

Game mechanics for thinking users - ppolsinelli
http://pietro.open-lab.com/2010/11/09/game-mechanics-for-thinking-users/

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unoti
I've used game mechanics to help several business applications I've written.

The most successful example was a workflow application that a team of customer
service reps use to answer tickets. The system categories tickets and rates
them for severity. Severely rated tickets get a big threat score and go higher
in the queue. The system graphs the threat level of open tickets, and shows a
google-o-meter to say whether things are looking bad, ok, or great, and then
we named those states "Godilla, Pony, and Unicorn". We graph the overall
situation over time. So users can see their impact on successfully answering
and closing tickets. Each time a user worked a ticket, they could see the
little needle rise a little higher, closer to unicorn status.

Productivity skyrocketed as users worked their butts off to keep things in
"Unicorn" status.

Users could also see what other teams members were working on in real time--
whether they had a ticket open, and how long it had been open. This helps
establish a culture where you want to keep working, because you can see how
hard other team members are working.

These mechanics really helped the team stay motivated and working. Without
software like this, it can feel hard to stay motivated to work on an endless
stream of workflow. It helps combat the feeling of pointlessness when
answering so many similar tickets.

The system that I described is currently being used at a major virtual world
company for answering customer service tickets. One of the people that used it
loved it so much that he got the google-o-meter needle graph that I used
tatooed onto his arm, with the word Unicorn written under it.

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johnwatson11218
When I read the article it reminded me of some ideas I had for for UI design.
I get really frustrated in my IDE when I have to click on a folder or a file
and it is so small. It seems that systems could build statistical models of
what I do all day and resize icons based on what I am likely to click. There
seems to be this area between 100% automation and doing things manually that
isn't well designed for. Another example is when I have to go and look at log
files, I have to click on these tiny folder icons but I do it every day ...
why can't the system predict that and make the folder icon larger? Or how
about while I'm in the IDE only show things that make sense at that point in
time? You might say well there are thousands of things you can do in an IDE
but I know that I do about 15 or 20 things day in and day out. I know I could
use macros or something but that would be unique to each tool and would have a
very stitched together feel to it.

In my opinion the tab completion in the Bash shell is an example of game
mechanics used outside of a game.

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stcredzero
_Much of what I read under game mechanics (but not what I read about game
design) treats users as basically moronic conditional-reflex slaves.
Conditioning users to trivial games is not the only possible usage of game
mechanics for function and design._

I think this is a profound observation. I think a part of the attraction of
P2P is that it can introduce real complexity into a game. I dislike being
treated like a patron of a resort casino.

~~~
dpritchett
_Civilization_ creator Sid Meier says that a game is a series of interesting
decisions. I've always liked that view.

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ppolsinelli
Thanks for the comments; interesting to see the power and variety of game
mechanics applications - for thinking users!

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steveklabnik
Game mechanics are one of those things that I can recognize, but am still a
total sucker for. Any time something can be quantified, compared, and put up
as a leaderboard, I'm pretty much instantly, hopelessly addicted.

This is one of the greatest realizations that Microsoft has come to with the
XBox.

