Introduction to Gamification Part 1

Market research may be vital to your organization, but it's also somewhat boring. Very, very few respondents fill out surveys or go to focus groups because they are excited to provide their opinion. Most do it because of the incentives, and some do it simply because they're bored.

As a researcher, this is a problem. Not a grave problem, mind you, but a problem nonetheless. The less engaged the individual is when they complete your research, the less likely they are to put much thought into it.

Dropout rates for online panels also remains high, and while thus far this research has been reliable, there is no denying the ever growing need to make it better.

There's a new buzzword creeping the Internet world. It's called "gamification," and it's the process of turning some type of regular, everyday task into a game. You might remember a while back when banner ads became interactive, with visitors asked to throw spitballs at a teacher or shoot a deer as part of the ad.

Only if they successfully complete the task does the ad open, causing people to unwittingly click on a banner ad because they wanted to successfully complete the game. This is an example of gamification. With gamification, regular tasks are turned into some type of interactive game that a player feels they can win (or improve upon) so the task becomes less dull.

We see gamification in many different ways. Smartphone apps like Yelp and Foursquare are a great example – these apps have integrated check-ins, where individuals check into various locations in order to try to earn badges and/or become the "mayor." Many online forums have introduced this as well. Users get rewarded for performing tasks, earning "thanks," and other types of point systems, and if they accumulate enough they receive additional privileges.

There are numerous ways that gamification can be used.

Recently there has been a push to "gamify" surveys. While some have proposed quite literally turning a survey into a game, this approach isn't that valuable because the cost of development and the likelihood that the game will work properly or feel like a game is fairly low. But there are other ways to gamify surveys – ways that don't involve much programming while still encouraging more interaction. We'll look at some of these in the next article.