Superhuman's Founder on How to Move Beyond Gamification

TL;DR

Applying game design principles to business software can make the user experience more enjoyable and increase motivation.

Transcript

imagine you're playing a game like Street Fighter it would be incredibly frustrating if the game ignored half your inputs and your character flopped around and then you died but that is the status quo for business software today good afternoon everybody I'm Rahul I'm the founder and CEO of super human where we make the fastest email experience in t... Read More

Key Insights

• 😥 Gamification, adding points and badges, is not effective in increasing motivation in business software.
• 👤 Concrete, achievable, and rewarding goals can enhance the user experience in software design.
• 👤 Designing for nuanced emotions can create a more engaging and enjoyable user experience.
• 👨‍💼 Rapid and robust controls are crucial to prevent user frustration in business software.
• 💐 Flow, intense and focused concentration, can be achieved through clear and immediate feedback, minimizing distractions, and balancing challenge with skill.
• 👻 Creating fun toys and allowing for playful exploration can enhance the user experience.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the difference between game design and gamification?

Game design involves creating an experience that is inherently satisfying and interesting, with concrete, achievable, and rewarding goals. Gamification, on the other hand, is simply adding points, levels, trophies, and badges to a product, which doesn't effectively increase motivation.

Q: How can game design principles be applied to business software?

Business software can be designed with clear, achievable, and rewarding goals, providing users with a sense of accomplishment. Emotions can be analyzed and utilized to create a more engaging experience. Rapid and robust controls can be implemented to improve user interaction and eliminate frustration.

Q: What are the key factors to consider in game design?

Game design requires considering factors such as goals, emotions, controls, flow, and creating fun toys. Goals should be concrete, achievable, and rewarding. Emotions can be analyzed and designed for, creating a richer user experience. Controls should be rapid and robust to prevent frustration. Flow can be achieved by ensuring users always know what to do next, how to do it, and by balancing challenge with perceived skill.

Q: How can flow be created in software design?

Flow can be created by making the next action obvious, providing clear and immediate feedback, and balancing high perceived skill with high perceived challenge. The user should always know what to do next and how to do it. Distractions should be minimized, and the challenge level should be adjusted to match the user's skill level.

Summary

In this video, Rahul, the founder and CEO of Superhuman, discusses how game design can be applied to business software to make it more engaging and enjoyable. He emphasizes that game design is different from gamification, which simply adds points or badges to a product. Rahul explores the principles of game design, including setting concrete and rewarding goals, designing for nuanced emotions, creating rapid and robust controls, making fun toys, and fostering flow. By following these principles, businesses can create software that is intrinsically motivating and enjoyable for users.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the difference between game design and gamification?

Game design is not the same as gamification. Gamification involves adding points, levels, and badges to a product, but it often fails to motivate users in the long run. Game design, on the other hand, focuses on creating an engaging and enjoyable experience by setting concrete and rewarding goals, designing for nuanced emotions, and fostering flow.

Q: How can setting goals enhance the game design of business software?

Goals are a defining feature of games, and in game design, it is essential to set good goals that are concrete, achievable, and rewarding. For example, at Superhuman, their goal is to help users reach inbox zero. They make this goal achievable by providing live concierge onboarding, teaching faster workflows and powerful shortcuts. When users achieve the goal of inbox zero, they feel a sense of triumph and accomplishment.

Q: Why does gamification often fail to work in motivating users?

Gamification often fails because rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation. In a study, children who were given a reward for drawing spent less time drawing than those who were not given a reward. Intrinsic motivation, where we do things because we find them inherently satisfying and interesting, is much more powerful than extrinsic motivation driven by rewards. Therefore, adding points, levels, or badges to a product may not actually motivate users in the long run.

Q: How can software designers create games without a unifying theory of game design?

While there may not be a single unifying theory of game design, software designers can draw upon various disciplines such as psychology, mathematics, interaction design, and storytelling to create engaging and enjoyable games. It's a matter of combining the art and science of game design to create a compelling user experience.

Q: How can designers create nuanced emotions in their software?

Designers can create nuanced emotions by understanding human emotions and using them to enhance the user experience. Building upon existing emotion models such as Plutchik's wheel of emotions, designers can focus on specific emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, excitement, hopefulness, optimism, pride, and triumph. By incorporating elements that evoke these emotions, such as stunning imagery and moments of pleasant surprise, designers can create a more emotionally engaging experience.

Q: How can rapid and robust controls improve the game design of business software?

Business software often lacks rapid and robust controls, which can lead to frustration and distraction. In game design, it is essential to ensure that user inputs are not ignored and that actions are executed smoothly and accurately. For example, in Superhuman, pipeline keystrokes are used to prevent errors like sending an email to the wrong recipient. By incorporating such controls, designers can create a more seamless and enjoyable user experience.

Q: How can designers create fun toys that enhance the game design of their products?

Fun toys can add an extra layer of enjoyment to a product. Designers can create toys by providing features or interactions that inspire playful exploration and provide moments of pleasant surprise. For example, in Superhuman, the time autocomplete feature allows users to snooze their emails using natural language inputs, such as typing "3 D" to snooze for 3 days. This playful exploration and unexpected results can make the product more enjoyable and engaging for users.

Q: What is flow, and why is it important in game design?

Flow is a state of intense and focused concentration on the present. It is absorbing, demanding, and rewarding, and it can lead to intrinsic motivation. Flow is important in game design because it enhances the user experience and makes activities more engaging. In flow, users are fully immersed in the task at hand, free from distractions, and have a clear understanding of what to do next. By creating conditions that foster flow, designers can make their software more enjoyable and motivating for users.

Q: How can designers create flow in their software?

Designers can create flow in their software by ensuring that users always know what to do next, how to do it, and by minimizing distractions. For example, in Superhuman, when users archive an email, they immediately see the next one, eliminating the need to decide what to do next. Clear feedback and a balance between challenge and skill are also key in creating flow. By providing immediate feedback on user actions and adjusting the difficulty level to match the user's skill, designers can foster flow and enhance the user experience.

Q: Why might making a product harder to use actually enhance its game design?

Counterintuitively, making a product harder to use can enhance its game design by creating a greater sense of challenge and engagement. For users who are already highly skilled or find the product too easy, increasing the challenge level can help balance their perceived skill with the perceived challenge. This balance is crucial in fostering flow and creating an intrinsically motivating experience for users.

Q: What are the seven principles of game design discussed in the video?

The seven principles of game design are as follows:

1. Set concrete, achievable, and rewarding goals.
2. Design for nuanced emotions.
3. Create rapid and robust controls.
4. Make fun toys and combine them into games.
5. Foster flow by ensuring users always know what to do next, how to do it, have freedom from distractions, receive clear and immediate feedback, and feel a balance between challenge and skill.

These principles can help designers create software that is delightful, magical, and fundamentally engaging.

Takeaways

By applying game design principles to business software, designers can create products that are more engaging, enjoyable, and intrinsically motivating for users. Setting concrete and rewarding goals, designing for nuanced emotions, creating rapid and robust controls, making fun toys, and fostering flow are key elements of game design that can enhance the user experience. By following these principles, businesses can transform their software into captivating games that users love to engage with.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Business software often feels like work, but game design principles can make it more enjoyable and engaging.

• Gamification, adding points and badges to a product, is not effective in increasing motivation.

• Designing software with concrete, achievable, and rewarding goals, as well as creating strong emotions and providing rapid and robust controls, can enhance the user experience.