Game-changer: A Guide to Game-Based Behavioral Science Innovations
The successful application of game design into non-game contexts in recent years has attracted more and more attention from fields such as marketing, sales, app development, health, education, and human resources (just to name a few). This process has been addressed with a myriad of different terms – from “gamification” to “serious games” to “learning through play” – making it nearly impossible to navigate which specific type you may want to implement in your business.
With this in mind, here is a quick guide to provide you with some clarity surrounding these definitions, how they relate to behavioral science, and how to apply them.
Level one: Gamification
What is gamification?
Gamification was the first concept that I heard of involving the application of game design into non-game contexts. It’s usually understood as incorporating game elements like points, leaderboards, and badges (otherwise known as PBLs) into novel situations, such as exercising, learning a new language, training employees, educating students – the list goes on. For example, several health apps compare your time on a run with that of similar users and give out trophies when you break records.
In practice, however, gamification is more complex than simply adding a few game elements. It’s not quite like throwing a few new spices into a stew. We need to understand the core ingredients: how to select, test, and iterate the game elements that will tackle users’ preferences, motivations, and behavioral barriers. Furthermore, the play experience needs to be meaningful to potential users – that is, they need to be intrinsically motivated to do the desired behavior. There are platforms and shortcuts to add PBLs to non-game contexts, but this generalized approach can backfire. Unless we reveal the behavioral barriers and understand what drives our users, PBLs are random tools without a clear purpose.
When should I use gamification?
If you are interested in motivating users to engage in a desired behavior by making it seem more attractive, fun, or easy to do, try gamifying your experience. Gamification has proven particularly successful in the educational sphere by innovating curriculum delivery and evaluation, such as through online learning platforms.1
References
- Sailer, M., Homner, L. The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis. Educ Psychol Rev 32, 77–112 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09498-w
- Hainey, T., Connolly, T. M., Boyle, E. A., Wilson, A., & Razak, A. (2016). A systematic literature review of games-based learning empirical evidence in primary education. Computers & Education, 102, 202-223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.09.001
About the Author
Juan Roa Duarte
Juan Roa is a Consultant at TDL. He has a background in philosophy and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from McGill University. Juan is passionate about education, public innovation, and peacebuilding. Specifically, he wants to use behavioural science and policy-making to tackle inequality and improve people’s lives worldwide. Before joining TDL, Juan was a Policy Advisor on Behavioural Change at Bogota’s Department of Transportation and a Senior Design Researcher at Corpovisionarios, a Colombian think-tank that pioneered applying a social norms approach to social change.
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