Gamification by Design

The book is a meatier version of Game-Based Marketing and the author has come to utilize examples in a more meaningful fashion. There are very interesting and valid claims for using concepts such as a “level” system with “experience points” tied to their actions; such a system would allow companies to categorize customers and understand their behaviors. Again, the authors stress how customer loyalty plays a role in the promotion of a business and its products, although they have expanded upon the examples and case studies to emphasize this point more. Visually, the book is great with its colorful pictures and engaging diagrams that help to outline the points that the authors are trying to make. Zichermann has improved upon his previous work to provide a better work on gamification.

Not unlike Zichermann’s previous work, Game-Based Marketing, Gamification by Design leaves us cold and unfulfilled, yearning for more meaningful content. More of a self-serving advertisement for his own website, Zichermann’s book does not provide the high-level details for game mechanics that it promises. At many points the book feels shallow or convoluted by an overemphasis on game design rather than gamification. There are superfluous sections, such as the coding chapter, that add little more than padding to the book. An entire chapter is even written by a third party vendor, undermining the fact that Zichermann is the expert and is analyzing gamification. Essentially, this book is marginally better than his previous book, and while there are improvements, it is still a far cry from good gamification material like Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success or even a decent book like For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business.

What do Foursquare, Zynga, Nike+, and Groupon have in common? These and many other brands use gamification to deliver a sticky, viral, and engaging experience to their customers. This book provides the design strategy and tactics you need to integrate game mechanics into any kind of consumer-facing website or mobile app. Learn how to use core game concepts, design patterns, and meaningful code samples to a create fun and captivating social environment.

Whether you’re an executive, developer, producer, or product specialist, Gamification by Design will show you how game mechanics can help you build customer loyalty.

• Discover the motivational framework game designers use to segment and engage consumers
• Understand core game mechanics such as points, badges, levels, challenges, and leaderboards
• Engage your consumers with reward structures, positive reinforcement, and feedback loops
• Combine game mechanics with social interaction for activities such as collecting, gifting, heroism, and status
• Dive into case studies on Nike and Yahoo!, and analyze interactions at Google, Facebook, and Zynga
• Get the architecture and code to gamify a basic consumer site, and learn how to use mainstream gamification APIs from Badgeville

“Turning applications into games is a huge trend. This book does a great job of identifying the core lasting principals you need to inspire your users to visit again and again.”
—Adam Loving
Freelance Social Game Developer and founder of Twibes Twitter Groups

As with his previous book, the author has created a primarily research based book that is best suited for beginners to gamification. While there are improved examples and ideas for design strategy, there are better options out there for advice and guidance. At best, this would be used as a low-level reference material for introductory ideas before attempting to implement a complex, large-scale project. Any endeavor of large proportions would require a book with better explanations and guiding principles.therwise boring products more interesting (chapter 3).  Additionally, understanding how to eliminate sacrifice from customer interactions can be beneficial in creating mutually fulfilling relationships with customers (chapter 5).