Why the computing industry is trending toward entertainment in terms of design and features

What is 'Gamification' exactly?

Why the computing industry is trending toward entertainment in terms of design and features

If you've ever participated in a drawing like the lottery, or perhaps a frequent flyer miles program then you're already familiar with gamification. Specifically, gamification could be defined as: creating an atmosphere or infrastructure whereupon

• Social Interactions and Entertainment

Help to propel

• Customers / consumers / users

Toward

• Collecting, achieving or ultimately, investing in a product / concept / activity or idea (financially or through the use of their time).

The basic concept behind gamification is to get customers invested in a product or service, to make the product (or service) 'theirs', in a sense. When gamification works properly, it has the ability to actually push customers a step forward past brand loyalty into devotion. This is because it provides the customer / user with more incentives and thusly, both gains consumer trust and interest. Add to this the fact that gamification elements / marketing are frequently deployed via social media and you have a very powerful tool for businesses (as well as something very interesting for consumers to enjoy and share with their online contacts). To top it all off, gamification is also creatively 'wide open', meaning, and one can never truly run out of ideas or the means to implement them either (assuming public interest doesn't wane; which, given current projections, shows absolutely no signs of change).

Gamification has always been present in mainstream computing; like on web-based social media sites that allow users to participate in simple multiplayer gaming for example. (An even more direct (and classic) example of gamification would be using web-polling to drive user interest, traffic and comments on a forum or blog.) However, it could be argued that gamification didn't truly hit its stride, so to speak, until it was deployed on the three modern gaming consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii). For example, the 360's 'achievement points' system seeks to inspire gamers (on that system) to play a higher volume of titles in order to enhance their 'gamerscore' (which reflects their activities, level of achievement and thoroughness of completion). This score in turn, can be compared the scores of their friends, and so on and so forth.

There are some that might feel that the trend toward gamification is somewhat misleading, or perhaps 'just a marketing ploy' to assist in sales. In the computing world however, gamification elements actually add quite a bit of warmth and candor to any online experience. It's really about creating another layer of engagement that is meant to guide users toward both a fuller experience and greater opportunities.

But it's not just sales and/or entertainment that have something to gain from gamification; the entire field of education (particularly online learning) can benefit as well. It's no secret that we humans often learn more when we're having fun, but that's not all. By allowing learning and entertainment to intermingle, we can also begin to train ourselves to accumulate data and use it in ever-increasingly abstract ways. In many regards, a true measure of intelligence (as far as accumulated information is concerned) might be in how a person creatively reorganizes what they've discovered so that new solutions can be created (and progress can occur).

But gamification is all around us in many other forms as well. It may be employed on work sites, in health care -centric situations or used to create environmental protection solutions / initiatives. There's no reason why gamification cannot be implemented in real-world scenarios, it's just that the possibilities really open up when you apply it to web-based services.

The big move toward gamification in the computing industry is literally forcing product manufacturers and designers to re-evaluate their products, and figure out exactly what their customers want in terms of features (and design). For example, many of today's smartphones come equipped with the hardware that actually allows them to play popular video game titles. Products like tablets, smart-phones and other touch-screen devices are tailored toward gamification concepts as well; most of which allow users to run a wide selection of flash based games and apps that were basically custom-designed for their machines. This is a great example of gamification influencing not only hardware / machine design, but also software development as well.

From the businessman's point-of-view gamification is a god-send. It allows any business to drive sales while at the same time creatively engage their customer(s) and generate sustainable incentives. In the computing world however, it takes on a whole new existence and in many cases, instances of gamification may actually transcend the popularity of the product / service that they're promoting. Gamification is a staple of social media, and social media literally dominates the internet. As the parameters of social media and networking continue to expand and break down the barriers between what is considered to be hardware and software; gamification will, in turn, continue to facilitate its processes. This of course means that gamification is actively assisting in the transformation of our notion of what computing is and / or entails.

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To learn more about Gamification and how it can make a difference to your future career in IT, sign up for the Gamification course