Our clients vary from the big multinationals to small and medium size enterprises. With the proliferations of apps and software access, we often are asked to integrate several applications into one smooth and seamless journey for the end-user. A lot of enterprise level software has interfaces that are nowhere near as user friendly as the current tools and apps we are used to such as social media and games for example. Equally what most enterprise software especially the ERP type tools want is to have a whole organisation dependent on all of their suite of products and by default excluding all other players. Whilst that may be a smart sales tactic, if your software is not the most user-friendly then typically we get asked to masked the ugly system with newer and more engaging interfaces.
Gamification platforms and user dashboards within them are often used then to present the end-user with an interesting experience and developers make the back-end connections work. The fact that tools like Zapier, who allow for lots of applications to be connected have popped up in the market is answering this demand. Because gamification designs user journeys for the purpose of a business process whether it is sales, marketing, learning, HR, performance and productivity management, we design meaningful interaction points where the user benefits from a nudge forward and a pat on the back for a job well done or other fun reasons to give a subtle shout out.
The gamification platforms on the market are not necessarily integration tools, all that is still custom development. Even the design of a cool interface is often additional and bespoke for each client. Storylines and branding determine how the interface looks very often. Some platforms allow you to create new story specific interfaces others don’t so always ask the question when you are choosing. If you are on a budget go with the out of the box solution as much as possible. The key is still know what motivates your user and make the gamification design work towards behaviour enforcement through the use of a platform and I tend to also recommend people interaction, good old communication between people.
