What are the best practices for balancing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in gamification?

2 Why is intrinsic motivation important for gamification?

Intrinsic motivation is crucial for gamification, because it is linked to positive outcomes such as higher engagement, learning, creativity, and well-being. Intrinsic motivation also makes the activity more enjoyable and meaningful, which are key factors for user retention and loyalty. Moreover, intrinsic motivation is more sustainable and self-regulating than extrinsic motivation, which can wear off or lose its value over time. Therefore, gamification should aim to foster and support intrinsic motivation, rather than replace or undermine it.

3 How can gamification enhance intrinsic motivation?

Gamification can enhance intrinsic motivation by providing users with three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy refers to the sense of control and choice over one's actions and goals. Competence refers to the sense of mastery and skill development. Relatedness refers to the sense of connection and belonging with others. Gamification can satisfy these needs by offering users meaningful choices, clear goals, feedback, challenges, progress, social interaction, and recognition.

4 How can gamification use extrinsic motivation wisely?

Gamification can also use extrinsic motivation to complement and reinforce intrinsic motivation, but it should do so carefully and strategically. Extrinsic motivation can be useful to attract, reward, or guide users, especially when the activity is not inherently interesting or enjoyable. However, extrinsic motivation can also have negative effects, such as reducing intrinsic motivation, creating dependency, or triggering competition or cheating. Therefore, gamification should use extrinsic motivation sparingly, transparently, and aligned with the user's values and goals.

5 What are some examples of balanced gamification?

Gamified applications that balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are plentiful. For example, Duolingo, a language learning app, uses points, badges, streaks, and leaderboards to motivate users, as well as personalized feedback, adaptive difficulty, goal setting, and social learning to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Fitbit is another example; it uses badges, challenges, and rewards to encourage users to exercise and allows them to customize their goals, track their progress, and share their achievements with their friends and community. Khan Academy is an online education platform that uses points, badges, and levels to reward users for learning; it also provides clear explanations, interactive exercises, hints, and videos to help them master the concepts and skills.

6 How can you design balanced gamification?

Designing balanced gamification requires identifying the target behavior and outcome, understanding the user's intrinsic motivation, preferences, and needs for the activity, selecting game elements and mechanics that match the user's motivation and context, testing and evaluating the gamification's impact on the user's behavior, motivation, and experience, and iterating and improving the gamification based on user feedback and data.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?