The Game of
Digital Analysis:
Gamification
of the Metrics
What is Gamification?
It is
simply absorbing the fun elements in a game (what we call Game Mechanics or
Game Techniques) into real-world applications.[1] It is simply taking the fun and often addicting
features of video games and applying those same features to real-world,
non-game situations and applications. The
last decade saw a huge surge in the gaming industry, surpassing the music and
movie industry, to become the leading form of entertainment globally.[2]
Gamification of Analytics
In a way,
business and digital analysts already have a built-in game feature when it
comes to analyzing the metrics and creating actionable items off of those
analyses. Imagine for a moment that the
metrics are points within a game, which is one of the five most commonly used
game mechanics[3]. The object, just like in a video game, is to
get the highest score possible. For the
analyst, this comes in the form of higher site traffic, or higher customer
conversion.
When an analyst pours over the metrics, identifies an area
of improvement, and then implements changes to improve the business, they have
the benefit of running the numbers again after the improvements to determine
whether or not a new “high score” was achieved.
This desire to observe, strategize and implement new methods is a
pattern found in both analysts and “gamers”.
Moreover, there
are other commonalities which show correlation between analysis and
gaming. Multiple tools exist to show
comparisons between different companies success or site traffic, providing the
analysts with something akin to a leaderboard, which is another one of the
commonly used game mechanics. This gives
the analyst, not only the ability to see how their actions improve their
business, but how their changes stack up against the competition as well.
But why
stop there? The next step might possibly
be to make the analytics tools themselves, such as Adobe SiteCatalyst or Google
Analytics, function more like video games.
What if a failing metric took on the characteristics, and perhaps even
the avatar, of a video game “mini-boss” and it was up to the analyst to determine
the correct course of action to defeat that adversary? Another option might be to construct the
analytics tool in such a way as to create “levels” of success so that as the
analyst improves the metrics through analysis and implementation, new levels
are achieved via increased revenue or decreased cost.
Whatever the future of the analytics tools, it is clear that
at least in some small way, analysts just might be gamers at heart. Why not indulge that passion and turbo charge
the fun factor of the analytics industry?
Driving Success
through Gamification
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