Diversão na Web: como a gamificação pode aumentar o envolvimento do seu site

Fun on the Web: How Gamification Can Increase Your Website Engagement

June 1, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

Gamification is a powerful tool that can boost engagement in web applications – but ultimately it's about finding the right balance

transforming work into a video game to more subtle strategies that may not use terminology but apply key concepts.

Think about social media like Instragam, change the concept of likes to points and followers to levels and you will soon start to notice how the content generation pattern for Instagram is very similar to trying to overcome a level in candy crush, or leveling up. of your character in an RPG.

Understanding the reward cycle

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked – How to Build Habit-Building Products, has synthesized his own experience, as well as the findings of psychologist BF Skinner, into what he calls the “hook model.” This is a succinct, easy-to-follow process that outlines how sites like Facebook have turned gamification principles into engagement and revenue.

The hook model is based on four major steps: triggers, actions, rewards and investment

Triggers are the things that set a user-product interaction in motion. The first type of trigger is intrinsic or internal, referring to the user's state of mind, motivations, feelings and desires. For example, an intrinsic trigger might be “I’m bored” or “I need to find something.”

The second type of trigger is an extrinsic or external trigger, which is a property or aspect of your product that made the user approach it. For example, someone might be tempted to try your site because they saw a killer deal or because someone else recommended it.

Actions are the simplest form of behavior from which the user can anticipate a reward. For example, if likes are rewards in a social media environment, posting content is the minimum behavior a user should adopt to begin the feedback process.

The challenge when gamifying is finding the right balance between actions and rewards. A game where you can't lose may seem empowering for the first few minutes, but it will quickly bore the user as they become desensitized to the rewards we offer.

Likewise, if every action in a web environment generates some type of reward, then they are no longer rewards. For example, if you offer a coupon with every purchase, the user will take it for granted rather than something to strive for.

Striving is a key concept that directly relates to our next step, rewards. According to self-determination theory, people are inherently motivated by three things: challenges and developing the ability to overcome them, social relationships and a sense of belonging, and the feeling that we are in control of our own lives.

In other words, we like rewards, especially when they feel earned, but if our reward completely satisfies the user, there is no reason to continue interacting with us. Imagine if you couldn't get more than 100 likes on a social network or more than a few comments, what reason would a user have to return to your content once the quota has been reached?

The last step, investment, is the “work” or effort we put into our product to update it and give the user a reason to come back. This is what we typically see in games when they release a new update with a message detailing all the new features, and ironically, this is why even though users complain every time Facebook makes an overhaul to its interface, they continue returning.

Since we combine a variable reward cycle that keeps the user wanting more with a constant stream of updates, we have a strong engagement cycle in place. After that, tweak it with user feedback and you'll have a system that can last for decades.

From ideas to action

I've kept this post as vague as possible because every product owner has a different set of goals and needs, where someone may find a way to use a high scoring system to create competition among users, while others will find more value in a level up. system that rewards the user when he completes a set of daily tasks.

The idea I really want to drive home is that engagement isn't just about making your product pretty or pleasant to use, it's an iterative process that develops dynamically over time as the user finds new and rewarding things to do. There is no such thing as being done with engagement.

As Jane McGonigal says, there is no reason why fun should be restricted to games.

If you liked this, be sure to check out our other articles on web development.