Gamification and why it matters in Digital Health and behaviour change
Entre human behaviour community reaches 500 members!
Delighted to announce the Human Behaviour community on Entre has reached 500 members!
If you’re not a member then join now as the community grows to 1k and beyond!
If you want to be invited to our upcoming invite only events then sign up to the community and introduce yourself in the intro channel.
JOIN HERE-
https://joinentre.com/community/join/5febd0e3-0c1d-f000-00db-b3b11f9b9e60
I also have two great events coming up in behavioural science one on 21st July at 6 pm with behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan for his book launch - Free Your Mind
We also have Peter Ramsey founder of built for Mars who is an expert in behavioural design to guild better tech products joining the community who we will be interviewing.
After consulting many digital health apps I wanted to cover more behavioural science principles. This week I wanted to dive into Gamification and why it is needed in Health apps -
The persuasive architecture of gamification and its 7 persuasive strategies.
Goal setting: Committing to achieve a goal
Capacity to overcome challenges: Growth, learning, and development
Providing feedback on performance: Receiving constant feedback through the experience
Reinforcement: Gaining rewards, avoiding punishments
Compare progress: Monitoring progress with self and others
Social connectivity: Interacting with other people
Fun and playfulness: Paying out an alternative reality
Popular gamification tactics.
Providing clear goals
Offering a challenge
Using levels (incremental challenges)
Allocating points
Showing progress
Providing feedback
Giving rewards
Providing badges for achievements
Showing the game leaders
Giving a story or theme
Criteria to consider when evaluating if gamification is suitable to a particular intervention.
The intervention users
The users’ social context
The psychological and behavioral outcomes that are being pursued
How closely the intervention's logic model or theory of change fits with the persuasive architecture of gamification
The interactive product or platform that is being planned
The compatibility of the interactive product, users, and community with the 7 gamification strategies
The compatibility of the interactive product, users, and community with gamification tactics
While gamification shows promise, there are risks associated with solely relying on this approach. Developers must avoid tunnel vision and consider other persuasive architectures suitable for specific contexts. Different applications, such as sign-up pages, health screeners, donation pages, or social networking sites, require tailored combinations of persuasive techniques.
The suitability of gamification for a particular intervention should be evaluated based on criteria presented in the article. User testing is crucial to determine the effectiveness of gamified interventions in practice.
In conclusion, understanding the persuasive architecture in gamification and its alignment with proven theories can enhance the design of interventions. However, careful consideration of the specific context and user needs is essential to determine whether gamification is the appropriate approach for a given project.