I love reading something that makes me think every morning.
That’s why there’s always an open book on the coffee table by where I write and work.
Lately, I’ve been stuck in my goal of speaking fluent Italian. Progress slowed. Then I started paying attention to Duolingo’s rankings, leaderboard, and competitions. Suddenly, I was learning more, 2x more, not just in the app, but outside of it too.
Staying on the leaderboard kept me consistent.
I used to think I was beyond gamification.
Turns out, I’m not.
And since it’s aligned with my long-term goals, why not let it work its magic on my psychology?
Yesterday on my podcast, I had a guest, Ricardo Lopes Costa, the author of "The Fantastic Engagement Factory: How to motivate people on a large scale with gamification".
Ricardo told me a little story about a cupcake stand outside his house.
The stand ran a simple game: a spin-the-wheel raffle. Winners could pick as many toppings as they wanted for their cupcake. Ricardo's little daughter kept going there, even though she wasn't much into cupcakes.
The line for that stand was more than 2X longer compared to other food sellers next to it.
Not sure how good that was for the cupcake eaters, but it was great for business.
It shouldn’t matter if my book is open or closed to get me reading every morning.
It shouldn’t matter whether Duolingo has a leaderboard for me to keep learning Italian.
It shouldn’t matter whether there’s a prize to win for buying cupcakes.
And yet it does.
Because we’re people with human psychology, which is driven by instincts and emotions first. We aren't machines or AI (which also seem to have caught some human tendencies to be biased)
It was a good reminder for myself to put a bit more thinking into designing experiences for people and myself to move us towards our desired goals with the psychology of motivation and all the biases in mind - towards our goals of learning, improving, creating more positive impact, not just more fun that leads nowhere. (PS all companies that get you hooked have been doing it forever)
It might be a good nudge to you, dear reader, to ask ChatGPT or your other favorite AI agent - how can you use gamification strategies and other known cognitive biases to help me do/achieve/change more/less of X?
Let's play for good🧁
"Function-focused design assumes people have the motivation to complete tasks and focuses on efficiency. Human-focused design assumes people do not always have motivation and aims to create more motivation at every step." - Yu-Kai Chou, world-known gamification expert.
