Tailor Gamification to Different Types of Systems Understanding systems theory is crucial for designing successful educational and enterprise projects. There are two basic types of systems: open and closed. Closed systems are relatively stable, highly constrained and consist of repetition. In business, an example of such systems is manufacturing. Engineering metaphors work in these systems. Efficiency and…
Carrot Rewards From Down Under Move over, Bugs Bunny! There is a new rabbit in the land down under. His name is Buck, and he is the star of EB World, which is the customer loyalty program of EB Games in Australia. According to the company, Buck is a “loudmouth, cheeky bunny”. As the hero of…
This Interview was conducted by Clark Buckner from TechnologyAdvice.com (they provide coverage content on gamification trends (including gamification in the workplace, sales gamification software and teaching games software). Fresh off of his presentation at GSummit 2014, “Gamification as a Strategy,” Dopamine’s behavioral design expert Ankit spoke to TechnologyAdvice’s Clark Buckner about “the G word,” Dopamine’s custom-tailored solutions for…
Mango Health Improves Adherence to Medication with Gamification Mango Health (@MangoHealth) offers a new type of game in the health field – one that aims to help users remember to take their medication. Former executives from the ngmoco, a mobile gaming company, wanted to create an application that would help people remember to take their medication. The…
Learn English By Reading Your Tweets And The News While children start learning their first language with basic words, more research is showing that adults learn a new language faster when they start with relevant words and phases used in their everyday conversations. Game-based learning can help stimulate the mind to recall these new words and…
GAMIFY YOUR GROUNDED KIDS’ WAY OUT The weekend has come, and parents of young kids know what that means: no escape from the kids for two days! To help you manage we’re revisiting the concept of the gamification of parenting. The Huffington Post recently reported on a mom who designed her own gamification methods to ground her kids….
A QUESTION OF TRUST If someone introduced a new currency, would you trade your hard-earned cash for it? Who would determine the value of the new currency? How would it be regulated to maintain value? These are the questions being asked about bitcoin, which is a “cryptocurrency.” And, make no mistake, it’s gamified. Yet the…
“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” – Dan Gable I have noticed that the terms “flow” and “deliberate practice” are being used interchangeably in the gamification community. This leads to misinterpretations that I feel should be addressed. The term “flow” is one of the…
Since the beginning of the gamification movement, we’ve had our fair share of naysayers. Some have been academics, others simply impassioned folks with strong opinions. At their most charitable, these critics have stated – as fact – that basic gamification mechanics simply won’t (can’t) work. At their worst, they’ve accused us of being manipulative, under-informed…
Crowdsourced Dr House Fills a Niche in Creative Diagnostics A new gamification startup, CrowdMed (@CrowdMed), has broken into the gamified health field with a unique mobile application that is looking to change how rare diseases are diagnosed. CrowdMed targets two different audiences. First, the company targets patients who have bounced around from doctor to doctor looking for a diagnosis that fits…
Gamification Enters College Curriculum Lambton College in Sarnia, Ontario is set to roll out a new gamification application that will help teach the course material to its students in six of its college courses this coming fall. This Canadian college (@LambtonCollege) is hoping that by incorporating games in education in a way that connects with today’s students, they will increase…
EXERCISE THAT CORTEX! Gamification mobile apps enter the field of neuroplasticity with UltimEyes, an app now available for tablets and other mobile devices. An article in Popular Mechanics focuses on the new app and how it improves eyesight through neuroplasticity, the re-wiring of the brain by forming new neural pathways. The app was developed by a…
A SOCIAL GAME Who knew that a coke friendly bottle can make friends out of strangers? Coca Cola is the most famous and most widely consumed soft drink on the planet. Drinking coke is often a shared experience, at a party, or on a first date, especially between teenagers who are below the legal age…
Gamification is well-known to boost players’ engagement and interest. Players are rewarded through badges or leader boards. Health, education, and even charitable sectors are using gamification as a method to increase awareness of social issues as well as encourage donations to causes. Here are several examples of successful charity apps: 1. Charity Miles: Once you sign…
“The child amidst his baubles is learning the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force…” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Time For Work And Time For Play Anthropologists define “play” as activities involving games, stories or art. Children love these activities because they’re fun, but there is also a serious evolutionary purpose behind them: implicit learning. Through…
