Gamification: taking aim at efficiency

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Universal and timeless, games have been a fundamental human activity for thousands of years, but while the first games date back to ancient times, the term gamification is very recent. It was Nick Pelling, a British game designer, who was developing a game interface for cash and drink machines, who first used the term.

What is gamification?

In short, gamification is the application of game mechanics and game design elements to traditionally non game contexts and tasks, as a means to make them more engaging. Gamification, utilised effectively, is one of the most effective digital tools available to companies aiming to achieve greater efficiency across different business functions. By captivating an audience with a well designed gamified construct of rewards, mechanics and techniques, a business can considerably improve their performance in almost any area. They can shorten the hiring cycle by introducing a more reliable measure of applicant suitability, deliver more effective and less labour intensive training, and produce more exciting marketing materials that cut through the sea of sameness created by more traditional marketing campaigns and content.

Rewards, badges, or points, be they in-game or real world, used alongside mechanisms to add elements of competition and challenge, can be used to motivate people to do complex or repetitive tasks. By making anything into a game, you tap into the natural human appetite for challenge, and make things more fun. The same is true when applied to corporate training. Instead of demoralising, dry presentations and workshops, gamified training adopts some of the design elements of video games, and can be used to create more engaging, more immersive scenario-based assessments and activities. When objectives are achieved and solutions to various problems are found in this context, users experience satisfaction and self-motivation, so they are more likely to retain the information presented to them than if Dave from HR just read off the slides.

Why is gamification so effective?

Retention of information is important, but what we really want to see in a training course is long-term retention of knowledge. Parroting back a teaching point during a training session is one thing, but where’s that information when it needs to be applied in the middle of a project? That’s where the money is. The learning environment needs to be conducive to deliver the actual required learning outcomes. Simple presentations which pay lip service, quite literally, to the notion of training, are simply not effective and lack accountability or measurability.

Gamification has its detractors who will cite limitations, but these limitations are often only seen in poorly planned gamification experiences. When applied intelligently, gamification has been proven to have a positive impact on information retention by making the learning process more fun and effective. Gabe Zichermann, founder of Dopamine Inc. and author of Gamification by Design, claims that making work fun can increase employee skill retention by 40%. He also explains that “if you can make something entertaining and include notions of play, you can get the audience to do things they might not otherwise do.”

Games create virtual environments in which learners can experiment with knowledge and theory

In addition, games can be used to familiarise the player with unfamiliar or difficult situations that they may face at work. Creating immersive and challenging scenarios in customised Quizzes can give them industry-specific problems to apply their new knowledge or theory to. The brain uses its full potential when stimulated by game mechanics, rather than when watching simple videos or listening to someone talk. The game is participatory learning, a natural progression of elearning.

Consider too, that by customising a learning pathway for employees to specific objectives, over a series of Quizzes positing ever more challenging scenarios, you’re creating a teaching aid that can be played through at home, or on their schedule around their other tasks. This creates greater efficiency as less labour is required to administer training, and you don’t need 10-plus diaries to match up for a training session to make sense. This also ensures no business function is severely understaffed while training takes place – yet another tick in gamification’s efficiency column. It is far more time efficient and cost effective for the running of your business.

Quicker feedback cycles in training games make for more efficient learning

Gamification is also effective on overall productivity in education, as it gives both employees and learners quick feedback on their performance and allows them to know instantly where they have improved, what they have learned, and areas where they need to focus more attention. With traditional training, it might not be clear that an employee has retained any information, whereas gamified training essentially offers a soft exam, showing both the player where they’re at, and also highlighting any issues to management.

This is also more efficient for the learner, as it is far more engaging to be able to quantify in quick feedback cycles how well you’re taking to new topics of learning. For example, if you put a lot of effort into a task, and only receive feedback 3 weeks later, and find out you’re underperforming, it can hamper your productivity. The same is true in learning. With the quicker feedback cycle, you know where you are in terms of learning performance, so it’s easier to manage your effort in training for the best results.

The use of gamification for corporate training can also encourage social interaction between your employees, and prove itself as a driver of teamwork through its competitive and community aspects. Players can compete with each other through the game and bond while learning key aspects of their work.

Using game mechanics and design principles has many advantages

Another strength of gamification projects is their ability to strengthen a company’s brand. Pound-for-pound, gamified content just packs way more punch than traditional marketing campaigns. Interactive marketing content can just cut through to grab a customer’s attention so much more effectively than a poster or a video. The poster or the video, like the more traditional training methods, even when executed to perfection, say, “Hey, look at me, watch me,” where the gamified content invites users to have an experience.

Gamification on the marketing front allows way more opportunities for differentiation, creates a far more shareable product on social media, and when a gamification strategy is delivered year round for marketing, it delivers the most efficient approach to engaging external audiences.

While utilising a gamification platform like Drimify allows you to use ready-to-rumble game engines, customised to your branding, copy, graphic design, and marketing needs, and can deliver the resources for you to most likely achieve your initial goals straight out of the box, every game you create on the platform generates a lot of useful user data. By looking at things like engagement rates, participation rates, and measuring other metrics, you can improve your approach from campaign to campaign, getting more efficient with every project as you learn more about what works for your audience.

When gamification and efficiency go hand in hand

Gamification as a digital tool is especially good at engaging users in specific tasks and to take desired actions. It can near-automate a lot of elements within a business, and deliver superior results to traditional methods in nearly every instance. When businesses use gamification and commit to the practice, they are aiming true at becoming a more efficient, more competitive, and more innovative machine.

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