High ROI Gamification: the Octalysis User Experience Phases and Player Types

In short: every gamified experience moves users through four phases: Discovery, Onboarding, Scaffolding and Endgame. Each phase needs its own Octalysis Core Drive design, and each type of player responds to the Core Drives differently.

Most people know how addictive games like Candy Crush can be, and many apps borrow from them. Duolingo’s streaks are a well-known example. But why do these games and apps keep people coming back? And how can you use that knowledge to design an engaging user experience for your own products and services? This is where Octalysis comes in.

Yu-kai Chou and The Octalysis Group developed a framework that explains what makes these experiences so compelling, and how the same principles apply to almost any business. The key is to see your users as “players” who progress through the phases, or “levels”, of the user experience. Let’s look at each phase in the context of the user journey.

The 4 Phases of the User Experience

From a digital healthcare app to a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), if your business needs motivated users to survive, you need to prioritize your user experience design. A big part of that is understanding the user journey: how users move through your product from beginning to end. That lets you optimize each phase for engagement and motivation.

The user journey breaks down into four phases, each of which works like its own “product”:

Discovery: motivating people to try your product

In the Discovery phase you are motivating people to try your product. The journey begins before a user buys or subscribes. Hearing about a product does not mean someone is motivated to see the journey through. The Octalysis Core Drives of human motivation help here, in particular:

• Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling. Users are drawn in when they feel part of something bigger than themselves. A company with a charitable mission, for example, can build its Discovery phase around that purpose.
• Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment. People like to progress and try new things. A product that promises faster progress than before, or is simply “new”, appeals to this drive.
• Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness. We are social by nature, so this is one of the most effective drives. It maximizes motivation and engagement, and it is relevant in every phase of the journey.
• Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity. Users are motivated by not knowing what you have to offer. It is a Black Hat drive, so it creates urgency to act. It is also intrinsic: people do it because the activity itself is the reward.

Once you have the user’s interest, the next phase is Onboarding, where the user learns the rules and tools of the system.

Onboarding: teaching the rules without boring users

During onboarding, many businesses assume that once users understand the system they will fall in love with it. So they write long articles and tutorials that explain every rule, option and objective. This tends to bore people and lowers motivation.

A better way is to present information “just in time”, so the user feels smart and accomplished (Core Drive 2). Give feedback along the way (Core Drive 3), because learners are more motivated when they can check their own level of understanding and mastery.

A simple way to give feedback (Core Drive 3) and a sense of accomplishment (Core Drive 2) is a progress bar. Showing users how far they have come and how far they still have to go keeps them moving past the learning stage.

Adding unpredictability and curiosity (Core Drive 7), with hints of what lies ahead, makes users want to return and use your product more intensively. For more on this phase, see our article on gamification onboarding the Octalysis way.

By now your users should be ready to dive in and “play the game”.

Scaffolding: where habits form

In the Scaffolding phase, users apply the rules they learned during onboarding and work towards “win-states”: collecting a number of coins, points or badges, slaying a dragon, or completing a lesson.

From a gamification standpoint, this phase can involve many or even all of the 8 Core Drives. It is also the habit-forming phase. Habits form in the background of the experience rather than explicitly, and because habits consist of repetitive, routine actions, targeted gamification design can add motivation and joy to that repetition. Our article on creating lasting habits with Octalysis gamification goes deeper.

Here is a hypothetical example. Say you want users to keep returning to a game where they cook recipes. They come back after a set time, when the food is ready. If they return too late and the food burns, they lose points or do not progress (Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance). This also uses Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience. If they return on time and serve the food, they feel accomplished (Core Drive 2), a sense of pride and ownership (Core Drive 4), and a sense of agency (Core Drive 3).

If your product suits a heroic or epic storyline, you can make users feel “chosen” or “called upon” for something that only they can complete (Core Drive 1). Social elements also matter: avatars, discussion forums, or leaderboards where users see each other’s progress (Core Drive 5).

This is only the tip of the iceberg. The Scaffolding phase can use every Core Drive. It is where users discover every aspect of the experience and build mastery, and once they have mastered it they need a reason to come back.

Endgame: keeping mastered users engaged

In the final phase, the user has experienced all the win-states of your design. You could say they have mastered the game. This is where many businesses drop the ball: how do you keep users motivated when they have seen everything you offer? These users are your internal and external brand ambassadors. Endgame veterans can become community managers and help your product spread.

The best approach is to focus on the White Hat, intrinsic Core Drives on the right of the Octalysis octagon, such as Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback and Social Influence & Relatedness. Because they are intrinsic, the activity is its own reward. Let users apply strategy and creativity and receive constructive feedback. Let them engage deeply with other users and make a name for themselves on the platform.

Because these users are so invested, you can also use some Black Hat design here. The sunk cost principle is one example: the more a user has invested in your product, the more they fear losing their status or achievements (Core Drive 8).

The point is that the Endgame deserves as much attention as the other phases. It is one thing to hook users and another to keep them engaged once they have explored everything.

Gamification Player Types: Optimizing the Experience for Each Player

Existing player type models: Bartle and Marczewski

Many theories try to categorize the player types we see in games, and so in gamification. Richard Bartle’s four player types (Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers) came from observing how people play multiplayer text games, known as MUDs. Andrzej Marczewski’s HEXAD model builds on that work and describes six gamification user types: Socializers, Free Spirits, Achievers, Philanthropists, Players and Disruptors. Four of them are intrinsically motivated, the Player type is motivated by extrinsic rewards, and the Disruptor is motivated by change. Full references are listed under Sources at the end of this article.

In general, these models say that some players are mainly motivated by intrinsic “rewards”: the activities in the gamified experience themselves, not the external rewards for them. Other players are motivated by extrinsic rewards such as points, badges and leaderboards.

The Octalysis approach: custom player types on two axes

At Octalysis, we feel that fitting players into a fixed set of molds is too simple. Every experience is different, and the role a person plays can differ too. An accountant can be rational and risk averse at work and, at home, a fearless clan leader in World of Warcraft.

So we build player type analysis on two axes that we choose for each project, crossing them to create quadrants. Each quadrant becomes a named player type, and each player type gets its own Core Drive octagon that shows what motivates it. In the example below, the horizontal (X) axis runs from tech savvy to tech agnostic, and the vertical (Y) axis runs from white collar to blue collar. The four quadrants give four player types: the phoenix, the deer, the rhinos and, in the top left, a Privacy Champion, whose octagon is already filled in. Can you think of other possible player types?

We can also overlay several player type octagons to show how different players are motivated differently. This tells us how to adjust the design to match the needs and desires of your users.

Crafting a gamified experience with a strong return is both an art and a science. You can read more about the science behind the framework on our Octalysis Framework page.

Design your own gamified user experience

Do you want to create a truly engaging journey for your users? Knowing the 4 phases of the user journey is a good start. Knowing how to change the design for each phase is the logical next step. Building a solid, fully customized player type profile is another.

Knowledge is only half the battle, though. Some games copy existing games in full, yet the original is still better. Why? You cannot copy experience or a long track record. The core insights into gameful UX design come from years of behavioral science practice and design.

That is where The Octalysis Group comes in. We have worked with venture-backed startups and Fortune 500 companies, and our work has improved more than 1.5 billion user experiences. To see how best to optimize your customer journey for engagement and retention, contact us.

Sources

• Bartle, R. (1996). “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs.” Journal of MUD Research, 1(1). Full text on mud.co.uk
• Marczewski, A. (2015). Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking and Motivational Design. Gamified UK: user types