Gamification Feature

This chapter explains how the gamification feature works for regular users, authors, co-authors, and site managers.

Note: This feature is not part of the default Open Social core product but can be enabled upon request depending on your OS package.

What is the Gamification feature? 

Gamification is a fun and engaging way to motivate users to participate in the community platform, offering exciting challenges, goals, and rewards that encourage users to explore, learn, and connect with each other.

Gamification in the current form is limited and offers a series of 22 actions, such as "Create a Topic", "Join a Group" and etc., that can be performed on the platform at any point in time and that will give a reward to the users in the form of points.

These points can be displayed on a Leaderboard block on Dashboard pages.

• There are no notifications in place and no place where the user can see their points or how to gain them.
  This information can be shared by the Site Manager to the community by creating ad hoc pages with explanations.
• Compare member activity

Default configuration:
To simplify the initial setup for Content Manager we have introduced a preset of Objectives that use each of these 22 triggers. Each Objective is provided with a clear name and Description that should easily explain the action behind the trigger.

Smart triggers:
To reduce impact of performances we do not register actions for Objectives with 0 points assigned. These are Objectives that are clearly not relevant for the Site Manager and the community.
Site Manager can assign points to an Objective that is considered relevant and the system will start tracking it and reward those points to the users that perform the action.

New triggers:
We have introduced a series of 5 new triggers in this version of Gamification that will help reward good quality interactions.
 

 

How to edit an Objective

The list of Objectives is pre-defined, a Site Manager can not create a new one nor delete them.
Each Objective is created with 0 points t but Site Manager can change this value according to their platform needs. The Label and Description of each Objective can also be edited by the Site Manager.

Objective — a global Gamification element that is designed to guide users through the platform and help them engage with others.

• From the Sidebar select Content → Gamification → Objectives
• You can see an overview of all existing objectives created by us
• Click on Edit button
• Change the information about the objective, such as name and description
• Configure the amount of points users will receive when they perform this action
• Once saved you will see the updates in the Objectives overview

 

 

 

Milestones is Gamification 2.0

Feature purpose

With Milestones we add another layer to our Gamification system.

The feature allows CMs to connect different tasks into a multi-step Milestone and add rewards. This will create growth paths, stimulate engagement and show valuable interaction to the community.

 

We want to have milestones available on every platform (See plan and up) because it can and should be used for different purposes such as onboarding, training programs, automation and more.

Milestones take all of the existing triggers and connect them together to form a series of tasks that need to be done in order to receive rewards.

We currently have 2 types of rewards for Milestones: Points and Badges.
We have plans to add roles as a Reward during Q3 2023

In Milestones we allow for repetitions of a Task  such as "Create 5 Topics" or "Join 3 Groups" to simplify the setup for the Content Manager. 

We have made this visually appealing and easily accessible in the Member profile under a Milestone tab. 

We have added notifications to keep the user informed and stimulate further interaction.

Validation of content quality

Allow CMs to edit objectives that rewards engagement on content users create.

Adding direct and indirect rewards that measure quality of the content.

Goal

1. Strive towards a more engaging platform that users want to return to
2. Guide users to meaningful growth within the platform
   1. Journeys per CoP
   2. Onboarding (guide your users through a series of objectives that will teach them how to use the basic functionalities on the platform)
   3. Programs (group courses together within a milestone and reward users with points badges or automatic promotions to higher roles once completed)
3. Easier maintenance for SM
4. Connect different extensions together in one place; communities with larger packages and more extensions will have a subset of triggers specifically for it.
   Currently we already have triggers for Courses and we support visibility of Milestones for Custom roles.
   We want to expand in the direction of Challenges, Organization profile and Monetization in the next 2 quarters.

Target audience

We are aiming to reach every type of user on the platform and give Content Managers enough triggers and flexibility so that they will be able to use Milestones for multiple purposes.

Communities focused on the gaming aspects of the feature will be able to highlight the users with the highest amount of points in a Leaderboard block and compete against each other.

Leaderboards can be filtered by time and role so most active users of the week/month/year  could be awarded and celebrated in the community.

Communities with an eye on automation will be able to create a growth path that users will have to follow in order to become qualified for new roles and responsibilities.

Impact

• Increase the number of returning users
• Increase the number of active users that create good quality content
• Decrease Content manager / Site manager manual actions such as trainings and promotions

How it works

Content manager point of view

With some ideas and initial setup it should be possible for Content manager to create a series of activities for the community that will keep users engaged and stimulate their passion for learning and sharing.

How to create a Milestone

Milestone — a significant point in the user journey, marking their progress and achievements within the community.

Task – a specific Milestone element, that is designed to show users what they need to do to complete the Milestone.

• From the Sidebar select Content → Gamification → Milestones
• You can see an overview of all existing milestones created by a SM
• Click on Add a milestone button
• Fill in the info about the milestone, such as name and description
• Add a set of tasks that need to be done and how many times
  • Name and Description of each Task can be customised to fit the purpose of the Milestone.
    It is very important that the community member has a very clear idea of which specific action he/she needs to perform and why in order to complete a Task.
• Choose if you want to add any rewards, such as points or a badge
• Once saved you will see the new milestone in the Milestones overview
• Once the milestone is published, every user will be able to see it in their profile and receive rewards for if they perform all of the tasks within it.

Milestones can also be created without a reward attached to them

Allowing milestones without rewards can be interesting for communities that do not care about the competitive aspect of Gamification but focus more on the learning aspect of the feature.

Completing a Milestone will be for them already the reward for their work.

This will be combined with reward of roles and levels (planned for later this year, see section below "What's next") so the completion of a milestone will allow users to level up and get access to more milestones previously unavailable.
 

User point of view

We want to give a user something to do at any point in time on the platform and give them reasons to log in every day and perform meaningful actions for the community.

When properly structured, milestones should be easy to understand and tasks easy to complete so that the immediate reward and growth will stimulate the user to continue interacting with the community.

The sense of achievement should incentivize the creation of content and build up sharing opportunities.

Where users see Milestones

Milestones are available in the Member profile under the new Milestones tab. It is also easily reachable via the My Milestones link in the user menu. In the Milestones tab the user can find In progress, New and Completed milestones.

• In progress: the user has started completing the milestone, but some tasks are done and some are not. We show them on top so it’s visually clear that some actions are required
• New: the user hasn’t started completing tasks in the milestone
• Completed: the user has completed all tasks in the milestone

Milestones are available in the Member profile under the Milestones tab

In the Statistics block we show the badges that the user achieved as rewards for completing milestones, the last 3 badges are always displayed
 

 

Clicking on the Milestone teaser opens up a popup, the user can see here all tasks and rewards

Notifications

Currently we notify users once a milestone is achieved. An email is sent to them and a notification is displayed in the notification centre. From a link in the notification the user is redirected to their profile where all milestones can be found. This provides a good flow where users can then look for another Milestone to work on.

Privacy

By default, information about Milestones, points and badges are publicly available when a user visits another user's profile. We have added settings in the user settings page that allows the user to keep these information private if necessary.

 

How to create a badge for a Milestone

Badge — a unique Milestone element, designed to publicly recognize users for their achievements, contributions, and active engagement with the community platform.

• From the Sidebar select Content → Badges
• You can see an overview of all existing badges created by a SM
• Click on Add a badge button
• Fill in the info about the badge, such as title and description
• Upload a nice icon or image for the badge and a text for it
• Once saved you will see the new badge in the Badges overview

 

 

 

 

 

Available triggers

With the initial version of Milestone that is currently available, Content managers can choose from a series of 22 triggers and create Tasks around them to be used in a Milestone.

 

*Extra triggers configuration:
Some triggers allow Content Managers to further customise the Task.
 

A user joins a Group: Content Manager can select a specific Group that  the user needs to be joined in order to achieve this Task

A user completes a Course: Content Manager can select a specific Course that the user needs to complete in order to achieve the Task

 

Glossary

• Gamification – a fun and engaging way to motivate users to participate in the community platform, offering exciting challenges, goals, and rewards that encourage users to explore, learn, and connect with each other. Gamification consists of:
  • Objective – a global Gamification element, that is designed to guide users through the platform and help them engage with others.
     
• Milestone – a significant point in the user journey, marking their progress and achievements within the community.
  • Task – a specific Milestone element, that is design to show users what they need to do to complete the Milestone.
     
• Trigger – a generic element, that is designed to specify in which scenarios the user can get a reward
   

Example of Objective:
Name: Express yourself
Description: Create a post to let the community know what's on your mind, share your thoughts, or simply express your feelings.
Trigger: Create a Post

Example of Milestone:
Name: Explore the community
Task: Warm welcome
Description: Create the very first post in the community to say "Hi!" to others.
Trigger: Create a Post

 

If you have any questions, require a demo, or want to enable this feature; please contact your CSM.