Design to motivate – The psychology behind gamification

More often than not, when we hear about gamification, we hear about points, badges, levels, leaderboards and missions. In other words, we hear about the “game mechanics” associated with gamification. But what about the psychology behind this practice? The main objective of gamification is to engage users and motivate action. Psychology has to be at play. At Ellicom, this is our primary focus when designing gamified experiences. What is the relationship between game elements and motivation? What are their effects on our behaviour and on our brain?

Rewarding our behaviour

Towards the end of the 1920s, the psychologist B.F. Skinner invented a box to observe how certain reinforcements could condition the behaviour of rats. One of his many experiments was to put a starving rat in this box with a lever that would give out food pellets whenever it was pressed. Very quickly, the rat learned to press on the lever to feed itself. This experiment demonstrated that positive reinforcement, in this case food, was very effective for conditioning the behaviour of rats. And it works for humans as well.

Read the full story by

Tags:

RELATED READS
Essential MOOC Courses In Business How to Make Your Technical Online Training Course More Effective?
We are updating our Privacy Policy, so please make sure you take a minute to review it. As of May 25, 2018 your continued use of our services will be subject to this new Privacy Policy.
Review Privacy Policy OK