An overview about the concept of gamification and how it can be used in information portals built on the SharePoint platform.

1. From zero to hero
with Gamification
#spsbe
Jussi Mori
@JussiMori

2. Thanks to our
Sponsors
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3. About me • Co-Founder of Peaches Industries Corporation
Web: peachesindustries.com
• Find us on Facebook:
facebook.com/peachesindustries
• Finnish + Swiss SharePoint geek
• Information worker productivity
• Public speaker and author
• Fly fisher and gamer
• More at http://about.me/jussi.mori

4. Session
topics
• The challenges of End-user
engagement
• What’s this Gamification all about
• From zero to hero with
Gamification

5. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
Business related problems
• SharePoint adoption issues, like slow
onboarding and challenges in usability
• Weak usage of taxonomy
• Poor or false collaboration
• Late or no insight of the true value of
SharePoint
• Change in the way of work needs time and
energy
• It’s hard to measure End-User productivity

6. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
Let’s have a look at some numbers
Customers:
• 54% are inactive in loyalty programs
• 69% don’t use online communities
Employees:
• 50% don’t fully adopt to enterprise software
• 88% don’t use social enterprise software
Source: Gartner

7. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
Some common problems with SharePoint portals
• High bounce rates: Users have a look and do not
return to the site
• Low adoption: Users rarely visit and use the sites
• Differentiation: All sites look the same -> Boring
• Too few or negative referrals: People do not talk
about the sites or give negative feedback
• No click-throughs: Users do not react to e-mails
which contain “Deep links”
Source: Nick.com

8. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
So what’s the mother of all challenges in SharePoint
End-User adoption?
To help users to be and stay the most productive
and engaged as possible once they start to use
SharePoint!

9. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
The Technology acceptance model
External
variables
Perceived
usefulness
Simple
To use
Personal
attitude
Intention
to use
Actual
system use
The Gamification influence point!
Source: Technology Acceptance Mocel (TAM) by Fred Davis 1985

10. The
challenges of
End-user
engagement
So how can we engage our users to be as
productive as possible?
Let’s talk about Gamification!
Source: Enterprehero.com

11. What is
gamification
all about
• What is Gamification?
• The SAPS principle
• Hyper available feedback loops
• The FLOW state
• Smooth onboarding

12. What is
gamification
all about
Well it doesn’t mean that you can play Skyrim during office
hours! 
http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim

13. What is
gamification
all about
In short words:
Gamification is the use of game elements and game
mechanics within a non game environment to drive user
motivation!
Gamification can have a positive effect on the End Users
attitude towards a system by:
• Helping in raising the attention on the work at hand
• Helping to solve problems collaboratively
• Helping to get things done in a fun way
People like to have fun!
That’s also the reason why FarmVille has more active

14. What is
gamification
all about
Or in the words of Bunchball, a Gamification
platform provider:
“The addition of game mechanics to a site or
application, allows you to layer more compelling
user experiences into existing activities”
“These gamified activities address and satisfy basic
human desires, creating the addictive experience
that motivates users to take specific actions and to
return more frequently”

15. These desires are universal
and across
cultures, genders, generati
ons and demographics!
What is
gamification
all about
Why does this work?
People have fundamental desires for:
• Status
• Reward
• Achievement
• Self-Expression
• Competition
• Altruism

16. What is
gamification
all about
Why should I even consider thinking about
Gamification in my information portals and
applications?
Some thoughts:
• Because people love games! They are fun and keep us entertained.
• Games can create FLOW in people which motivates us and we forget
everything around us.
• People actually do hours and hours of intensive work within games today
• Games are a part of our culture since the dawn or our time.
• Children learn the most effective way through play. Actually adults as
well!
• Games connect people and we are social beings.
• People play for: Mastery, destress, socializing and having fun!
Source: Nintendo Super Mario
Play is the highest form of research – Albert Einstein

17. What is
gamification
all about
And now, does this really work?
World class companies have introduced Gamification imperatives
and have measured the following improvements on different user
behavior levels:
• 500% increase in user comments and activity in the Intranet
• 140% increase time on site
• 600% gain in shop clicks
• 2000% surge in social sales
• 60% increase in Employee engagement
• 250% growth in training compliance
Source: Five key engagement imperatives whitepaper by Badgeville

18. What is
gamification
all about
The business value of Gamification
When more people participate, you can…
• improve collaboration
• improve individual motivation
• speed up learning process
• improve system / content analytics
• drive brand awareness
Source: Christian Buckley (@BuckleyPlanet) on Improving productivity and Gamification

19. What is
gamification
all about
The SAPS rewarding principle
S for Status: Bragging rights about a certain status.
A for Access: Giving privileged access to users. For
instance VIP lanes in nightclubs.
P for Power: Giving “power” over other users in the
system. For example forum moderation.
S for Stuff: Tangible objects to win.
Freebies, goodies, etc.

20. What is
gamification
all about
The transparent and hyper available feedback loop
• A player is always aware of the current progress
within the game
• A player is always aware of the next steps ahead
and how to get there
• A player always knows if she or he performs well
• A player can use this information to bring his or
her skills to the next “level”
Source: Nintendo Super Mario

21. What is
gamification
all about
Creating FLOW, or being “in the zone”
Achieving of FLOW – The players state between
anxiety and boredom, meeting his own motivational
level in that experience. – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a famous
psychology professor who studies happiness and creativity.

22. What is
gamification
all about
Some examples when being in a FLOW state
• While driving a car during high traffic
• While playing an exciting game
• While fly fishing
• While doing sports
• While listening to music we love
• Etc.
When we are in a FLOW state, we are in the most
productive state on the current task at hand!

23. What is
gamification
all about
In FLOW state we…
• focus and our senses are sharp and clear
• do not feel at all self conscious
• forget all worries and anxieties entirely
• experience a sense of full control
• feel time differently
• find the current activity intrinsically rewarding
• experience a merge of action and awareness
Source: “The FLOW theory”

24. What is
gamification
all about
The “smooth onboarding” principle
1. Action
2. Reward
3. Action
4. Action
5. Reward
6. Join / Engage / Interact with the real world
7. Invite friends
Tutorials in games are a classic example for this principle!

25. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Source: Marvel comics Superman
• Practical examples and use cases
of Gamification
• Gamification and SharePoint
• Sample Gamification 3rd party
products for SharePoint

26. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Use case eLearning
• Track and visualize earned skills of employees
• Use hyper available feedback loop principle to
visualize and bring transparency to progress
• Use leader boards for status and badges for
reward
• Give access to “advanced” content after reaching a
certain level
• Create tutorials for newbies (noobs), to learn
about company related information
• Use avatars to express progress and allow
individualization

27. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Use case Project Management
• Gamifiy time and task reporting for project
members
• Give rewards for completed tasks / user stories /
whole projects
• Visualize project progress
• Past, present, Future
• My progress, team progress
• Use hyper available feedback loop principle to
boost project performance

28. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Use case Intranet user Engagement
• Track and reward user activity in the Intranet
• Give privileged access to “hot” company related
content for engaged users
• Create onboarding tutorials for new employees
• Visualize employee effort throughout the intranet
• Visualize corporate network and influence through
score boards (e.g.)

29. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Use case Metadata
• Status through metadata
• Metadata Hero 30 percent of all documents uploaded have high
quality metadata
• Metadata Superhero All uploaded documents have high quality
metadata
• Metadata Rockstar Filled in all documents with metadata in a
teamsite
• Metadata Archaeology Sent feedback about term sets to the
portal team
• Metadata Flashmobber Termsets have been extended by the
user directly

30. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Use case MySite
• Gather Intranet activity on the MySite and
visualize it
• Visualize MySite completion in a progress bar
• Visualize reputation of user (how many comments
and liked posts, endorsements, etc.)
• Introduce company avatars and allow
individualization of them
• Intranet activities might result in receiving
customizations for company avatars
Source: lucentyami.devianart.com

31. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
SharePoint Social architecture
User Profile Service
Profile DB (per service)
Managed
metadata
Contend DB
(SiteCollection per user)
People and
tag
following
User
profile
properties
# tags Feed posts
Site and
document
following
Personal
storage
space
There’s plenty of data to work with available!

32. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Gamifcation in “out of the box”
SharePoint
• Reputation system in the Community site
• Points per posted article (Standard 1 point)
• Points per posted reply (Standard 10 points)
• Popular thread or reply (Standard 20 points)
• Best reply (Standard 100 points)
• Rewards are configurable in the sites’ rewarding
system

33. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Gamifcation today – Some examples
Every Check in counts!

34. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Gamifcation today – Some examples
Nike+ running app. Run to reach the next level. With every level you reach, the
next level is harder to get.

35. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Gamifcation today – Some examples
Red critter tracker:
A project
management tool
which rewards
project members
with badges once a
task is done!

36. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Sample Gamification products for
SharePoint

37. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Example Badgeville
Track and reward the following user behavior:
• Document Management (creating and contributing)
• Creating, editing, or contributing to a wiki page
• Starting or participating in a discussion thread
• Posting a comment on content (docs, wikis, blogs, discussion
threads)
• Viewing pages
• Rating content
• Voting on content
• Tagging content
• Employee collaboration

38. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Gamifcation tomorrow?
Source: 2nd life

39. From zero to
hero with
Gamification
Source: Living and breathing the social workplace, by Daniel Kraft, NewsGator
On the bottom line…

40. THANK YOU
<Jussi Mori>
<j.mori@peachesindustries.ch/>
<http://www.scolab.ch/>
<@JussiMori>
<http://about.me/jussi.mori/>