Gamification talks

Gamification is the use of game design elements in products that aren’t games. Points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges and progress bars are the familiar tools, but the more thoughtful approaches borrow deeper ideas from games: clear goals, meaningful choices, feedback and a challenge that grows with skill.

It matters for product design because these mechanics can make tasks more engaging and help people build habits. Used carelessly, though, gamification can feel shallow or manipulative, rewarding activity rather than real progress. Much of the discussion in this area is about the difference between surface rewards and intrinsic motivation.

The eight talks here run from 2009 to 2015. Amy Jo Kim covers applying game mechanics to functional software (Google Tech Talk, 2009) and the player’s journey (Gamification 2013). Gabe Zichermann talks about mastering gamification and Sebastian Deterding about getting gamification right, both as Google Tech Talks. At GSummit, Nadya Direkova presents 16 design patterns for user engagement and Nicole Lazzaro explains the science of fun. Stephen Anderson goes from paths to sandboxes, and Anders Toxboe looks at designing with persuasive patterns. The UI-Patterns.com library includes many of these game mechanics as patterns.