Gamification:

The Science and Software to Make You More Productive

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Gamification is everywhere: in to-do list apps Todoist and Asana, encouraging you to get more done; in Apple Watch, rewarding you for achieving fitness goals; in Fortune 500 companies' strategies to boost employee engagement and schools' plans to improve education.

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Everything wants you to move move, get more done—and then reward you for it. You're supposed to get caught up in the fun of the game, not the tedium of the chore.

But what is gamification, and why does it matter? Let's look at the history of gamification, learn how it works, and then check out five gamified task apps to help you gamify your life and get more done each day.

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• What is Gamification?

• Why Gamification Works

• 5 Apps to Gamify Your Productivity

• How to Apply Gamification Theory to Your Life

 

What is Gamification?

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"Gamification (n.): the process of turning an activity or task into a game or something that resembles a game."

Gamification is applying game mechanics (things like quests, points, and rewards) to non-game applications. It's about making dull things fun.

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While the concept has existed for decades, the term "gamification" was first coined in 2002. It remained a niche term until 2010, when gamified apps caught venture capitalists' attention and investment. Gamification was suddenly everywhere, the newest thing every app needed.

Video game designers found their skills in high demand, as apps raced to add gamification features. "I tell people that getting a master's in video game design is the new MBA," said Electronic Arts executive turned venture capitalist Bing Gordon in a 2010.

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"Getting a master's in video game design is the new MBA."- Bing Gordon, former Electronic Arts executive

Foursquare is perhaps the best example of the gamification boom. While best known as an app for discovering—and becoming the mayor of—new location, the app originated from co-founder Dennis Crowley's graduate research thesis experiment in 2004 at New York University.

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The experiment? To turn Manhattan into a game of "Pac-Manhattan".

Designed to explore "what happens when games are removed from their 'little world' of tabletops, televisions and computers and placed in the larger 'real world' of street corners, and cities," according to Crawley, Pac-Manhattan was a real-world game of Pac-Man. One player ("Pac-Man") and four "ghosts" would run around Manhattan's Washington Square Park, paired with a teammate in a remote control room. The players would roam Washington Square Park, and call their team mate in the control room whenever then got to an intersection. The teammate would then input their location into custom software, and tell them which way to go to either find Pac-Man or escape the ghosts.

A player dressed as Pac-Man communicates his location with a control center teammate in Pac-Manhattan, the precursor to Foursquare.

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The real-world game inspired the app, one that went from five men running around Manhattan to over 60 million users discovering places nearby. Foursquare's success—and addictive engagement—is in large part due to its gamified points and achievement badges that inspire you to discover new places.

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"We never set out to make a 'game,'" wrote the Foursquare team in 2014. "We wanted to make people's experiences more fun and playful. Points gave you a way to measure how exciting your outings were; badges were to give you a sense of accomplishment; and mayorships allowed you to compete with your friends. We thought they were all fun ideas, but even we were surprised by how much people loved them."

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Intentionally or not, Foursquare turned travel—even the everyday lunch run—into a game. And it wasn't long before the same ideas were being used elsewhere: in marketing campaigns, at work, and in apps of all shapes and sizes. If games could trick us to keep playing for hours, the same techniques could trick our brains to be more productive.

Gamification works. Surely badges and scores couldn't make professionals better at their job—and yet study after study found that they do.

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Auditing and consulting firm Deloitte, for example, found that adding fun "missions" and shareable achievements to its professional development programs improved return rates by 46%. Another study found that 91% of employees reported higher engagement, awareness, and productivity after trying gamification solutions at work.

As it turns out, all work and no play does make Jack a dull boy.

 

Why Gamification Works

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Game design, paired with traditional loyalty programs and behavioral economics, gives brands a whole new way to keep customers coming back.

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But why does gamification work? How could something so trivial trigger a very real boost in motivation and productivity?

Biology and psychology can both shed some light on what makes points and likes keep us so engaged. Here are four theories that help explain why gamification works—and how they apply to productivity apps:

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The Neurobiological Theory

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Our brain's naturally occurring neurotransmitters can trick us into working harder.

Gamification works in much the same way as Adderall—by releasing dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway, your brain's primary reward circuit.

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Your mesolimbic pathway helps determine your motivation and drive, by signalling a connection between an imminent reward and the work needed to achieve that reward. It's what makes you feel good after a run—and what gives you the energy to hit the finish line.

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For those with ADHD—who also tend to have lower dopamine levels—Adderall works by boosting dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway to block out potential "rewards" (perhaps the allure of Facebook or music from another room) found in nature that can distract you from the task at hand.

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Major dopamine pathways highlighted in purple. Higher levels of dopamine in our primary rewards circuit, the ventral striatum (via the mesolimbic pathway), is correlated with higher motivation, as our brain ‘chases after’ a perceived reward.

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Gamification can naturally increase your dopamine levels, thanks to its novelty. Your brain becomes excited and releases dopamine as you unlock new achievements, rewards, and quests. That works with your internal reward circuit to aid motivation and associative learning, by training you to do that task to get dopamine.

Simply put, gamification uses your brain's naturally occurring neurotransmitters to trick you into working harder and more efficiently, while helping you retain more knowledge at the same time.

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Social Status Theory

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We are driven to behave in a way we feel will earn us acceptance.

There are 16 basic desires—or intrinsic motivators—that guide most human behavior, according to psychologist Steven Reiss. Among these is social status, the fundamental need to be accepted by society.

Social psychologists have long theorized how our behavior is driven by what others think of us (or rather, how we perceive others to think). Like it or not, our perception of social status holds a heavy influence over our behavior. We are driven to behave in a way we feel will earn us acceptance or esteem, and avoid behaviors that will bring us shame and reduce our social standing.

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Gamification plays to our need for social standing by combining our tasks with the elements of a viral game. Gamified productivity apps tend to be social, often integrated with Facebook or your address book to share achievements with others. They even include leaderboards, to see how our productivity compares with that of our friends. Together, these elements all spur a little friendly competition, while appealing to one of the most basic human desires.

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Neurobiology + Rewards = Expectancy Theory

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We behave in a certain ways because we are motivated by the expected outcome of that behavior.

Stemming from the same neurobiology of motivation, the expectancy theoryholds that we behave in a certain ways because we are motivated by the expected outcome of that behavior. If we believe that a raise is a distinct possibility—and that good work (the behavior) will result in a raise (the outcome)—we will be driven to work harder to achieve a raise.

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Expectancy Theory is driven by three key elements:

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• Expectancy: The belief that your effort will result in the level of performance needed to achieve your desired outcome.

• Instrumentality: The belief that you will receive the desired outcome if you are able to meet or exceed your performance expectations.

• Valence: The value you place on the expected reward, based on your individual needs, values, and sources of motivation.

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When all three of these elements are present, you are motivated to work harder.

With gamified productivity apps, both expectancy and instrumentality are high. You are confident your effort is sufficient to attain the required level of performance, and you are positive that achieving that performance requirement will generate a predictable and positive outcome. That's what the app makes you think, at least.

Whether or not you find valence in your reward is a bit more subjective. It's a matter of what motivates you. If you take pleasure in achievements (or simply that feeling of accomplishment associated with crossing something off your list), then chances are, gamification works for you.

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While we usually think of a reward as something tangible (perhaps a promotion or raise), gamification relies on a much more "intrinsic" motivator: how you feel after accomplishing something. Intrinsic motivators can have a higher correlation to work performance and outcomes than extrinsic motivators, in some studies. A University of Rochester study even found that active gamers tend to experience greater intrinsic motivation and place less reliance on extrinsic motivators.

Perhaps, to our brains, those virtual coins are actually worth something.

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Expectancy Theory + Continuous Gratification = Goal Theory

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We can achieve greater success by approaching complex problems one step at a time.

In psychology, "chunking" (or splitting) is the process by which we break down a large task into a series of elementary units. It's the idea that we can achieve greater success, while doing less work, by approaching complex problems one step at a time. You'll feel that sense of accomplishment each time you complete a small task, instead of feeling behind until the whole project is finished.

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Your macro goals—perhaps to lose 50 pounds or earn a promotion—are designed to be long-term projects. One day, you'll attain your desired result and be able to check the item off your list. Until then, it's simply "in progress."

Gamification turns these big projects into, well… games. Instead of working toward one macro goal, gamification focuses on micro goals, chunks that you can complete in a matter of minutes that move you one step closer toward your goal. In doing so, it distributes the delayed gratification that you get when you finally cross that macro goal off your list, with smaller, manageable tasks that give you continuous spurts of immediate gratification.

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"Structuring your day to give you small hits of dopamine when you accomplish something keeps the 'reward engine' engaged and will fuel you to perform longer and better, even if the task is menial," writes author Christopher Bergland. "Everything from making your bed to doing all the dishes will give you the 'ding-ding-ding; feeling of having completed a task. Neurobiologically the satisfaction of completing a task creates internal rocket fuel that energizes you to keep working towards your larger goal."

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Researchers at the University of Southern California and Harvard University found that chunking helps both productivity and motivation. When we focus on the smaller picture, we tend to work harder and are more engaged in our work. The study further found that equating small—even meaningless—rewards to the achievement of these micro goals has a greater boost on motivation than a single, large reward at the end of a macro goal.

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There's no single reason gamification works. It pulls on our desire for a good outcome, makes us feel like we're improving our social standing, and rewards us with dopamine. Together, it's a powerful mix that can help you achieve your goals, and feel good about it.