Gamified Workflow
During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!
This week: This time, I think about how a traditional workflow can be optimized by following the game desing principles of well-defined goals and immediate feedback.
Computer games provide players with clear goals, constant feedback, and meaningful rewards thus achieving a flow-inducing gameplay. At the same time, these gameplay elements also provide players with information that rarely is available in the real world. As a result, playing computer games not only is an engaging activity, but often also more rewarding than most normal activities in the real life.
This is especially is a result of the clear game goals and immediate feedback that guides a player and helps to solve game tasks in a very efficient way. In the real world, we often are not sure what exactly we need to do to complete a task. In addition, while trying to complete a task, we rarely receive feedback indicating that we are on the right track. Instead, one is normally challenged to interpret a task and to subsequently try to solve it in a best possible way. Unfortunately, while progressing towards the task’s completion, an immediate feedback rarely is available. Also, sometimes tasks change without being propagated to everyone involved. As a result, one is constantly in some kind of limbo between doing the correct things or being on a wrong path.
In the end, our daily lifes feel boring in comparison to activities we can do inside of a computer game. However, by understanding these core principles, guidelines for an effective workflow can be generated.
- Provide smaller and well defined sub-tasks for a complex main task. This results in a better understanding of the personal goals.
- Provide immediate feedback after the completion of a sub-task. This allows for an early and constant assessment of the own performance and results in a higher self-confidence to be on the right way.
- Communicate changes in a clear and immediate way. This results in a fast and easy adjustment of the own priorities.
By following these simple guidelines, a traditional workflow can be optimized. This optimized workflow potentially leads to a higher satisfaction as everyone is aware of the own progress and easily can fokus on the set out goals.