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Gamification And Mobile Apps: How It Works And Helps Enhance The Customer Experience

Written by
Yuval Mechoullam
Published on
Apr 13, 2023

Gamification And Mobile Apps: How It Works And Helps Enhance The Customer Experience

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The growing trend of mobile app gamification among developers is hardly a secret. As our dependence on mobile devices continues to rise, app makers are finding it increasingly beneficial to incorporate gamification into their apps.

By implementing features such as friendly competition, leaderboards, and rewards, app creators can captivate users and keep them engaged. The more engaged the user, the higher the chances of retaining them in the long term. If you want to leverage mobile app gamification to enhance your users' experience and drive engagement, you've come to the right place.

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What is Gamification for Mobile Apps and How Does it Work?

Gamification in mobile appsrefers to the use of game-like elements and mechanics in non-gaming apps to enhance user engagement and motivation.

Game-like elements provide users with a sense of progress and accomplishment, which motivates them to continue using the app. The competitive aspect of gamification encourages users to compete with their friends or other users, increasing their engagement and creating a sense of community.

Gamification also works by leveraging psychological principles such as the desire for social recognition, mastery, and autonomy. By providing users with a sense of control over their experience and allowing them to customize their avatar or profile, creators can make their app much more appealing to users.

How Does Gamification Work Psychologically?

Gamification operates on a psychological level by leveraging the natural pleasure-seeking tendencies of the human brain. When an individual undergoes an enjoyable experience, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of pleasure and reward. As a result, the brain develops an inclination to seek out similar experiences, which can eventually lead to addiction.

By participating in various challenges, contests, and leveling up, gamification users receive a positive user experience that stimulates dopamine release in the brain, encouraging them to seek out more of the same. Additionally, the desire to belong to a community or team motivates users to download and use gamification apps, as humans are naturally social beings and feel a need for social interaction and belonging.

What are the Benefits of Gamifying an App?

Transforming the user experience into a game can have a substantial impact on user engagement, prompting them to interact with the app frequently. The potential of winning can profoundly influence user behavior, more than one can fathom. Nonetheless, this effect can be advantageous for both users and business owners as both can achieve their respective objectives.

Essentially, users feel a sense of fulfillment after completing a task and being rewarded, while business owners experience revenue growth and satisfied customers who are likely to refer others to the app.

How to Gamify Your App

Here are a few things you need to do when gamifying your app for a boost in user engagement and retention:

Identify Your Target Audience

Creating an effective gamification app strategy requires a deep understanding of your target users' needs and interests. Without these insights, even a well-crafted strategy is unlikely to resonate with them and may fail to achieve its intended goals.

To gain this knowledge, you need to rely on data-driven insights that help identify your potential users, how they interact with your app, and what motivates them to engage with it. These insights can also help you uncover why certain behaviors occur and how you can leverage this knowledge to improve user engagement.

Set your main objectives

When incorporating gamification into your app, it's crucial to establish objectives and goals beforehand, much like marketing your app. Determine the desired outcomes of implementing these techniques. Do you aim to boost engagement and retention levels or establish a viral loop?

It is unwise, however, to integrate gamification merely because it's a popular strategy used by other apps and games. Successful ones have a thoroughly planned strategy and a compelling reason to incorporate it. Therefore, it is imperative to have a clear vision and purpose before integrating gamification to ensure its effectiveness.

Provide Value

The gamification approach should evoke a sense of achievement or mastery, either by surpassing oneself or others or by acquiring new knowledge that makes one stand out. This way, users perceive the experience as rewarding and meaningful, motivating them to continue using the app and engaging with the content.

Figure out what would work best for your app

Some types of apps don't respond well to rewards and leaderboards. You need to determine what's best for your app while considering your goals.

Create deeply ingrained strategies in your app's ecosystem to maintain a seamless experience.

Gamify the components that enable user acquisition, engagement, behavior modification, management, commerce, or loyalty, depending on the type of app and current user behavior.

Simplicity is key

Many apps that at first glance seem promising frequently fall short of the gamification process because the experience is made too difficult. Making gamification simple for your users will also make it easier for the developer because there are so many moving parts to manage at the backend. Since these are already your most loyal customers, you want to maintain their experience moving forward.

You can gradually unlock features based on the level or score as long as you are still maintaining some user score. With this strategy, you can keep the initial experience straightforward and gradually add more value later.

The importance of sharing

If your users can't brag about their accomplishments, gamification alone won't do much to help. Additionally, "showing off" will aid in growing your app's user base. Therefore, by all means, incorporate loops into your implementation that allow your users to post their accomplishments on social media.

Give small but frequent rewards

It makes sense to believe that a sizable reward at the end of the entire experience will motivate users to be interested. The fact is, users are much more engaged if you divide that one large reward into smaller portions that are given out more frequently at particular milestones. This will increase their sense of accomplishment and keep them engaged longer.

Listen to your users

Listen carefully to your users' feedback regarding your app, whether it is positive or negative. This feedback provides precious insights into what is working well and what needs improvement or change.

By paying close attention to user comments, you can gain a better understanding of how your app is being received and identify any pain points that users are experiencing. This knowledge can then be used to make necessary improvements or changes to enhance the overall user experience.

On the other hand, positive feedback can also provide valuable insights into what users appreciate about your app, enabling you to maintain these features or elements.

Proven Gamification Тechniques for App Development

Now, let us explore some of the best gamification techniques proven to yield results for various industries.

Rewards

A common gamification feature that can take many different forms is offering rewards. These could be physical incentives like money or virtual incentives like a currency that users can use to buy in-app goods.

Competition

To increase user engagement, gamification can also use competition. Users who enjoy competition are probably grateful for the extra motivation it offers. Competing with others frequently encourages users to work harder, making the whole process even more fun.

Levels

Giving users a sense of progress and accomplishment is one of the core tenets of gamification. Users can see their progress and experience a sense of accomplishment through levels. Users are typically kept entertained and engaged by the challenges that are present at each level.

Leaderboards

Another well-liked gamification element that appeals to users' competitive nature is leaderboards. A leaderboard is a list that ranks players according to particular factors, like the quantity of time spent using the app or the number of points they have accrued. Users are inspired to compete with one another and work harder to move up the leaderboard when they see it.

A Gripping Story

Building a narrative into your app is another way to boost user engagement because we have enjoyed stories since the dawn of humanity. A narrative appeals to the user's emotions and increases their interest in the app. You can make the plot as simple or as complicated as you like as long as it engages the user on an emotional level.

Quests

Making certain tasks a part of a quest can aid in increasing user engagement if there are things you want the user to complete. A quest can be a mission that advances the plot, or it can just be a task that needs finishing.

Progress Monitoring

Nothing is worse than starting a project without knowing how far along you are and how far you still have to go. With the use of a progress chart, users can see how far along they are in your program and how much further they have to go before the end. Your progress graph can show individual levels or overall app usage.

Badges

Although they may seem silly, badges can be a powerful motivator. As they earn each badge, users feel a sense of accomplishment. Additionally, they serve as social proof, showing others how much a user has accomplished.

Also, assuming badges and users are visible to others on the app, as the list of badge owners grows, it fosters a sense of community among users.

Quizzes

A fun way to aid users in remembering and applying what they have learned is through quizzes. But these need not be extensive. A short quiz of four to five questions will do the job.

To-do Lists

Think about including to-do lists in your app for people who enjoy checklists. Users feel a sense of accomplishment as they cross off tasks or goals. Additionally, checklists help users stay on task by reminding them of what remains to be done.

Final Words

The main objective of gamification is to create highly engaging apps that people will keep returning to. This works best when gamification includes a social sharing element, which is why mobile platforms are an ideal fit. This social component is beneficial for brands as well, as the more users share their experiences, the more likely others are to join in.

It's important to note, however, that gamification is not a magic solution for poorly functioning apps. If an app is broken or has no purpose, gamification cannot fix it.

By carefully considering the needs and interests of target users, gamification can help create apps that are fun and highly effective in achieving their intended goals.

When it comes to Gamification,Smartico.aiis a trusted and globally recognized leader in the field. And while it has a tight focus on the iGaming, Casino, and Sports Betting industries, Smartico.ai can be integrated with and help any business reach new levels of success.

Smartico.ai is a leader in providing state-of-the-art Gamification and CRM automation software solutions. Its CRM tool combines player analytics data with machine-learning algorithms to help businesses of various industries gain a deeper understanding of people and their needs while also providing valuable data insights to ensure retention, loyalty, and much more.

Unlocking the Power of Gamification: Advanced Techniques for the iGaming Sector

As a leading Gamification & CRM Automation solution, Smartico offers the following:

  • Various intuitive challenges and gaming techniques.
  • High-value incentives that encourage long-term loyalty and retention, elevate player value, strengthen engagement, and boost user acquisition.

  • Multi-Currency/Language/Deep Brand Support.

  • Missions – Engage players with fun real-time solo or multiplayer tasks.

  • Points – Encourage players to keep coming back through point-based incentives and unlockables.

  • Badges – Stand out from the rest with sleek badges and earn free spins for each earned badge.

  • Levels – Players gain experience and special perks after each successful level or tournament completion.

  • Incentives – Motivate players to come back for more with unique rewards and bonuses.

  • Marketplace – Players can actualize their points by cashing them in for free game spins or other awards, such as online shopping vouchers.

  • Minigames – Players can reset their senses through short, award-earning games.

  • Tournaments – Set your own qualification rules and offer your customers a powerful endorphin rush with Smartico's special tournament system.

  • Leaderboards – Set daily, weekly, and monthly prizes and watch your user engagement skyrocket.

  • Bonus Engine Integration – Cash bonuses, free spin bonuses, and more.

And that's just a small sample of what's on offer.

No matter what kind of Gamification solutions you may be interested in, Smartico.ai can help you meet yourshort and long-term goalsby supplying the solutions needed to bring customer engagement and employee/learner motivation to a whole new level.

To start building a more successful business through Gamification, join the winners club and book your free demo today at:

https://smartico.ai/request-a-demo

The Smartico.ai team wishes you the best of luck on your business journey forward.

Want to find out how our event triggered campaigns can raise your customer engagement through the roof? Contact one of our experts for a free demo.

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