experience pleasure

Either way= satisfying a need

Sensation

Fantasy

DiscoveryLaughter

Story

Challenge

Thrill

Triumph

Expression

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

3 Drivers of Intrinsic MotivationScott Rigby - Immersyve

• Feeling “good at”

• Expanding capability

• Learning

• Mastery

COMPETENCE

• Freedom and agency

• Exercising volition

• Choosing

• Many opportunities for

action

AUTONOMY

• You matter to others

,they matter to you

• Meaningful connections

• Competitive, cooperative,

• Even removed:

characters in a book or

movie, developers of an

app.

RELATEDNESSC A R

Competence, Autonomy & Relatedness:

most reliable predictors of engagement

• Multiple longitudinal studies

with 20,000+ subjects

• Underlying psychological

causality vs. solely outcome

metrics (e.g., “clicks” or “fun”)

PENS predicts

sustained engagement...

“Fun” does not.

(PENS) Methodology: Personal Experience of Needs Satisfaction

Approach uses statistical regression analysis to predict long-term engagement

Competence, Autonomy,

Relatedness

Predictive power

with p values <.01

Month 1 Month 12

PENS design: Competence

Scaled challenges (flow)

Clear & juicy feedback

Level=expanded capabilities

Competence Satisfaction in

Journalism

Learning

Sense of Completion (article, paper)

Leveraging knowledge in other

situations—noticeably on top of current

events

PENS design: Autonomy

Mechanics of Choice and Opportunity

Open Environment - Playground

Progression choices (focus, tree-structure)

Sense of purpose/volition

Autonomy Satisfaction in

Journalism

Personal goals might include:

Becoming smarter, well informed

Gaining depth in a particular subject/domain

Being up to date, current, hip, in-the know

Relaxation, decompression, comforting ritual

PENS design: Relatedness You matter to others, they matter to you

Competitive cooperative

Reciprocity awesome; synchronicity, meh

Player to Player; P2NPCs; P2Dev; P2Brand

Clear effort applied on my

behalf=RelatednessHey! It’s the

Hero of

Kvatch! I

can’t believe

it! Wow!”

“…Brave,

brave Sir

Robin…”

Relatedness Satisfaction in

Journalism

Interacting with writers, reporters, authors,

editors

Being known by other readers

Being invited to contribute/being interviewed

Knowing people involved in the story

Meeting staff, subjects, other readers

Final Concept: Power of

Habit Nir Eyal: Hooked

Best set of Distinctions I’ve seen based

in a Behavioral framework

The Hook Model

Trigger

Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Trigger

Action

Fogg’s Elements of Simplicity

Time – how long

Money – financial cost

Physical Effort – labor involved

Brain Cycles – mental effort

Social Deviance – how accpeted

Non-Routine – how disruptive

UI crash course

Its never fun if you can’t figure out how to

play

Confusing UI will bounce people in a

heartbeat

Concept of “Distinction”

Pattern recognition

Distinguishing something from its background

What is this?

2

How about this?

What is this?

This?

Random shapes around which

everyone shares the same

distinction

Lesson Learned

Banking App on facebook

$?

UI: lowering the threshold for

action

And not creating an experience of anti-

competence

The Fundamentals of UX

Understand the reason people use a

product or service

Lay out the steps the customer must

take to get the job done from

Implementation to Outcome

Start removing steps (or failing that,

making each step as easy as possible)

until you have the simplest process

possible

The Fundamentals of UX

Identify a Desire

Use technology to take out the steps

Reward

According to Nir:

Nir’s Framework for Rewards

(Needs Satisfaction)

3 Drivers of Intrinsic MotivationScott Rigby - Immersyve

• Feeling “good at”

• Expanding capability

• Learning

• Mastery

COMPETENCE

• Freedom and agency

• Exercising volition

• Choosing

• Many opportunities for

action

AUTONOMY

• You matter to others

,they matter to you

• Meaningful connections

• Competitive, cooperative,

• Even removed:

characters in a book or

movie, developers of an

app.

RELATEDNESSC A R

Forming Long Term Habits

Think about your habits

Hygiene, Nutirtion

Exercise

Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

Media Consumption

Roadmap for sustained

engagement I. Focus on satisfying Intrinsic as well as extrinsic

needs

II. Establish a fertile context for the experience:

Align with an Epic Quest and offer Voluntary

challenges and a foundation of support.

III. Design with the power of work/Investment in

mind

IV. Be Mindful of Flow- segment the experience for

satisfying challenges if necessary

V. V. Keep it Simple

VI. Establish Habits

Sensation

Fantasy

DiscoveryLaughter

Story

Challenge

Thrill

Triumph

Expression

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

You CAN make experiences

better

Ask yourself these

simple questions:

Given what I know about

my guests…

Why will they like this

experience?

How can I get them to like

it more?

Credit: Jesse Schell: The

Pleasure Revolution

Thank You!

scott.dodson@gamesys.co.uk

@Gamebiz

Framework/Context Critical

Concrete : Explicit

Extrinsic Intrinsic

Creative : Imaginative : Abstract

Engagement Layer

Continuum

More Domain Specificity

More from thefuntheory.com

Credits

Scott Rigby- CEO Immersyve, author, Glued to Games (with Richard Ryan)

Nir Eyal- Consultant, Author, Hooked

Jane McGonigal- Creative Director, Social Chocolate, author, Reality Is Broken, Ph.D. Berkeley

Sebastian Deterding-PhD at the Research Center for Media and Communication at Hamburg University

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Claremont Graduate University, former head of psychology at the University of Chicago

Amy Jo Kim- designer of social gaming systems, PHD University of Washington

Wanda Meloni, M2 Research: http://slidesha.re/gg49nb

Dr. Byron Reeves of the Department of Communication at Stanford &

J. Leighton Read, Executive Chairman, Seriosity, Inc., authors of Total Engagement

David Edery Principal, Fuzbi co-author with Ethan Mollick of Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business

Gabe Zichermann and Joselin Linder authors of Game Based Marketing http://gamebasedmarketing.com/ Chair of Gamification.co

James Currier of Ooga Labs who also credits Clay Shirky and Bret Terrill

Jesse Schell, Professor of Entertainment Technology CMU, CEO Schell Games. Jesse’s talk from DICE: http://tiny.cc/TebRw The pleasure revolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PkUgCiHuH8

Keith Smith, & Carrie Peters of BigDoor.

Rajat Paharia & Mike Earhart of Bunchball

Scott Schnaars & MattHart of Badgeville

Eric Eastman, John Bito, Nathan Affolter, Jason Griffith, Jimmer Sivertsen, Julie Hill & Mike Kerr of Bobber

My sincere apologies to anyone on this list or otherwise who feels they were not properly credited. Kindly point out my error and I will edit accordingly.

Appendix

The Challenge

Great games are hard enough:

Only 4% of games that go into production are

profitable

Add a “real world” activity and you

multiply the difficulty of success

Often not enough just to have the “form of

a game”

Unicorn poop is still poop

Concrete : Explicit

Extrinsic Intrinsic

Creative : Imaginative : Abstract

Engagement Layer

Continuum

Concrete : Explicit

Extrinsic Intrinsic

Creative : Imaginative : Abstract

Engagement Layer

Continuum

What’s coming?

Psychological Technology &Motivational

Design

Tablet as console

“Subscription based” console

Augmented Reality

What’s coming?

What’s coming?

Platforms as Subscription/F2P

Ouya

What’s coming?

Augmented Reality