Watch the short screencast above that talks through the point I’m trying to make
Obviously this is an extremely basic app, but does use complex animations (one of the animations you see is actually a time-series of 25 separate images)
Additionally, the animations and graphics are most definitely not subtle, and a bit heavy-handed, but did it this way to make the point obvious and hard-to-miss
For some reason, when the video was rendering on YouTube it created a delay between the sound of the mouse click and the actual click. This delay doesn’t actually exist.
In Summary
We at Evolyte call this concept I’m about to describe (e)motion. It’s about the combination of emotion and motion/interaction, hence the play on words (download the PDF).
In case you hate watching videos, I’ll just jump right into the point I’m trying to make. Namely, that gamification isn’t about badges and points. It’s about taking the emotion and interaction/motion of games and applying it to more utilitarian apps.
In the example above, I did the following:
Splash Page — Instead of a static, opening splash page, I used a steel shutter that rolled up like a garage door. Did you know that these loading pages are, more often than not, not even necessary? It’s just a way for the app developers to make you stare at their branding/logo for an arbitrary amount of time, and the app is already loaded. The more you know…
Fly-Ins — Rather than the screen loading with each of the assets already in place, I animated them to add some visual appeal.
Explosions — Seriously. When I check a box, I want some some crazy ass sh*t happening. I don’t want a measly little two-pixel width checkmark to just appear. I want a damn, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Total Recall, Die Hard With A Vengeance type explosion. Give the people what they want, man!
Ok, so I tend to get a little “fired” up about this stuff. Get it? Fired up? Uhh…
Take-Aways
So what should you take away from this? Well, how about making a to-do list with explosions everytime you check something off? Or better yet, confetti!
And in project management-style software (I’m looking at you Basecamp :), why not add a bit more interaction when something gets completed that makes the person completing it feel good about it. Instead of deleting a project when it’s finally completed, why not shoot it out of a rocket into outer space? Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Anyways, that’s about it for this one. If you’ve got questions or want to play around with the app, feel free to shoot me a note: sean.everett@evolyte.com
