Smells Like School Spirit Foursquare Badge

Your app doesn’t need any badges

Virtual badges are everywhere. It’s hard to open a mobile or web app without the promise of a badge. Codecademy, Fourquare, Stack Overflow and thousands of other companies are offering badges for various metrics — 10 location checkin, 5 answered questions or advancing to the next level. At each turn, a new badge.

The gamificaiton bandwagon

I’m a UX mentor at 1776, an incubator based in Washington, DC. I help startups improve their designs, wireframes or anything related to the overall experience. One of the most common statements I hear is “we’re just going to use badges to encourage our users to come back.” It’s not a bad idea, but their probably not going to receive the jump in activity they are hoping to achieve.

So why are some many companies using gamification techniques, such as badges, scores and other virtual game metrics instead of actual rewards? The companies are trying to build a new habit within their users. The habit of regularly visiting and using their application.

Creating a new user habit or behavior is tough… really tough. Using gamficaiton techniques such as badges help motivate users and propel them to keeping going. As humans, we strive for predicability, but crave variable rewards. These variable rewards, such as badges, send signals to our brain and help motivate us when we otherwise might stop. In Nir Eyal’s book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, he explains that this variability is why we constantly check our email and Twitter feed. The variability of the information keeps us constantly coming back for more.

When badges work

The type badges which do the best job of motivation provide actual real world value.

Wait… real world value? How could a virtual badge on my iPhone translate into actual value in my life?

Think about the badges a user can receive in Stack Overflow. The primary way a user earns a badge is by providing a fast and accurate answer to a new code question posted. If the answer provided is up-voted and deemed the best answer, and the user does this enough, they’ll earn badges for their time and knowledge.

As the badge recipient, the user now has community affirmation of their code knowledge. In a job interview they can point to this badge and say, “ I know what I’m talking about”. The virtual badge is translated into real world value because it provides validation of their knowledge and skills.

When a badge won’t work

So if badges great at helping us create new habits, why don’t I care about so many of them? This is because most of the badges don’t actually have much real world value. A badges that I can’t share with friends or family doesn’t mean much. The trophy only works if it can be placed on top of the mantle for the world to see.

Woot! You logged in 3x in a row. You earned the Visitor Badge

…. who cares.

How not to reward

1. Don’t reward behavior that a user was already going to do — Imagine the postal service giving you a badge for checking your mailbox 10 days in a row. You were probably going to do that anyway. This is about as valuable as receiving the “participation award.” Only provide badges for actual accomplishments that took effort.
2. Don’t use too many badges — As with the first statement, badges should be difficult to obtain and imply that a user went above and beyond the typical behavior. If a user is constantly earning a badge, the variability of earning a badge goes away. Earning a badge just becomes part of their routine, instead of a goal they are actively working toward.
3. Badges shouldn’t be the primary mechanism for motivation — Codecademy is a fantastic method for learning to code. Users can type directly into a console and learn javascript, html, ruby and many other languages. The primary reason for users visiting is to learn to code. Not to receive a badge. Users would use Codecademy even if badges didn’t exist. Badges are a nice pat of the back and let the user know “You’re doing great. Keep going!” The same principle is present in Stack Overflow. People answer questions because they want to contribute to the development community and understand the power of helping fellow coders. Not just to gain badges.
4. If a user can’t show off their badge, it doesn’t really exist — It amazes me the amount of companies I’ve worked with that implement badging, but have no way for their users to share the badge. They don’t have a community of users. All the the great badging companies like Foursquare or Stack Overflow are social companies. You can view and browse a community of users and which badges they’ve earned. Think about the guy with the headset playing online video games. If he was the only one who could view his achievement badges, would he work so hard to earn them? Probably not.

Just remember, if you find yourself saying “no one is using my app, I’m going to put in badges to motivate users”. Stop right there. Concentrate on creating great content that people actually care about and want to engage with. The users will follow.