Wait don’t run away..
Yes; I have seen a lot of hatred and confusion over this term – CEOs going “I don’t want my employees to play I want them to WORK.. There is a reason I blocked facebook.. ..”
But wait; it’s not all that bad once you understand the concept, just forget about the word gamification.
So first what is gamification?
Wikipedia defines it as the ability to take game design techniques, thinking and mechanics and apply them to enhance a non-game applications and processes.
Changing the way in which employees interact and work by making their daily chores, tasks considered as boring – more engaging and encouraging them to enjoy the tasks they used to avoid such as filling out time sheets to expense claim forms into a more enjoyable experience.
If you play any MMORPGs “I don’t 😉 ” but if you do you will be familiar with a term called “grinding”.. No and it’s not a game dance move either..
It describe the process of engaging in repetitive and boring tasks not pertaining to the story line of the game. Now thousands of millions people do this everyday – this activity is in all MMORPGS and gamers dont get paid.. They do this to advance their character level to be able to access newer content.
So you can see there is an incentive, goal to the process and they do it because they are driven to achieve that goal, although it does not pertain to the story line of the game.
Today I came across an old video link in an email a colleague had sent to me last year I just hadn’t had time to watch it.
But when I did it got me thinking back to gamification and rewards, goals to incentivate employees. You’ll be surpised it not all about money!!.
The surprising truth about what motivates us.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc]
So a breif overview.. You need to check out the above video.
- Money does not incentivise, if cognitive skill is required. (Creative thinking)
- Money is a motivator at work (if you dont pay people enough they wont be motivated)
- 3 Factors lead to better performance & personal satisfaction
- Autonomy – people like to be their own boss and not controlled by a manager.
- Mastery – people love to learn and get better for free (look at unfunded open source projects)
- Purpose –Â we care and want to improve our lives at work or in our own time not led
So how can we tie in gamification methods into our applications?
It’s already being done!..
Don’t believe me. take a look at social networking sites like facebook or linkedIn..
Here are some of the gamification elements – Activity feeds, Personalisation, Badges and achievements, Leader board, progress bars..etc
Take a look at the oracle forums, or even metalink; badges are awarded to people who post the most helpful messages.
Becoming an Ace at Oracle it’s a goal many of us try to achieve, pushing us to write guides, help the community and present what can be achieved.
Gamification is already around us today it is just about knowing the best approach with integrating those proven solutions into your apps today!
WebCenter Spaces has taken that step already believe it or not; with its integrated OOTB taskflows; and services.
I’m hoping that when 12 is released we will start to see alot more of these concepts that make us enjoy working and out of the daily grind.
On a side note I met up with Ultan O’Brion @ultan yesterday – Director, Global Applications User Experience for Oracle; talking user experience fusion apps as well as showing and talking about some of the things we work on here in the labs such as the xbox kinect integration with Oracle and our mobile solutions.
I can only describe him as a Rockstar in the Oracle world and I’ll be posting more in my next blog post on Oracle resource sites I was unaware of but really do help when it comes to planning UI and ADF.
Be sure to follow his blog if your into UX, Fusion Apps and gamification and something new I learnt about simplyifying your user experience look at comic books tile based approach to a visual story board look at the metro UI at BBC or BAE Systems new portal. Simplyfying your content with the right imagery and headlines and not smuthering users with information overload like so many websites do today.. Comicfication.. .. 😉
