Gamification has been gaining steady ground in the businesses of today. What businesses are looking to do is to gamify the work processes performed by the employees so as to make their work more fulfilling and satisfying. The employees should feel a sense of achievement every time they finish their job and in the process, improve the productivity of the organization. Gamifying the business activities requires the following aspects of a process to enable gamification of the job or any work related activity. One such process is known as the 6D approach to gamification. Here are the six D’s that comprise the gamification process:
- Define business objective
This is a very important step in the process of gamification. Unless the business objective is defined, the business cannot survive for a long time. Any business must be absolutely clear about the goals and objectives that it wants to achieve through the gamification process. Some businesses aim for revenue maximization and profitability, some businesses want better exposure and increased social media visibility. By defining the objectives, it becomes easier to map the next stages of the process.
2. Delineate target behaviors
The next step involves precisely describing the type of behavior that is expected of the players. There are certain characteristic behaviors that would be the most beneficial for the business and the objective that is supposed to be attained. These behaviors may include updating your profile, sharing on social media, posting comments, inviting other people to join, and so on. Once these behaviors have been identified, the most important ones should be given more weightage and their completion should be marked by levelling up in the game or the activity.
3. Describe your players
It is also necessary to have in mind the type of players that are going to play the game. Is the activity for the younger or the middle-aged people? What motivates the people who will play the game? What drives these people? Are they going to be able to perform according to the expectations of the game? Are they used to the competitiveness or do they care about exploring and socializing? Various such questions pertaining to the players need to be answered and a general player profile needs to be developed.
4. Devise activity loops
The players of the game should be given motivation to continue playing. For this reason, activity loops should be devised so that the players can progress through the game as they perform activities of different kinds. The loops ensure that the players are engaged in playing the game and are also progressing in the game as they play longer. The sense of accomplishment that is brought along with a progression loop can act as a motivation for playing the game.
5. Don’t forget the fun
During the implementation of the process, it is quite possible that all the elements that make games fun might get pushed behind. It is imperative that the element of fun does not get lost or diluted. Finally, the core element of playing any game is for fun. The most important question that can be asked here is whether the players will voluntarily play the game. If the answer is not positive, then the entire process becomes futile. The players should have fun in performing the activities of the game rather than seeing it as an additional burden on themselves. The more fun that the players have, the better success the game is bound to enjoy.
6. Deploy the appropriate tools
What will your gamification system look like? How will the ability of the players be measured? What sort of a point system will be deployed? All such questions concerning the look and the elements of the game need to be answered. The experience that the players shall have in the playing of the game should also be considered. Tools like the PBL systems, achievements, avatars, etc., can be deployed which should be in tandem with the steps previously discussed.
This is not the only approach for a gamification process but it is surely one of the popular ones. Companies are using the 6D approach for improving employee efficiency and achieving business objectives.
This approach is also being used by Exp.life in an effort to gamify our lives. Exp.life aims to change the way we live our lives and share our experiences. Exp.life has made use of the 6D gamification approach to make it possible. A detailed overview of how it has been done can be found in the whitepaper. The gamification approach can be very well applied to our lives and that is exactly what Exp.life wants to do.