Gamification to drive positive change in society
What is gamification?
Gamification is nothing but a fancy word for human-centred design. By design, everything around us should be human-centric — but unfortunately that’s not how the world works.
We use gamification principles at my healthtech startup, Làvi, to drive human behaviour. Developing better habits and systems is the only way to achieve health and wellness goals in the long term. Thus, gamification.
To me, gamification is not just points and badges — it involves the core drivers of human motivation such as meaning, ownership and curiosity, well explained by Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis framework:
It applies not just to product design but to strategy and marketing too. Successful gamified products include Duolingo, Apple Fitness and Fitbod; Nir Eyal’s Hooked model offers strategies for building habit-forming products.
An example
In a personal coaching business, the principles of meaning, accomplishment, ownership, social influence and avoidance can drive a person’s goals:
- Meaning — attaching a deeper purpose: a life of vitality and joy is only possible if you look after yourself and your family.
- Ownership — owning a bright future by accepting your current state and improving it.
- Accomplishment — seeing positive change: more energy, less bloating, better mood; the feeling of overcoming your limitations.
- Avoidance — avoiding a painful life of disease and ailments; making hard choices today to lead a better life tomorrow.
In Naval’s words
How can I help you?
I’m passionate about using gamification to drive user behaviour towards positive change — and I draw on my own experience coaching friends and family.
Over the last decade I’ve been through the full product lifecycle for mobile apps, SaaS, platforms and web3. I bring a diverse toolkit — gamification, UX design, product strategy, coaching and years of startup product development — to build human-centric products for my clients.
Let’s talk if you have a project in mind: connect with me →