Layered Gamification in Lifestyle Apps

Gamification solves a few primary needs of the Lifestyle apps. It engages users and builds the stickiness of the app. Users want to keep coming back and see if they can get more out the rewards or not. This is an inherent human psychology to try to unveil the unknown and a game that introduces a simple element of chance and some simplified puzzle that is easy enough for mass people to solve but difficult enough to keep them hooked creates a fantastic user experience.

Bundle this experience with rewards of solving the puzzle and then winning the game of chance it creates a challenge that entice people to take it and it also increases the odds for people to win it. Creating a perfect game where in the end Dealer never lose.

Use above logic to blend in your redemption items as rewards for these gamers and you’ve got a hooked audience with a loyalty for your app. Now this loyalty will slowly dwindle if the rewards are not targeted enough for the audience to keep playing the game. At some point of time people will get bored of the rewards they’re getting and change their strategies to either game the system itself to earn more or they will get discouraged to proceed further with the whole process.

This is where the layering helps. Once you start understanding the demographics and user preferences of your users and gamers, if the rewards start getting aligned with their other preferences of shopping or money spend then you can figure out a trend that will get them hooked. They may be looking to buy something that supports their passion, or an assisted laundry list of items that complement a major spend done by the user. Like user bought a car and if he gets a car air freshener as a rewards gift then it will be so cool.

Layering can be done on the amounts, user preferences, vendor categorization, product segment or even spending habits of the users.

Gamification also introduces a challenge for the vendor or competing product’s app. A brilliant example id DBS’s latest additions in their DBS Paylah app. DBS recently introduced buying Travel Insurance and Movie tickets from the biggest multiplex operator in Singapore (Golden Village).

What will this mean for GV’s (Golden Village’s) own app for booking?

As the adoption and usage of DBS Paylah increases, the user traffic will start moving towards DBS app instead of GV’s own app. Also, there was a redemption scheme on GV’s app sponsored by Visa. That will impact on Visa’s relationship with GV too. This will disrupt many already set relationships and ecosystems.

If all other banks come out with their specific lifestyle apps then traffic of GV will be all driven through those APIs and not be the individual customers. That will reduce the budget for GV to spend on their app and thus will put a strain on the team that is maintaining the app. Leading it to either getting outsourced or entirely shut down and entire booking process will be driven by those APIs only.

So it is clear that the Lifestyle apps from the banks will disrupt the existing website space and transform them into ecosystems.