Private engagement workshop for the New York Times - FOR INTERNAL NYT USE ONLY

1. NYT Engagement Design 1 Social Engagement & the Player Lifecycle Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D. © 2011 All Rights Reserved

2. Shufflebrain works with top companies to create systems that drive sustained engagement

3. a snapshot of my life as a social gamer

4. Gamification? You know that word,

5. Gamification? You know that word, That’s not what we’re doing here.

6. Gamification? You know that word, That’s not what we’re doing here. We’re after the Larger Trend

7. everyone’s a gamer Games are everywhere

8. Will Wright We’re in a Gambrian Explosion – games are breaking through to new levels of diversity and ubiquity

9. Games aren’t just about combat anymore fighting crafting voting running

10. More and more people stay connected by playing social games

11. Social Games pull from many different areas

12. Q: How to navigate this fast-changing landscape? A: Engagement Design: a framework for driving sustained customer engagement

14. Who’s participating? How do they like to engage?

15. Killers Achievers Socializers Explorers Bartles Player Types (1996)

16. Jane McGonigal Points, Badges, Levels, Leaderboards… appeal primarily to Achievers Richard Bartle

17. Content Players Interacting Acting Kim’s Social Engagement Verbs (2011) Compete

18. Players Interacting Acting Kim’s Social Engagement Verbs (2011) Compete Collaborate Interacting Acting

19. Content Players Interacting Acting Kim’s Social Engagement Verbs (2011) Compete Collaborate Explore

20. Content Players Interacting Acting Kim’s Social Engagement Verbs (2011) Compete Collaborate Explore Express

21. Compete Win, Beat, Brag, Taunt, Challenge

22. Compete Win, Beat, Brag, Taunt, Challenge

23. Collaborate Share, Help, Gift, Greet, Exchange, Join, Trade

24. Collaborate Share, Help, Gift, Greet, Exchange, Join, Trade

25. Explore view, search, find, collect, complete, curate

26. Explore view, search, find, collect, complete, curate

27. Express choose, customize, write, layout, design, create

28. Express choose, customize, write, layout, design, create

29. Content Players Interacting Acting What are YOUR Social Engagement Verbs? Explore Express Compete Collaborate Give Help Comment Like Share Greet Collect Rate View Review Vote Curate Win Challenge Showoff Compare Taunt Create Design Customize Choose Purchase Decorate Build

31. To drive sustained engagement, design for three key lifecycle stages Onboarding Habit-Building Mastery Newbie Regular Enthusiast

32. Regulars need fresh content/activities/challenges Newbies need to learn the ropes (welcome + goals + progress + achievable rewards)

33. Regulars need fresh content/activities/challenges

34. Enthusiasts need exclusivity, recognition, impact

36. P ositive Emotions experiencing joy, pleasure, fun, safety, etc E ngagement / Flow being consciously involved in our activities R elationships enjoyable/supportive interactions w/others M eaning creating a purposeful narrative A ccomplishment Completing goals + following core values Martin Seligman What is PERMA? Key Findings From Positive Psychology

37. Harvesting crops  visual pleasure, self-expression

38. FS recommendations  curiousity, delight, satisfaction

39. Netflix recommendations  invoke curiosity

40. Netflix recommendations  understanding, satisfaction

41. What is an Engagement Loop? Meaningful Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift

42. What is an Engagement Loop? Feedback + Progress Stats / Achievements / Roles / Powers Meaningful Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift

43. What is an Engagement Loop? Feedback + Progress Stats / Achievements / Roles / Powers Meaningful Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift Positive Emotion Delight, Trust, Pride, Curiousity, Power, Smart

44. What is an Engagement Loop? Feedback + Progress Stats / Achievements / Roles / Powers Meaningful Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift Positive Emotion Delight, Trust, Pride, Curiousity, Power, Smart (social) Call to Action Customize / Share / Help / Compete / Gift

45. Newbie Enthusiast Regular Engagement changes during a player’s lifecycle

46. Feedback + Progress Stats / Achievements / Roles / Powers Meaningful Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift Positive Emotion Delight, Trust, Pride, Curiousity, Power, Smart (social) Call to Action Customize / Share / Help / Compete / Gift Onboard Newbies Re-Engage Regulars Leverage Enthusiasts Design Engagement Loops for each Lifecycle Stage

48. Dynamics Mechanics Aesthetics Engaging Experience What makes an engaging experience?

49. Progressive Unlocks Appointments Dynamics Dynamics are patterns over time Dynamic Systems Reward Schedules Pacing

50. Patterns can be programmed into systems Reward Schedules  Habits, Surprise, Addiction

51. Mechanics offer feedback and show progress Levels Points Leaderboards Badges Missions Mechanics Virtual Goods

52. Good mechanics “light the way” to success & mastery

53. Fun Delight Envy Pride Aesthetics Aesthetics evoke emotion Surprise Satisfaction Trust Connection Curiosity

54. Emotion drives action & engagement A good game takes the player on an emotional journey over time VS

56. Sustained Engagement (AKA Flow) is driven by having something to master

57. What skills can I master? How do I see my progress? What powers can I earn by mastering these skills? To drive sustained engagement, offer progressive challenges

59. Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives. Mastery — the urge to get better at something that matters. Purpose — AKA belonging, desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves

60. Autonomy Belonging Fun Self-Knowledge Mastery Power Love Prizes Points Levels Leaderboards Badges Learning Quests Intrinsic value > Extrinsic Rewards Sex Meaning Gold Stars Progress Bar Money

61. Extrinsic Rewards GOOD for completing simple tasks (AKA assembly line work)

62. Intrinsic Rewards NEEDED for sustained engagement Satisfying an aspirational desire for playing dress-up in beautiful clothes Intrinsic Rewards NEEDED for sustained engagement

63. Intrinsic Rewards NEEDED for sustained engagement Satisfying an desire for thoughtful, intelligent, moderated discourse

64. Rank-ordering Intrinsic Motivation

65. PRO TIP: use extrinsic feedback to support intrinsically rewarding activity

66. PRO TIP: use feedback & stats to make customers feel part of a larger cause

68. Leverage the talents & energy of your enthusiasts

69. build an engine that engages high-value contributors

70. Case Study: Stack Overflow

71. Who’s Playing? Why are they playing?

72. What’s their engagement style?

73. What’s the core activity & feedback system?

74. What can players learn and master?

75. How is progress made visible?

76. How is progress made visible?

77. How is progress made visible? VS

78. How do newbies learn the ropes?

79. How are enthusiasts recognized?

80. How are enthusiasts recognized?

81. How are enthusiasts recognized?

82. Enthusiasts like to contribute

83. How does Stack set the tone?

84. How does Stack empower the community?

85. How does progress lead to increased powers?

86. Newbie: Read, UpVote, Answer Pride, curiosity Vote an answer up Earn Pts, gain privileges Check out Q&A, features

87. Regular: Build Rep, Collect Badges Pride / Surprise / Delight Post a comment/message Take Actions Earn Badge

88. Enthusiast: Unlock Powers, Collect Rare Badges Pride / Competition Get Special Privileges (e.g. moderator tools) Answer question Collect Rep pts

89. Core Activity: (high-quality) Q&A Case Study: Quora

90. Who’s Playing? What’s their style?

91. What’s motivating them to play?

92. What can players learn and master?

93. How is progress made visible?

94. Social Actions  Q&A Feedback Systems

95. Case Study: HuffingtonPost

96. Who’s engaging? What’s their motivation?

97. Core activity: reading & reacting to content

98. Lightweight interaction: Rate / React

99. Engaged Interaction: Comment

100. What does it mean to make progress?

101. Badges == earned, level-based titles Connected with people Commenting & sharing content Moderating comments Making quality comments

102. Some Badges unlock Spotlights & Status Members who comment and share earn Superuser Level 1 Members who comment and share LOTS and connect their FB & Twitter account earn Superuser Level 2 AND their comments are highlighted in Purple Members who have followers & friends earn Networker Level 1 Members who have LOTS of followers and friends and connect their FB & Twitter account earn Networker Level 2 AND their comments are highlighted in Red

103. Some Badges unlock Privileges & Powers Commenters earn a Pundit badge by consistently contributing insightful, informative, and engaging commentary. Over time, we’ll have a Pundit Badge for vertical (starting with Politics) Being a Pundit comes with privileges. Besides having their comments highlighted in the Highlights tab and the Community Pundits box, we also allow our Pundits to leave longer comments. Members earn Moderator badge by flagging 20 posts (Level 1) or 100 posts (Level 2) which eventually get removed. BOTH must have high good-to-mistaken flags ratio. Level 1 Moderators’ flags carry 5X weight. Level 2 Moderators are trusted to remove inappropriate posts.

104. Collections provide utility, enhance identity

105. Collections provide utility, enhance identity

106. … and provide hooks for status & UGC

107. Key Engagement Design Questions Who’s engaging – and why? What’s their engagement style? What are they learning & mastering? How is progress made visible? How does the experience evolve? How do newbies learn the ropes? What drives regulars to re-enage? How can enthusiasts contribute & have impact?

108. NYT Engagement Verbs Content Players Acting Explore Express Compete Collaborate Help Comment Like Share Greet Collect Rate Consume Review Vote Curate Win Challenge Showoff Compare Taunt create Design Customize Choose Decorate Build checkin interacting Follow Invite Annotate Search Update Purchase Discover Give

110. Customer Personae Goal: capture key customer insights into narrative descriptions of individuals Purpose: design an experience that’s engaging throughout the customer’s lifecycle create 2-3 Personae for a canonical early-adopters Description can include gender, age, socio-economic status, gaming experience, aspirations, fears, daily technology or shopping habits – whatever is most relevant for your product

111. Engagement Design Part 2 Progress Mechanics & Engagement Loops

112. Positive Emotion Fun / Delight / Trust / Pride / Curious (social) Call to Action Customize / Share / Help / Compete Engaging Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift Feedback & Progress Stats / Challenges / Awards / Messages Today we’ll be building engagement loops To define visible progress, need to know the destination Emotion instigates action

113. Newbie Regular Enthusiast … at each Lifecycle Stage

114. Newbie Regular Enthusiast But first: how do we track & define progress?

115. Points (AKA Keeping Score) Anytime you make numbers visible, you’ve enabled a game

116. Four Types of Points 1. Skill Points (AKA Score, Rank) earned via interacting with the system – reflects mastery of the activity or game PersonalSkill: skill rating/ranking of an individual Group Skill: skill rating/ranking of a group

117. Redeemable Points Personal Skill Points (Brain Buddies)

118. Four Types of Points 1. Skill Points (Score, Rank) earned via interacting with the system – reflects mastery of the activity or game PersonalSkill: skill rating/ranking of an individual Group Skill: skill rating/ranking of a group 2. Experience Points (XP) uni-directional metric – only goes UP (reflects persistence + skill) earned directly via customers’ actions - used to track & reward certain activities Personal XP : reflects a customer’s actions & accomplishments Group XP: reflects the actions & accomplishments of a group

119. Personal XP (World of Warcraft)

120. Group XP (Nike+) it feels good to be part of something larger than yourself

121. Four Types of Points 1. Skill Points (Score, Rank) earned via interacting with the system – reflects mastery of the activity or game PersonalSkill: skill rating/ranking of an individual Group Skill: skill rating/ranking of a group 2. Experience Points (XP) uni-directional metric – only goes UP (reflects persistence + skill) earned directly via customers’ actions - used to track & reward certain activities Personal XP : reflects a customer’s actions & accomplishments Group XP: reflects the actions & accomplishments of a group 3. Currency (credits, coins, chips, tokens, bucks) bi-directional metric – goes up and down earned or bought within the system – can be redeemed within the system for goods or services Earned Currency: earned via customer actions – used to track & reward certain activities Purchased Currency: purchased with $$ to acquire exclusive goods and services

122. Earned + Purchased Currency (Cityville) Earned $$ Purchased $$ XP

123. Four Types of Points 1. Skill Points (Score, Rank) earned via interacting with the system – reflects mastery of the activity or game PersonalSkill: skill rating/ranking of an individual Group Skill: skill rating/ranking of a group 2. Experience Points (XP) uni-directional metric – only goes UP (reflects persistence + skill) earned directly via customers’ actions - used to track & reward certain activities Personal XP : reflects a customer’s actions & accomplishments Group XP: reflects the actions & accomplishments of a group 3. Currency (credits, coins, chips, tokens, bucks) bi-directional metric – goes up and down earned or bought within the system – can be redeemed within the system for goods or services Earned Currency: earned via customer actions – used to track & reward certain activities Purchased Currency: purchased with $$ to acquire exclusive goods and services 4. Social Points (AKA Reputation, Ratings, Likes) earned via the actions of OTHER players – can be a proxy for quality/reputation/influence lets you track & reward socially valuable contributions & actions

124. Social Points (Amazon reviews) Social Points (Amazon reviews)

125. Social Points (Flickr “interestingness”) Social Points (Flickr interestingness)

126. Social Points (Flickr “interestingness”) Social Points (Quora)

127. Social Points (Flickr “interestingness”) Social Points (Stack Overflow Reputation)

128. Social Points: Klout

129. Highlight Changes – “gotta check my score”

130. Social Competition: 1:1 friend battles How do you compare to your friends/rivals?

131. Points are meaningless w/out context

132. Feedback, Rewards & Unlocks Give context and meaning to your customer experience

133. Levels give you Pacing, Status, Unlocks

134. Good Pacing leads to Flow The better you get, the harder you need to work to earn rewards

135. Global Leaderboards showcase your most skilled and devoted players PRO TIP: offer velvet-rope leaderboards for enthusiasts

136. Social Leaderboards enable Social Actions

137. Missions Guide & Motivate the Player

138. Badges show progress, trigger collecting. provide implicit goals PRO TIP: badges are especially useful during onboarding

139. Lifecycle Quests Purpose: gain a better understanding of how to use progress mechanics in your system Duration: 15-20 min Rules: create 2-3 quests/missions/tasks for each Lifecycle Stage Newbie Enthusiast Regular Onboarding Habit-Building Mastery

140. Lifecycle Quest Design Newbie (onboarding) Regular (habit-building) Enthusiast (mastery)

141. Earned Privileges Purpose: create a roadmap for the privileges and powers that your customers can earn Duration: 15-20 min Rules: 1) make an ordered list of customer actions, from simplest to most complex/demanding 2) group them into 3 groups: newbie powers, regular powers, enthusiast powers For example, here’s the list from Stack Overflow

142. NYTimes Value Ladder Strawman

143. In-game mechanics NYT Engagement Loops Metagame Systems Fan-created content

144. READERS consume content CURATORS Recommend/Share/Rate Content CONTRIBUTORS Upload/Create content EDITORS Filter & Highlight Content NYT Engagement Funnel

145. Readers Curators Contributors key engagement stages for a NYT customer?

146. Readers Curators Contributors Engagement Loops Purpose: identify the core re-engagement loops for readers, curators and contributors Rules: Fill in the Engagement Loops for each stage of your player lifecycle.

147. Positive Emotion (social) Call to Action Engaging Activity Feedback & Progress Reader Engagement Loop

148. Positive Emotion (social) Call to Action Engaging Activity Feedback & Progress Curator Engagement Loop

149. Positive Emotion (social) Call to Action Engagement Task Visible Progress Contributor Engagement Loop

150. Lifecycle Scenarios Goal: describe key stages of your customer’s lifecycle / journey Purpose: design an experience that will attract and support Newbies, Regulars AND Enthusiasts Novice Regular Enthusiast Step 1: ceate a Persona for a canonical early-adopter Player Step 2: fill in the boxes with “day in the life” scenarios for each key stage

151. RECAP Engagement Design Framework

153. 4 Key Engagement Verbs Compete Collaborate Explore Express

154. Content Players Interacting Acting Prioritize Your Engagement Activities Explore Express Compete Collaborate Give Help Comment Like Share Greet Collect Rate View Review Vote Curate Win Challenge Showoff Compare Taunt Create Design Customize Choose Purchase Decorate Build

155. Know Your Customer Lifecycle Onboarding Habit-Building Mastery Newbie Regular Enthusiast

156. Build an engine that engages high-value customers

157. Create Lifecycle Engagement Loops Positive Emotions Fun / Delight / Trust / Pride / Curious (social) Call to Action Customize / Share / Help / Compete Engagement Activity Task / Mission / Game / Quiz / Gift Feedback & Progress Stats / Challenges / Awards / Messages Customer Acquisition  Onboarding Customer Engagement  Habit-Building Customer Empowerment  Mastery

158. @amyjokim on Twitter [email_address] http://about.me/amyjokim http://shufflebrain.com

159. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Introductory Level Appendix 1: Design for Customization Drive ~ Daniel Pink Gamification: Too much of a Good Thing? ~ Richard Bartle The Science of Gamification ~ Michael Wu Fun Inc ~ Tom Chatfield Meaningful Play ~ Sebastian Detarding Art of Game Design ~ Jesse Schell Designing Effective Achievements (parts 1,2,3) ~

160. Virtual Goods let players customize their experience & payments Appendix 1 Design for Customization

161. Virtual Goods = Digital Items w/Contextual Meaning

162. Virtual Goods evoke real emotions

163. Virtual Economies drive ongoing use..

164. … and require ongoing production & service

165. What can your players Customize?

166. Customize Your Page/Dashboard

167. Customize Your Avatar

168. Customize Your Location

170. http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/Shoreditch.pdf

171. The Science of Gamification Michael Wu - Lithium http://bit.ly/k1mrUt

172. Meaningful Play: Getting Gamification Right Sebastian Detarding http://bit.ly/hxVvDL

174. Jesse Schell Jesse Schell http://www.artofgamedesign.com/