The Octalysis Group Blog: Insights on Gamification, Behavioral Science, and Engagement Strategies

Even world-leading software companies like Microsoft are jumping on the train of Human-focused design and Gamification to create powerful user engagement. The way we learn and adapt to new technologies is changing. We are no longer stuck with the same boring methods that have been constantly used in the past centuries.

With the help of The Octalysis Group, the Azure team at Microsoft created a brand new learning platform that tackles the right gamified features to motivate and engage its users in compelling learning journeys.

The system tracks and rewards the effort and effectiveness of every person’s learning journey with a set of unique achievement symbols and status points (game techniques #1 and #2 in Octalysis).

These are the basis for what later becomes a much more intrinsic, White Hat experience.

Caixa Econômica Federal, the largest public bank in Latin America, had a historic net profit record of around US$1.5 Billion. The bank wanted to increase this number to around US$1.8 Billion, but achieving a 12% increase is not easy in a mature market like banking and finance.

In the case of Caixa Bank’s project Tamo Junto 9Bi+ (Together we reach 9Bi+), a fully engaging user journey was crafted, fielding a wide range of carefully selected Octalysis game techniques. The whole experience was rolled in record time across multiple departments of teh bank by our Octalysis partner Funifier.

While being active in the gamified experience, employees would achieve personal targets in their own way, hence increasing a feeling of agency (Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback) and public recognition (Core Drive 5: Social Influence and Relatedness).

There were many prizes that could be won as well (Core Drive 4: Ownership and Possession), such as TV sets, headphones, Coffee Machines, and all sorts of technological gadgets and appliances.

Finally, the profit goal was broken down into goals by each department; subdivided into team goals, all the way down to the individual level to help increase the chances of success using the employees’ professional motivation (Core Drive 2: Development and Accomplishment).

Navo Orbico, a major distributor of Procter & Gamble, was looking for an innovative way to engage its workforce in a bid to prevent churn, increase sales, and employee satisfaction.

The Octalysis Group created a fully gamified experience layer on top of their legacy systems. Our research showed the employees were interested in the Baltic sea and old school port traders. We used that knowledge to create an 18th-century trading city theme.

Sales Reps take the role of savvy sailors and enter this world filled with quests and adventures, where clients become colonies with whom they can trade. Employees can also upgrade their ships, level up their skills, interact with other colleagues in the Tavern, and many more Role-playing activities.

This Project won an award for Best Gamification Project.

La Quinta Inns & Suites (Spanish: La Quinta, “the country Villa”, pronounced ‘la KEEN-ta) is a chain of limited-service hotels in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Honduras. The hotel chain targets middle-income, price-conscious travelers.

To supercharge their loyalty program, a gamified campaign called Play & Stay was implemented.

The first element of the experience is a slot machine game that most people are very familiar with. Users click the big Spin Button and get a chance of winning points or collectibles.
To play, users need virtual tokens which leverage Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience. Tokens are recharged regularly, with an additional wheel of fortune game that can generate more tokens once the initial ones run out.

On top of that, there are “instant grand prizes” as big as “10 Free Nights” that could be won with every spin. The small chance of winning the grand prize did not deter people very much, as the hope of winning a large prize was enough to make the experience fun and addicting. Because the price is so enticing, people are more motivated to continue playing, while being content that their general La Quinta points keep accumulating as they play (a combination of Core Drive 2: Development and Accomplishment and Core Drive 4: Ownership and Possession).

Other game techniques come into play such as Boosters to double scores whenever the player answers trivia questions regarding the hotel brand or shares the game with their friends. This not only adds Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback and Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness but also builds positive associations between the brand and its users.

Most online learning experiences are not engaging and suffer from dismal course completion rates. The industry average is around 10%. So only 10% of all enrolled students actually finish their course.

The MOOC BitDegree suffered from the same problems and decided to hire The Octalysis Group.

We created an experience aimed at providing context and excitement around the users learning journey, taking the focus away from individual courses. Taking a course on BitDegree now ties into an exciting and more engaging journey: students are exploring and protecting a cool cyberphunk city while progressing towards their unique career paths.

Distracted drivers are a main cause of accidents. And accidents lead to high insurance claims for insurance companies.

46% of drivers make phone calls while driving. 55% of adults and 73% of young drivers also text while driving.

The Octalysis Group teamed up with one of one of the leading insurance companies (VIS) to design a driving experience that is both rewarding and safe. The name of the new app: Ökuvísir.

Ökuvísir rewards customers for good driving or for driving less (two main elements that reduce accidents and insurance claims). When users drive they get a behavior score based on their performance on five risky behaviors: speeding, acceleration, braking, swerving, and phone use.

Good driving behavior leads to getting discounts on your insurance premiums, so there is a direct financial benefit for drivers to maintain a positive driving score.

The app engages people well beyond just standard Gamification design and gives users agency and a fun community experience. In addition, the art design is fun as well.

“The invention of the internet gave humanity hope and a promise. It promised deeper connections between individuals across the world.

Despite increasingly better technology with more ways to connect, more people are feeling socially isolated, and devoid of meaning than ever.

This is TOTEM’s offering; a gateway for us to co-create a network that we can all trust, a basecamp to build a metaverse for us, by us. “

Meaningful sentences taken from the TOTEM Whitepaper: one of the top Metaverse projects. It is a Web3 platform that is inclusive and decentralized at the same time.

It has received raving reviews from community members and influencers alike. Part of its core design was modeled on Octalysis and the Framework has been mainstreamed throughout the design of the project: from Whitepaper to DAO to Tokenomics to the UX design.