How do games engage people without even realizing that they have been playing for hours? Many applications or product managers wonder how they can engage users so well. The answer lies in gamification!

Gamification is a process of leveraging game design elements in business processes. The goal is to achieve long-term retention, engagement and build habit-forming products. It’s an excellent driver of motivation and engagement. Gamification triggers real, powerful human emotions such as happiness, intrigue, and excitement. These positive user experiences lead to better engagement, loyalty, and business growth.

Game Mechanics

Gamification is all about using the game mechanics in your application interface without distorting the flow to boost user engagement. Some of the vital playful solutions that you can adapt to increase user engagement in your app-

• Points:  Points are the primary rewards users get as a result of their progress in your app. 
• Badges: Visual representation of user’s accomplishments in the form of stickers or badges
• Leaderboards: Leaderboards or screen boards show the best performing users ranking list in your app.
• Challenges: Human nature forces us to take the challenges and prove that we can handle them. You can motivate users to complete a task with challenges and reward them afterward.
• In-app currencies: These are rewards given to users as earned rewards for completing a particular task.
• Levels: Each level shows the progress of the user. Usually, the complexity of the tasks increases with each level. Higher the level achieved is directly related to user satisfaction.
• Trivia: Trivia is a multiple-choice quiz that usually includes radio buttons or dropdown menus. These are highly engaging due to their interactive nature.

Apps that leveraged Gamification to become Successful: 

1.Duolingo:  Duolingo – a language learning app, has done an excellent job at user engagement. It uses game elements such as points, quizzes, progress bars, streaks, and levels at every user interaction stage to improve user engagement.

2. Forest: The forest app is a great example of tree planting as the key gamification concept. It helps you stay focused on your tasks without distractions like social media.  Forest app leverages game elements like points and scoreboards to keep users engaged. 

3. Amway: Amway’s digital learning platform for salesforce, also known as Independent Business Owners(IBOs). leveraged Upshot.ai capabilities to gamify the learning experience by awarding badges to users’ course completion. Leveraging badges as a game element in their app, Amway was able to see marvelous results. Above all, A massive 400% increase in monthly active users and a 112% increase in the number of users completing the course. Find out more about how Amway leveraged gamification in the case study.

How can the Power of Gamification be leveraged to Increase User Engagement?

As discussed above, Gamification plays a crucial role in keeping users engaged. It drives motivation to participate.  Let’s take a look at how you can leverage gamification to increase engagement-

1. Start the reward and recognition program: Rewards and recognition inculcates a sense of competition among users. Users who move up the competition levels earn rewards for their accomplishments. These rewards are a contributing factor in improving engagement. Thus, Users who get rewards might post good reviews, tell other users or initiate a discussion, leading to app recognition and user engagement.

2. Games should be easy for users to play and win: In-app games should be easy to play and win with minimum effort. If the game is complicated, for instance, it can be a discouraging factor for users. To engage users, leverage- points, badges, leaderboards, and mini-quizzes in your app. Moreover, Users like to share their win on social platforms, promoting the app among potential users.

3. Promote new features with fun: Leverage game mechanics to promote new features within your app to create a fun and lasting impression in the user’s mind. It not only encourages users to try new features but also encourages them to use them repeatedly. 
   
4. Collect and analyze user data: Gamification provides an opportunity to track user behavior in your app. Therefore gather analytics on the collected user data and drive user engagement campaigns towards a better performance. 

Also read : 5 Best User Retention strategies that will boost your App Engagement.

About Upshot.ai :

Upshot.ai is an omnichannel, user engagement, and gamification platform that helps digital product owners and marketers improve their product adoption and conversions. Fortune 1000 companies such as GE, UHG, Puma, Sony, ITC, Tenet healthcare are using Upshot.ai and observed a massive increase in product adoption YoY increment in revenues.

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