This article is based on Octalysis Gamification Framework
Last time we described how you can engage your dApp users with such Core Drive like Epic Meaning & Calling. Let’s continue to get deeper into the gamification world, which can be helpful for you to involve more users to a WAX decentralized application you are running.
Today we will discuss Development & Accomplishment Core Drive – the internal drive of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges. This one is about a sense of growth towards a goal and accomplishing it.
Development & Accomplishment in dApps
Almost all dApps show you some type of progress towards the Win-States. Applications break down a user’s journey into stages – checkpoints, enemies, gems, levels. This helps the user feel like there is always progress, and one achievement is coming after another.
To display that sense of Accomplishment, some dApps show you points, others show you levels, badges, stages, progress bars, better gear, victories etc.…the list goes on. The key to this Core Drive is to make sure users are overcoming challenges they can be proud of.
Gamification aims to bring that feeling of Development & Accomplishment into everyday experiences within your product or service.
📈 Progress Bar
Making your UX simple and interesting is not always enough to convince users to use your dApp regularly, they need additional motivation to be engaged.
One of the simplest and best known examples of Development & Accomplishment in the industry is the Progress Bar. This is the way to visualise a user’s contribution and motivate him to complete the process.
Let’s have an example with collecting some kind of NFTs. Progress bar can visualize the completeness of a user’s NFT collection and motivate him to complete it. When we see a progress bar that is taunting us as only being 35% of NFT collectors, it gives us that extra push to finish the Desire Actions and become complete again as a human being.
What process in your dApp can you visualize with a progress bar to motivate complete it for users?
📋 Leaderboards / Ranking
The purpose of a leaderboard is to show players where they rank in a gamified system. Often, the very presence of a leaderboard can elicit the desire to play. The simple goal of rising up the rankings serves as a powerful motivator to continue. People like to keep score.
Ranking can be used in multiple ways in your dApp. Regular ways to implement it – time limited tournaments, game rounds etc. Beside that it can be used to force your item sales for example. Just make it time limited and give some valuable prizes for the high places in your leaderboard.
But the trick to leaderboards is designing them in such a way that they encourage players to stay in the game. Leaderboards should always be encouraging, never discouraging.
For example, suppose you have a new user whose current points score is 50. He notices on the leaderboard that the top player’s score is 1,970,485.To reach the top score,He’ll have to spend all the time in your dApp. Odds are he will disengage from the gamified system altogether.
To avoid such situation you should use some segmentation approaches to even the odds a bit
Local segmentation
Users see their rank relative to that of others in their geographic area
Contextual segmentation
Sets up the leaderboard to show leaders by category.
Time limit
Sets up the leaderboard to show, for example, daily or weekly leaders.
Think about the way you can implement leaderboards in your WAX dApp?
🎖️ Achievement Symbols
badges, stars, belts, hats, uniforms, trophies
Quite common gamification mechanics that often can be abused by the developers and app designers. Really, users like to get achievement badges. But if you will give it for something not important user can feel himself almost insulted
What does it mean? Achievement Symbols must be granted for anything that the user can be proud of. Completed NFT collection – yes, first login – definitely no!
When you want to give badges for something done, ask yourself “Will the user feel accomplished?”
💡 Other additional techniques
There are a lot of small techniques in Development & Accomplishment Core Drives, that can be used in combo with described above during the user’s development process in your dApp.
Let’s quickly walk through them in order of use
Step-by-step Overlay Tutorial
Nice technique to show the way how to reach the next achievement, level or round. From the other side it is also the information for users what level they need to reach to get access onto closed locations, stages, etc. Can be used at the initial steps of using your product towards the Accomplishments.
For Example hints, overlay informing the player he needs to reach the next level to get into the VIP room.
Anticipation Parade
“You’re almost there!”. It is all about that sensation reward after getting closer to a win-state. It works effectively with the progress bar when it reaches the final stages towards the goal.
Boss Fights
What will make the accomplishment more valuable? Right – complicatedly reached accomplishment! This is a good technique to use between the stages/levels to make the user feel proud for himself.
High Five
A small and unimportant thing at first sight that will help your user stay motivated. A little support in the form of “great!” or “nice!” when you accomplish a stage.
Crowning
Make your user feel the king! If your user owns something unique or made something important first – give him a title and show it to others. Like a badge for the longest in-dApp session or owner of the most valuable item.
Conclusion
Since Development & Accomplishment is the easiest Core Drive to design for, many projects focus on this Core Drive. Consequently, many of the Gamification Platforms out there are specialized in appealing to this Core Drive too.
However, if you do plan to implement these game elements into your product, make sure you do that carefully and elegantly. Always focus on how you want your users to feel, not what game elements you want to use.
In the next article we will discuss Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback – the drive is when users are engaged in a creative process where they have to repeatedly figure things out and try different combinations.