Gamification examples in business: Fun and productive

Homo Ludens is a consecrated book by the Dutchman Johan Huizinga which points out an intrinsic characteristic of human nature, in that people always develop voluntarily and through pleasure:

Humans like to play

Huizinga’s game definition is quite definitive:

“The game is an activity or voluntary job, exercised within certainties and defined time and space limits, according to rules freely agreed upon, but absolutely obligatory, endowed with an end in itself, accompanied by a feeling of tension and joy and of an awareness of being different from ‘everyday life’.”

Therefore, if humans like and give themselves over to a game freely, then, why not use it as a form of motivation for them to accomplish tasks that wouldn’t normally be so attractive?

It’s precisely the use of this type of initiative that we call gamification.

Continue reading for some gamification examples in business, and how gamification can help improve processes and motivate teams.

Also read: Retain Customers Through End to End Customer Experience

Gamification examples in business you can see for yourself

Before showing you some gamification examples in business, let’s understand its concept in more detail:

Gamification is the process of integrating the mechanics of a game, its aesthetics and design and other play elements into other types of human interactions, such as work, social collaboration, advertising and marketing.

The elements used the most in gamification are:

  • Points scoring
  • Two-way communication
  • Feedback
  • Rules
  • Awards
  • Stamps, stickers, and badges
  • Titles conferring privileges to participants
  • Trophies

You can find gamification examples in business in productivity applications, social media, collaborative sites, incentive campaigns, marketing campaigns and more, always with the goal of involving participants and generating more engagement and productivity.

See also: Disruptive Business Models: The Magic Formula Revealed

3 interesting gamification examples in business

Turn every day into a game

Think about the Foursquare app. It’s full of gamification examples in business, because the more a person uses it, the more titles and badges they earn.

The concept came to be extrapolated into Foursquare Swarm, a variant of Foursquare that is defined as:

“Checking in at Foursquare Swarm makes your life a game: every day you receive scores with real world perks and the right to brag. It can even crown you as the King”

gamification examples in business

As people have an attraction to awards, stickers, and titles, they make more interactions on social media, which in-turn makes it increasingly efficient for those who use it commercially, as well as being fun for users.

So, have you ever been crowned king of somewhere?

Gamification examples in business: Freepik stock photos

Image banks like Freepik work in a very efficient collaborative way.

Professional photographers and designers submit their artwork to the site and, if approved, it becomes part of the collection.

At the other end of the business, business owners, communications agencies, freelancers and even ordinary people can use these images professionally, with all the rights guaranteed, by paying a monthly fee.

Their use with the mention of authorship is free for some images.

But how do you encourage site users to produce more and more quality photos and illustrations?

The answer was yet another gamification example.

gamification examples in businessgamification examples in business

Participants receive trophies and badges for their work being selected, or based on how many downloads there have been and other criteria such as uploads, comments on the work and even if it’s selected to appear on the image database homepage.

Therefore, not only do participants feel encouraged to contribute more and more, but customers can also very easily search who the best illustrators and photographers are.

Pokémon Go

Recently, we couldn’t stop talking about Pokémon Go. It was a fever that was able to resurrect an old anime and help companies and institutions attract customers. Amazingly, by using little monsters stored inside virtual balls as perfect bait.

It’s true that this gamification example somewhat resembles the idea of Foursquare Swarm. However, it reached unimaginable refinements of originality, after all, there are even challenges and battles between participants.

gamification examples in business

In fact, the game is so refined and well-finished that we can say in this case it’s not a commercial activity turned gamification.

On the contrary: The game has been transformed into a social platform for city exploration.

This encourages players to discover places they had never been before and, maybe, buy something there.

Check out: What is a dashboard? All you need in the blink of an eye

HEFLO is far from being a game, but its process modeling interface is so ergonomic and intuitive that it doesn’t even feel like you’re working. Also, HEFLO Connect counts on a reward mechanism to give to consultants authority based on skills and engagement. Check it out!

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