June 9, 2026
Headlines

design

The Glorious Gamification of Gravy, Cheese Curds, and Fries: Montreal Poutine Week

Ivan Kuo25 mins

Canada’s gamification efforts are being heard, especially with Audi Canada’s recent reimagination of the test-drive and VIP public transport but something much more important and dear to all my heart has become a gamified experience, and that’s Montreal’s decision to gamify Poutine Week for all the food adventurists participating in it last week.

Poutine Week or Semaine de la Poutine Week is a celebration of the delectable poutine: a dish consisting crispy french fries topped with gravy, and cheese curds.

Read More

LinkedIn’s Leaderboard of Missed Engagement Opportunities

Gabe Zichermann66 mins

Last week, Linkedin sent out emails congratulating users for being in the top X% of “most viewed” profiles, ostensibly to celebrate their 200 millionth profile. The emails generated a fair amount of social media buzz, with even reticent users posting about their “accomplishments”, often with a #humblebrag attached.

What struck me about the campaign was how it managed to take both the best and the worst of gamified leaderboard and achievement design in one fell swoop.

Read More

The Gamification of College Lectures at the University of Michigan

Heong Weng Mak89 mins

Big class lectures can often be a painfully boring but inevitable part for any college student. It may be surprising to some but professors can be just as bored by the class material they have to teach. This has led to a growing movement by teachers and professors to innovate the teaching practice with the primary goal to better engage their students.

Among those trendsetters is Professor Cliff Lampe from the University of Michigan who has been using gamification to teach his undergraduate seminar classes. As an assistant professor at the university’s School of Information, Professor Lampe conduct classes for the undergraduate program in informatics. What he is currently most well known for is his use of gamification elements and principles in his 200 person introductory lecture.

Read More

4 Quick Gamification Design Tips that Work Well

Kevin Shane15 mins

Many designers are using gamification to intrigue their users and keep them involved with an application over time. However, you want to make sure that the mechanics you are using are sound, and will make the most out of your effort. Some ludemes (things like badges, experience points, achievements, levels) may look useful since they are used in many games, but can be overused and may eventually turn a user off. Here are some things that will work in gamification.

Read More

The Power of Engaging Game Design with Jesse Schell

Ivan Kuo11 mins

Starting next week, the Gamification Revolution, the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts will be at a new time every Thursday instead of the previous Monday.

You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.

Starting next week, the Gamification Revolution, the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts will be at a new time every Thursday instead of the previous Monday.

You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.

If you missed this week’s episode, we had the venerable designer and GSummit SF 2013 speaker, Jesse Schell of Schell Games. Watch Gabe’s discussion with Jesse to learn about how making engaging game experiences is the same process for designing any product:



Download this episode (right click and save)

Be sure to catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution, airing live on Februrary 7, 1 PM EST. You can also catch Jesse express his expertise in person by catching his session at GSummit SF 2013

Read More

The Problems with Gamification

Kevin Shane25 mins

Gamification is a powerful tool that is poised to change the world. The old Gartner adage that predicted that by 2014, 70 percent of the world’s top 2000 companies will be using some form of gamification…but they also had a report that stated 80 perfect of gamified processes will fail in 2014.

Naturally, there is some backlash from those who think gamification is a fad that doesn’t really work, or that it can even be harmful. And you know what? Some of those critics make good points. The problem, however, is not gamification itself. The problems are FAKE gamification and BAD gamification.

Read More

Gabe Zichermann on the Hard Truths of Gamification

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Earlier today, Gabe Zichermann had an Op-Ed go live on The Huffington Post entitled The Hard Truths of Gamification, in which he addresses most of the misunderstandings revolving around gamification and lays down all of the gamification’s clear triumphs in during the last two years.

Gabe describes a number of significant gamification successes in business, education, and health to  support his arguments and lays down a strong foundation for an anyone dealing with a gamification skeptic. Although, not everybody was convinced and in true gamified fashion Gabe was awarded a particular badge.

What do you think? Is gamification the future of motivation or do his arguments fall flat? Read the full article and decide for yourself.

Read More

The Transformative Power of Social Games with Asi Burak

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Last week we had a special episode of the Gamification Revolution, the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts happening every Monday at 1PM ET/10AM PT/1800 GMT. We were lucky enough to have Asi Burak, Co-President of Games for Change, and speaker at GSummit SF 2013 for a little Games for Change special episode.

Watch this week’s episode to get hear Asi’s approach towards social impact games and why he believes games are the best medium for affecting change. In essence, games are a unique medium to convey stories. Traditional medium simply tells you what to believe and what is or isn’t right. Games are unique in that they enable a player to experience multiple perspectives on an issue and allows them to make a personal conclusion through player choice and actions. Learn more about Asi’s approach below:

Download this episode (right click and save)

Be sure to check out the Gamification Revolution next week to see legendary designer, Jesse Schell, as our next guest.

Read More

Windows Phone Live Tiles Could’ve Been So Much More

Ivan Kuo711 mins

I’ve recently acquired a Nokia Lumia 920 review unit and as an Android enthusiast, I would have never made this switch but there’s no way I’d turn down the opportunity to play with some new toys.

While I can make a full comprehensive-review of the hardware and operating system, I’ll mainly be looking at Windows Phone 8 (Not Windows Mobile, mind you) and its implication for gamification design.

Read More

How to Use Badges for Positive Growth

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan011 mins

It isn’t uncommon to hear the gamification sphere talk about the dangers of using badges. People claim they are typically used as an extrinsic reward, which leads to consumers quickly losing interest in gamified applications and services. Couple this danger of using badges with Gartner’s prediction that 80% of gamified solutions will fail by 2014 due to poor design, companies and designers looking to adopt gamification as a strategy to meet business objectives need to be aware of useful implementations.

That said about being meticulous on design, badges can still be used effectively as a positive growth tool. This past spring and summer, Global Kids—a premier non-profit organization dedicated to developing youth leaders that come from underrepresented demographics—conducted a beta-tested study on “Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning”.

Read More

Les Boucles de Gameplay dans la Gamification

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Le Game Design au service de la Gamification

Pour commencer il est important de rappeler que le Game Design et la Gamification sont deux champs distincts. Je vous invite à lire le très bon article de Gabe Zichermann à ce sujet à l’adresse http://cpc.cx/6gC.

Dans le développement d’un jeu les game designers utilisent les boucles de gameplay, qui permettent de mettre en place les mécaniques et le fun des jeux vidéo.

En tant que Game Designer j’utilise beaucoup les boucles de gameplay dans la gamification afin de structurer les mécaniques.

Read More

Top Articles by Gamification Experts in 2012

Ivan Kuo06 mins

We’re about halfway done with our Best of 2012 series and today we’re going to look at top gamification posts by gamification experts in 2012. Read on for outstanding advice about design, the pitfalls of gamification, top trends in loyalty, and what gamification will really mean going forth in 2013. Gamification experts will always have a voice on GamificationCo and we invite anyone who has something to say to step up to the plate.

Read More