Why it’s worth to gamify your startup?

Our parents and grandparents used to drink coffee while reading newspapers in their spare time. Many of them used to find a chance to think, indulge their passion or build family ties. The rest that was not really active was the most popular among the X generation and "baby boomers". The status quo couldn't last forever. The millennials, whose psych profile started to diverge from existing norms, have appeared along with the development of technology and easier access to knowledge. The average millennial reaches perfection in multitasking: they can play a video game, watch vlog live, and take a look at their social media channels at the same time. Opinions say that men, unlike women, are single-threaded is slowly beginning to move to the matter of misguided stereotypes. On balance, I have to highlight that ideas that women don't like video games are starting to sound like bizarre statements of ancient philosophers. The world is constantly changing - only the firms that will find their way in the new reality will have the possibility to survive.

The mechanic of games is a heart of a project

Basing on gamification can be one of the ways of standing out of the startups' crowd. Gamification is the process of taking something that is not a game (e-learning system, todo list, CRM) and integrating game mechanics (points, badges, ranks) into it to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty. Often, implementing only one games' element into the project can take it to the next level and make it addictive.

Let's imagine how Foursquare would have looked like if its creators hadn't implemented badges that are the heart of this service. Users of Foursquare earn special badges when checking in at certain locations or on specific dates. If Foursquare had had just a notifications instead of badges then who would have written about the app?

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Now, thanks to badges, we can talk about the users as players.

Such is the case with PAYBACK - the loyalty programme that uses points to show users the advantages of having the PAYBACK card. Converting points into PLN is not impressive, but the idea of having additional currency encourages further shopping. This motivation is kept by salesmen, who are always asking for PAYBACK card and colourful catalogues of prizes that make us want to collect points.

Gamification as a nice addition

Not every project involves implementing game mechanics into its core functionalities. Todoist is a good example. Most of the app users use it as a simple tool that helps to track your daily tasks. However, some of them treat the app as a tool for speeding up the productivity. This is the reason why the creators of Todoist have implemented Karma points. You gain it when you add and complete tasks on time. The more points you earn, the higher your Karma level rises.

Image source: Todoist

Get more by implementing a gamification

Gamification allows you to outreach your target. The good example is Bible App for Kids created by YouVersion - a company distributing digital Bible for adults on a daily basis. The product seemingly boring for kids is involving them in beating levels and learning Biblical stories at the same time thanks to colourful animations and gamification.

Image source: Google

It's not the money

The nightmare of start-ups certainly is the lack of funds and a tight budget. That translates to difficulty in paying content creators salary. Wikipedia faced this problem as well. But by using gamification, Wikipedia people reward each other (badges) and win community's favour by earning a place in different rankings.

eioba.pl is following the same trail Wikipedia is. The attractiveness of the site depends on the number of articles. The users can climb the ladder of the best authors by applying the complex scoring system (you can earn points for comment, visits, votes, etc.). By implement PayPal, it is possible to get some money from pleased users. Everything works without funding from the website's creators.

Release your creativity!

It's worth to think about the gamification, whether you want to implement it at the very beginning or only in the final stage of the project. Looking at the project through game mechanics can add a dash of colour to it and, as a result, might do it successfully. And that's what the start-up business is all about.