How can you get more of your audience to engage? How do you encourage users to stick around long enough or feel valued enough to be willing to contribute? Due to the speed of social media and the constant hum of the internet’s noisemakers, how do you draw attention long enough, or consistently enough? Let’s play…and find out how.
Firstly, it’s imperative to know that a good gamification device is not a replacement for good content. Nor is it a way to be the puppet master and control the people you are talking to! It is simply a method of designing your UX (User Experience) in such a way that makes it easier, more streamlined and much more rewarding to interact through.
Press Start to Play
First thing you need to whittle down on your sites or apps is the sign up/log in functionality. Do not ask for all the details up front — It is incredibly disconcerting and tiresome to click “Sign Up to Reply” followed by 10+ input fields that are mostly required. Leave all that for the profile later on. People want immediate results, so blockading their reply with a wall of empty boxes is a quick way to turn away those who wish to discuss at short length. This was a problem with many games prior to unifying services (i.e.: Steam for PC, Xbox LIVE and PSN for consoles etc.). Each game wanted your information to go online, each one required an account, password, email address, and if monetised (such as a subscription fee) your name/address/card details as well. It took far too much time and was a real buzzkill. The exact same principle is in play here — People want that instant gratification and streamlined process, with the option to add more personal info later if they wish.
The encroachment of the likes of Facebook, Google+/Gmail, WordPress and Twitter has resulted in a huge boon in this area: Integration. One-click signups were previously resigned to sister sites or forums running on the same software and central database, but now many sites allow you to sign in with those accounts. This, however, is a double-edged sword. Many are wary of sharing too much, or linking up too many sites to one account. Others prefer to keep their personal lives on Facebook/Google+, and their public lives to Twitter/Wordpress etc. Finding a balance is necessary — Forcing people to sign up via Facebook for example, rather than have it as an option, is a massive turn-off. Pinterest fell foul of my own opinion recently when it effectively shuts off access without signing up, either via them or through Facebook/Twitter. Users want to choose, not be pushed into it.
These options, then, should be left to the audience. Give them the choice and they will make it. However, if you really want people to be invested, try making it worthwhile for them. Allow a quick and easy sign up, for example, but add genuinely useful features the more they add. Perhaps if they add their Twitter account, apply a badge to their account and then set your own Twitter to automatically follow them. Another option is that when adding personal details, reward them with special services (i.e.: profile customisation or a discount on a product etc.) if they fill everything out or link their accounts, confirm their email address and so on. Personalise it. Communicate. Play with them. Let them talk to you, not the other way around.
Play Fair
In a world where “every brand is a publisher,” giving away audience-focused content is cheaper, more inspiring, and better for the world than interruptive marketing. And it works better, too.
As mentioned above, interacting and rewarding your audience is an incredible device. Take some Facebook-linked or Facebook-hosted games for example:
- Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader has 52 percent of players connected to Facebook, though this number is increasing. 70 percent of the game’s revenue is generated from Facebook users. Ludia’s other title, Family Feud & Friends, has Facebook users making up 63 percent of its player base, who retain twice as much as those players in guest mode.
- Buffalo Studios’ Bingo Blitz is on iPad, but lets users connect via Facebook; Facebook users comprise 55 percent of the game’s iPad user base and generate 62 percent of its total iPad revenue. Meanwhile, Facebook users make up 55 percent of the game’s total revenue across mobile devices, including Android and Kindle.
- Facebook users now make up 70 percent of Wooga’s Diamond Dash. In October alone, users were directed to the Diamond Dash app over 19 million times. Wooga’s also confirmed people who log in via Facebook are nine times more likely to monetize.
- Murka’s Slots Journey sees 15 percent of its iOS users log in Facebook. Seven-day player retention is 322 percent higher with Facebook users than it is with non-connected users. Facebook users are also 214 percent more likely to monetize in the first seven days.
- SongPop’s FreshPlanet, which saw a meteoric rise over the summer on Facebook, shows players connected to the social network send 70 percent more challenges to one another and spend 35 percent more than other players.
- Storm8 revealed Facebook users are three times more likely to come back and play on its mobile gaming network, as well as proving seven times more likely to monetize in one of its games.
- In Nordeus’s Top Eleven, 78 percent of Android players connect with Facebook (as do 79 percent of iOS users). On Android, 80 percent of those who monetize are Facebook users. With the game’s iOS version, 83 percent of those who monetize are connected via Facebook.
- Dragonplay Games says Facebook users are 133 percent less likely to churn after 30 days, as well as 274 percent more likely to convert to paying players. Also, Facebook users spend 85 percent more on average than non-connected players.
These figures support claims we’ve been hearing from social mobile developers, but this is the first time we’ve seen this much confirmed information in one place.
Source:
InsideSocialGames.com
Kixeye offered discounts on their gold virtual currency and they saw over a 10 percent click-through rate and a 50 percent conversion rate for past purchasers. They saw a 14 percent conversion rate for those who hadn’t paid before. In addition, they targeted their highest value spenders with large discounts — for instance, $500 worth of gold virtual currency for $250 — and saw over 5,000 percent return…
Source:
Developers.Facebook.com
Yes, these are related to games, not websites or services! These are all monetising monetising monetising. Probably not interesting, but what is is the fact that it’s getting people involved. Integrating, then rewarding. Stop forcing people into parting with all of their personal details, streamline the process of being able to communicate with you, make it about them (and them and you, never just you), and offer some kind of reward (ephemeral or tangible) for their interaction. Fantastic!
But there’s a problem with the whole system, and that problem is growing…We will look at that in “Gamification in (Web) Design Part Four: Game Over!”
Previously in Gamification in (Web) Design:
Part One: It’s a-me, SEO!
Part Two: It’s Dangerous to go Alone, Take This!
Joshua Rousen studied Graphic Design BA Hons in University of South Wales. An avid life-long gamer, he completed his critical papers on the phenomenon of “gamification” (the process of applying videogame logic and rules to existing activities) and the existing/upcoming technology that already implements it or may do in the future. Gamification is increasingly popular, being implemented for the likes of exercise (Nike Fuelband & app, Fitocracy) or chores (ChoreWars) and other everyday activities, so Joshua perpetually monitors trends in the development and application of gamification in other avenues.
Bibliography:
- Reality is Broken — Jane McGonigal
- The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice — Karl M. Kapp
- Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game — Lee Sheldon
- Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers — Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
- Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps — Gabe Zichermann, Christopher Cunningham
- Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st Century’s most serious business — Tom Chatfield