Brian Dusablon

Meaningful User Experiences

…the goal shouldn’t be to overlay rewards and achievements, the goal should be to get people more involved in experiences in meaningful ways.

Koreen Olbrish – “Reflections on LEEF 2011″ – eLearn Mag

Couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s not about the game. It’s about the experience and the outcome. Games are just one type of immersive experience. This doesn’t just apply to learning, either.

…you end up killing the intrinsic motivation to do things you didn’t need to be rewarded to do before.

Aaron Silvers – “On Education, Badges and Scouting”

Both Koreen and Aaron make similar points. Don’t do something (like trying to gamify everything) just because you can. Do something because it will give your users great experiences that lead to meaningful outcomes.

It’s simple, really:

  1. What do you want your users/learners to DO?
  2. How can you make a great experience that gets them to a point where they CAN?
  • http://onehundredfortywords.com Judy Unrein

    Good post, Brian. And I would add that “overlaying” a gimmicky system adds to the “cute once, but what about the next course?” problem that’s so near and dear to our hearts.

    • http://www.briandusablon.com Brian

      Exactly, Judy. We need to make sure there is meaning and purpose to the things we design and build. Somewhere along the way, it seems most people forgot about their users.