If you have a high quality badging/achievements system, then that means you know what the user goals are, you can recognize when those goals are accomplished, and your app notices when the user behavior is bringing the user closer to accomplishing their goal.
The three most important questions to ask of a badging system:
- What are the user's goals?
- What signals progress to the user/company?
- What signals failure along the process of goal achievement?
- What signals success to the user/company?
Ultimately, the badging system is most valuable as a form of user research that provides clarity as to how to orient towards user goals and involvement. With Behavioral Product StrategyBehavioral Product Strategy
The way a product is designed shapes the way that people use it. Every app is designed for behavior change, intentionally or unintentionally, so the questions that drive behavioral product strategy must be addressed. User Involvement is a set of metrics whose success is defined by the combination of user behaviors that contribute towards creating a desirable outcome. Behavioral product strategy is making product decisions to influence user behavior and improve user involvement.
It doesn't ma..., the answers to these questions provide some of the most useful information we can acquire. It allows us to improve User InvolvementUser Involvement
Imagine purchasing a gym membership in order to lose weight or grow more muscular. Having a gym membership is not enough on its own! In order to successfully accomplish that goal, you would need to work out regularly on the right muscle groups. You might have a higher likelihood of success if you participate in exercise classes or hire a personal trainer. Your outcomes are shaped by your own behavior in the gym.
User involvement is defined by the set of user behaviors that lead to experienci... by increasing the likelihood that people accomplish their goals and tightening our feedback loop of learning whether we are successfully delivering on our promise.
Ideating around a badging system means you will have determined what the user's goals are, represented those goals in terms of in-app behavior, and given users a plan for achieving their goals through your app. It is absolutely vital to name and describe these badges in a way that resonates with the user. Additionally, you now have quantifiable ways of measuring if your user has achieved value. What you do next with that information is up to you.
This is why, when working on client projects, I often help them through the process of creating a badging system, even if there's no intention to implement it or any gamification at all. What we learn from the process ends up having implications throughout many future decisions.