“Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and addicting elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities.” — Yu-kai Chou

As the world broadens its understanding of UX designs, it’s become common to see game elements in non-game applications of all kinds. This user-centered approach harnesses the power of human motivation to make a experience more “fun.” By digging deeper into the psychology of the users, our designs can engage with them at a more fundamental level. Let’s take a look at the specific mechanics of gamification and some examples! 🙌

The Octalysis Gramification Framework (Credit)

The Framework

Gamification pioneer Yu-kai Chou created the Octalysis Gamification Framework which established the eight pillars of human motivation that drive people to engage in certain activities. These core drivers are:

🦸 Epic Meaning and Calling: Designs that makes the user feel like they are part of something that is bigger than themselves. It motivates the user to devote significantly more time and energy to that activity.

👑 Development and Accomplishment: The process in which we are rewarded for making progress, developing skills, and overcoming challenges. Common examples include points, progress bars, and leaderboards!

🎨 Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback: When players are given the space to try various ways of expressing creativity, and see the results of that creativity, e.g. Legos.

🏰 Ownership and Possession: People who feel ownership over a certain activity or experience are motivated to own more or improve what they already own.

🤳 Social Influence and Relatedness: Social elements such as friendships are often a strong motivator for why we do a certain things. Our desire to fit in or to relate to the people around us will guide our decisions in various situations.

💎 Scarcity and Impatience: The harder it is to get, the more valuable it becomes. This is a fundamental economic concept that also applies to designing experiences!

🧐 Unpredictability and Curiosity: Similar to cliffhangers in tv shows and movies, we’re energized by unknown possibilities. To find out what happens next, we are driven to follow through with that activity.

💸 Loss and Avoidance: Humans are cognitively inclined to avoid taking losses, so we’ll oftentimes do extra work to prevent that loss from happening.

Duolingo: An Octalysis Application

We find traces of these gamification principles across the many dimensions of our lives, for better or worse. Let’s take a look at Duolingo, a well-loved language learning app that features multiple pillars from the Octalysis framework:

Duolingo’s social functionalities (Credit)

1. Social Influence and Relatedness: by being able to see your friends’ progress and compete with other users on the leaderboard, Duolingo appeals to competitive nature in users to drive further growth. Functions such as friend streaks allows multiple users to stay motivated together as well.
2. Development and Accomplishment: Duolingo builds a sense of accomplishment in their users through experience points, streaks, and progress bars. These are all units or functions that measure progress, helping users stay motivated in their language learning journey.
3. Loss and Avoidance: streaks have been indispensable in keeping users engaged with the app. The longer the streak, the more time the user has invested in maintaining it. This translates to a greater “price” that the users has to pay when they break it.

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If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, check out the inspiration for this article: Yu-kai Chou’s *Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges and Leaderboards.*

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