There are millions of websites out there, and thousands of new ones are launched every day. Many website owners attempt to keep their users and attract new ones in various ways. One of the strategies to make а website more appealing to visitors is gamification. In this article, we will look at what exactly this term means, what types of gamification there are, and how it can help your website to become more popular.

• What is gamification
• Types of gamification
• Advantages
• Best practices
• Wrap up

What is gamification?

Before we start talking about the advantages of gamification, it is important that you know what this is. The term is used for incorporating game-like features, elements, tasks, or mechanics into a non-game environment. People receive an award of some sort once they reach a particular threshold, or they perform a desired action. Gamification is meant to motivate a specific behavior in some way. This is valid for users, employees, clients, or other target audiences.

Playing games can increase dopamine levels. It also gives people a sense of control and accomplishment. This is why you can see gamification in various industries, both online and offline.

In fact, gamification has been around for quite some time – the earliest known examples are from the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Boy Scouts of America’s badge system is one such example. With the evolution of video games in the 1990s and 2000s, adding game-like elements in non-game context became increasingly popular. In 2010, the term even appeared in Google Trends (Source). Today, the gamification market is estimated at up to $40 billion (Source).

Statistics show that gamification can increase user engagement by 30% (Source). This is why game-like mechanics are increasingly popular, and you can see them in applications and on websites.

Types of gamification

There are many ways to engage the visitors on your website, so there is no convention on how exactly to do that. What option you will choose depends on the type of website you have, on the site structure, and on your personal preference. If you have a one-page website, for example, it will be difficult to gamify it (although not impossible). We have listed several ways to gamify your site, but there may be other ways as well.

• Progress bar. When users perform certain tasks, they will see a progress bar filling up. Many of them will want to reach 100%, so this is a good option if you want people to perform different tasks at least once. Using a progress bar provides a balance between engaging users to reach a specific target, and not being too intrusive to people who are not fans of game-like elements.

• Competition. You can add some sort of competition or leaderboard where users compete against each other. It could be an all-time competition, or the leaderboard can reset after a set time frame – week, month, etc. The leaderboard should be publicly available. Users can earn points (more about that below), bring referrals to the site, write as many useful comments as possible that other users can rate, etc. Based on their actions and their performance, they will move up or down the leaderboard.

• Points. Users can earn points for doing certain tasks. These points can be used in a competition such as the one we have mentioned above, or they can be exchanged for a prize (virtual currency, coupons, services, physical rewards). If you offer enough opportunities for users to earn points, they will keep playing.

• Achievements / badges. You can display a badge next to the username of users who have reached a certain milestone. They can earn multiple badges, each one for a different achievement, or they can have a single badge that can be upgraded as they progress. Badges can be displayed publicly (everywhere across the site, or only in the user’s account), or they can be visible only to the user.

• Random chance. You can add some sort of random chance – a daily/weekly scratch card, a roulette, etc. Users will have the opportunity to earn a reward without doing any other tasks. This option is good if you don’t want to change your website too much to add game-like experience. It is also suitable for people who are not into games as it does not involve any complex or time-consuming actions.

• Others. There are all sorts of rewards and game-like mechanics you can add, and we cannot list all of them here. A couple of examples apart from the list above are to create a quiz, to ask users trivia questions about your site/products, or to provide an offline incentive such as donating money or planting a tree every time users collect a certain number of points or do a particular task.

Once you choose the best option, there are various tasks you can gamify – signing up for a newsletter, ordering for the first time, ordering multiple times, following your social media profiles, commenting, voting, inviting other people to the site, completing the account profile, watching videos, and more.

Advantages

If you still wonder whether gamification will be beneficial to your website, here are a few advantages that will probably convince you that you should go ahead with adding at least a little bit of fun for your customers/visitors.

• Boost browsing time. If people engage in game-like activities, they will certainly spend more time on your website. Depending on the gamification mechanics you choose, they may have to go through certain sections or pages on the site, or engage in certain activities such as replying to comments, clicking buttons, etc. This way they will spend even more time browsing your site.

• Boost sales. If you offer something in return, you can boost your sales. Awarding points or filling up a progress bar is the gamification alternative to cash back on your credit card. If users know that they will get something in return, even if it is virtual points, they will prefer to order from you instead of going to your competitors. Of course, the most important thing is to offer high-quality goods or services. No game-like experience can convince customers to order if this is not the case.
  
  Here is an example – you can add a progress bar with simple tasks, such as adding a profile photo, writing a few comments, etc. The last task to reach 100% could be to purchase a product/service. This way, people who want to complete all steps and fill the progress bar will place their first order.

• Increase client base. Offering an incentive to interact with your website will make the site more appealing to users. Existing users are likely to share their experience and attract newcomers. This way the number of regulars will increase with time. Your site can even appear on discussion boards or lists of sites that offer game-like challenges, especially if you offer physical or virtual rewards of some sort.

• Engage users. While people do certain tasks, they will be more engaged both with the game-like elements and with the rest of the content. They will feel like a part of a community, especially if the gamification includes interaction such as comments, teamwork, or some sort of competition.

• Boost brand awareness/loyalty. The more time people spend interacting with your content, the more brand awareness you will create. Users will remember having fun on your site, so you can build loyalty among them as they will likely return to continue their progress. They will remember and recognize your brand if they see it, or if they need a product/service.

Best practices

Gamification can certainly help your website, but there are things you should consider when you add game-like elements on the site.

• Define your goals. The first thing you should ask yourself is what you want to achieve by gamifying your website. Doing that can help you to choose the best game mechanics to accomplish your goals. You may want to motivate users to do a particular task, to facilitate data collection through certain behavior, or simply to provide a fun activity to improve the overall user experience. Of course, you should also keep your audience in mind. Make sure that the interactive mechanics you add will be suitable for them. It makes no sense to incorporate game-like elements without a plan or even an idea of what you want to achieve.

• Include an opt-out. Users should be able to complete some tasks or make an order with little or no game-like elements. The purpose of gamification is to keep them engaged. It is not meant to replace the standard order flow or to affect the user experience in a way that will force users to do something they don’t want to. Gamification should offer a voluntary or non-intrusive interaction with your content. If you put your products behind a wall of difficult challenges with no way to skip it, you can discourage users from ordering.

• Keep it simple. Incorporating too many game-like elements will probably confuse most of the users. The same thing will happen if the mechanics are too difficult to grasp or if the goals users should achieve take too much time. Adding small steps towards a bigger goal will motivate users; seeing little progress over a very long period will likely discourage them.

• Keep it relevant. The idea of gamification is to add fun and to improve the overall user experience. It should also connect users to your brand and increase their brand awareness. Avoid adding game mechanics that distract people too much and keep them away from your content. Make sure that a game does not become the main activity on the site. Game-like elements should be complementary to the rest of the content. If users start playing a certain game without interacting with your actual content, you may even see a decrease in your sales as they will focus on the game, and not on the rest of the site.

Wrap-up

Gamification, or adding interactive game-like mechanics to your website, is an excellent way to engage users. Once you consider your target audience and set your goals, you can add a progress bar, a quiz, a pop-up, or a leaderboard with points to motivate users to interact with your content in one way or another. This way you can boost the browsing time on your site, increase your sales, and build a loyal community that will recognize your brand.