mobile gamification - how the best apps nailed it (waze, duolingo, tinder, snapchat, linkedin,...
TRANSCRIPT
how the best apps nailed itmozza
MOBILE GAMIFICATION
Engaging new users is
tough 😩
Most of them…
Most of them…
1. Don’t understand your product 🤔
1. Don’t understand your product
2. Forget to use it over time 🙄
Most of them…
1. Don’t understand your product
2. Forget to use it over time
3. Discover other apps to replace it 😯
Most of them…
What are the most
addictive apps?
GAMES!!!
What are the most viral
apps?
GAMES
Want to engage your users?
Using your product should feel like playing a game! 🕹
Want to engage your users?
What does that mean?
1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4
Some of the best apps have successfully used gamification for growth.
Let’s see how!
1
1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4
As human beings we are naturally driven when we have a clear goal in mind to accomplish 🎯
Knowing how far away that end goal is will keep your users playing.
LinkedIn has nailed the progress bar.
This is a new user’s profile.
Showing the profile strength drives people to take steps towards 100% completion.
Then there is a limited amount of steps and a progress bar for a clear goal and the end benefit!
Also pay attention to the wording
They encourage people to take action with a simple one-liner: “get found for opportunity”
' Who doesn't want to get found for opportunities??
They encourage people to take action with a simple one-liner: “get found for opportunity”
' Who doesn't want to get found for opportunities??
And use the gaming vocabulary: “Profile strength: Beginner”
Do you know what works even better than specific goals?
Goals with a reward! 🎁
Do you know what works even better than specific goals?
Starbucks has nailed loyalty through mobile rewards
The coffee company has totally gamified its loyalty program on mobile.
Clear goals & progress bar 👌
And attractive rewards! 🎁
“Free drink or food” 😋
By employing a tiered reward structure across the whole experience, customers are encouraged to shop more but also shop exclusively with Starbucks! 💸
Starbucks uses rewards for user retention.
But it can also be used for other growth purposes! 🔥
Tribe’s gamification tactics for growth
1. Access to address book during signup
Tribe asked new users to give access to their contacts in order to be able to use the app.
2. Access to notifications!
Tribe also gave points to users who enabled their notifications.
Actually, most actions that could actually improve retention or virality were incentivized with points! 😲
Now, let’s see how levels & rewards can improve the overall user experience.
Now, let’s see how levels & rewards can improve the overall user experience.
In gaming, players generally go through a tutorial first, and then for days or weeks after, are given basic missions and slowly ramped to more difficult ones.
From a Baby user to a Power user
Day 1 Day 7 Day 90
It’s important to treat users differently depending on where they are in their lifecycle, and to build features and experiences tailored to a specific segment of that lifecycle.
Duolingo used gamification to adapt their product to the
user lifecycle
Right after downloading the app, the user is asked about their language level.
Whatever the answer is, the user goes through a really simple test to get acquainted with the product… and starts earning XP!
Then,
the user can either start another lesson or continue exploring the app…
BUT they can’t access all the features yet!
BUT they can’t access all the features yet!
😱
By locking the bots feature, Duolingo created artificial scarcity in order to have a reward and push the users towards a simple goal: Level 3!
By locking the bots feature, Duolingo created artificial scarcity in order to have a reward and push the users towards a simple goal: Level 3!
Another example of artificial scarcity?
SOUNDS is an app to share music with friends easily.
With 8 million users 😎
Look how SOUNDS uses artificial scarcity to boost virality!
By default, there is a SOUNDS watermark when you share a song on other social media.
By default, there is a SOUNDS watermark when you share a song on other social media.
Want to remove it?
Then you have to invite more friends on the app! 🔥
SOUNDS also uses scarcity for monetization 💰
SOUNDS also uses scarcity for monetization 💰
Want to know who looked at your profile ?
Then start your VIP free trial!
💵💵💵💵
💵💵💵💵
💵💵💵💵
💵💵💵
💵💵💵💵
💵
💵💵💵
💵💵💵
Well done guys 👏
Stop making every feature so accessible🚫
Use SCARCITY to create attractive REWARDS
Use these REWARDS to drive user behavior and fuel GROWTH
🎖🎖
🚀
In a nutshell…
2
1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4
Working out has always been quite a lonely practice.
👫
But there’s an app that managed to make it social.
Freeletics is an app for those who want to get in shape.
Freeletics is an app for those who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different trainings. As well as a coach.
Freeletics is an app for those who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different trainings. As well as a coach.
But the powerful feature is not the trainings, nor the coach.
Freeletics is an app for those who want to get in shape.
There is a bunch of different trainings. As well as a coach.
But the powerful feature is not the trainings, nor the coach.
It’s the social network!
Your friends can follow your performance, write comments and encourage you!
There’s a social feed where you can see everyone’s performance.
And profiles to know how good your friends are!
And profiles to know how good your friends are!
✅ Levels
✅ Badges
✅ Followers
Freeletics, just like Strava or Runkeeper, implemented social features to generate mutual support and competition.
Peer pressure is very powerful for user engagement 8
That’s why Duolingo as groups.
With leaderboards!
Waze used social gamification to build a community of 65 million active users!
How did they do it?
Every Wazer has a “mood”.
Your mood reflects your personality on the social map.
As a new Wazer, your mood is “newbie” 👎
Access to other moods is limited according to your activity on the app!
The only way to be rewarded a better mood is by being an active participant, helping both your fellow Wazers and of course ultimately the app’s success.
Each time you report an incident that will help the community: a fallen tree, a police speed-check, you get points.
You even get points for simply having the app running while you’re driving!
And just like the other gamified apps, there’s a clear progress bar, a public leaderboard and teams!
Do you know the best about these profiles?
They instill a Sense of Ownership
Whether it is a Tamagotchi, a Farmville Farm, or an in-game avatar, if players are able to personalize something, then they will have a greater affinity for the product as a whole.
Waze
The switching costs are higher, as by customizing something in-game is an investment as well as an emotional tie.
Duolingo
The switching costs are higher, as by customizing something in-game is an investment as well as an emotional tie.
Duolingo
Who would break a 100 day streak?!
The app triggers the users’ creativity with avatars, and give them something to feel invested in so that the switching costs to a competitor are high.
Remember the Mayor status in Foursquare?
Foursquare
3
1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4
As you know, rewards can be a powerful tool to encourage user behavior on your app.
🏆
As you know, rewards can be a powerful tool to encourage user behavior on your app.
🏆
But it’s not enough!
Remember the points given by Tribe for all these user actions?
Remember the points given by Tribe for all these user actions?
They removed them in the last version!❌
🤔 WHY?
🤔 First, these rewards didn’t bring much value to the product.
WHY?
🤔 First, these rewards didn’t bring much value to the product.
Second, they were too PREDICTABLE!
WHY?
In the 50s, the researcher B.F. Skinner studied behavior conditioning at Harvard University.
Back to theory
To understand how rewards could influence behavior, he invented the “Skinner box”.
The mice would press a lever and sometimes they’d get a small treat, other times a large treat, and other times nothing at all.
Unlike the mice that received the same treat every time, the mice that received variable rewards would press the lever way more compulsively!
🧀🧀🧀 🧀
t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
🧀🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
🧀
🧀🧀 😱
Humans, like the mice in Skinner’s box, crave predictability and struggle to find patterns, even when none exist.
We respond most voraciously to random rewards.
🎲
That’s why gambling and playing the lottery are so addictive! Every new game is exciting as you never know what you’re gonna get 😏
🎰
Does it ring a bell ?
User addiction by design
Tinder became the most addictive dating app ever by implementing unpredictability at the core of its product!
How could you ever stop swiping?
How could you ever stop swiping?
Every right swipe is a potential match!
And every swipe uncovers a new person!
What if the next person is…
😱😱😱😱😱😱
😱😱😱😱😱😱
How Snapchat uses variable rewards to keep you engaged
Have you ever visited your Trophy case?
It gathers the rewards you collected depending on your behavior.
It gathers the rewards you collected depending on your behavior.
For instance:
But it doesn’t tell you how to get a bigger trophy for a certain action.
??
Nor what are the other trophies to win!
“Variable rewards!”
Snapchat used these trophies to reward unusual uses of their app:
Obviously shared on social media…
There’s also trophies to reward the most engaged users:
To encourage users to discover new features:
And to take boring actions still needed for user engagement:
Snapchat also uses unpredictability in their notification strategy.
Instead of pushing a notification after a friend sent you a message, it’s pushed while your friend is typing!
Obviously, this makes you want to find out what will happen next. If you don’t know what’s going to happen, your brain is engaged and you think about it often!
4
1 Simple goals and shiny rewards
A bit of competition
Some randomness & surprises
Lots of fun overall
2
3
4
Life is hard.
Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.
Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.
They generate excitement through the competition and rewards mechanisms that we just studied.
Life is hard.
Hopefully, games are here to entertain us.
They generate excitement through the competition and rewards mechanisms that we just studied.
But it’s not only about that.
Games create a different reality.
Where you can have fun and celebrate achievements, whatever they would mean in “real life”.
Zenly is really good at giving this game feeling
Look at the experience designed by Zenly when they ask a user for their address book.
99% of the applications would have built a flow like that.
But Zenly did it differently.
But Zenly did it differently.
Instead of a blank loading screen, they inserted fun messages.
These are the little details that make a BIG difference!
Houseparty is also really good at entertaining the users on waiting screens!
As soon as you have added some friends on Zenly, this what you get.
As soon as you have added some friends on Zenly, this what you get.
While big achievements are rewarded with something special, like badges or trophies, small achievements should also be recognized, especially when the user has just started engaging with the app.
Celebrations create a fun and comfortable environment for the user 🙏
Celebrations create a fun and comfortable environment for the user 🙏
And they are also good opportunities to share the app with friends 🎉
Look how Duolingo does it!
Want to gamify your app?
🚀
