Badges in Gameful Design: How users perceive them and how are they motivational

Badges are the most used element in educational gameful design and the third most used element in gamification in general. They have been listed by many different gamification researchers and experts as one of the basic gameful design elements. But do you know exactly what role do badges perform on a gameful application? How do users perceive them and interact with them—do you know that there are at least nine different ways? How do badges motivate users to engage with the gameful system?

This article summarizes the latest research on how badges are perceived by users, what kind of users prefer to use them, and how do they motivate users of gameful systems. Finally, we give design guidelines to make the most effective use of badges in gameful design.

In short:

1. Badges are often seen as a form of incentive or reward;
2. Badges are also frequently seen as a means for goal setting and a measure of accomplishment;
3. Users with social tendencies may enjoy utilizing badges as a means for social interaction;
4. Badges can be useful as a form of positive feedback and encouragement;
5. But badges can get in the way if users are already motivated to engage with the task or if they do not perceive any real value in the badges.

Do you want to know more details and the design guidelines to learn how to design badges to fulfill all these roles in your system? Keep reading below to download a free copy of the full article.

Note on Patreon Content

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UPDATE on April 24, 2020: After advertising this idea for a few months, I did not find enough people interested in the Patreon content. So, new Patreon subscriptions are not available anymore. But enjoy this free sample, which is still available above for upload.