Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra) | Acquired Podcast

…basically find the opportunities where your product naturally delights someone or naturally makes someone feel a sense of accomplishment and find the light-touch ways to just amplify that?

With intrinsic motivation, we do things because they are inherently interesting and satisfying. With extrinsic motivation, we do things to earn rewards and achieve external goals. That's the problem with rewards, they massively undermine intrinsic motivation. That's why gamification does not work, and when gamification does work, it is because the ... See more

A game is something you play. A good toy is an object that is fun to play with, and fun is a pleasant surprise.

The gamification style feels like a low respect for your users. I'm going to give you some flashy star doing this thing, good job. It's like you're treating them like those elementary school kids. Whereas, give them awesome tools and then trust that they know their goals. If their goals line up with your goals, they're going to use them well. Just ... See more

I would advise, as an industry, to pull back from this obsession with user wants and user needs and instead to design for fun. What you want your players to feel, what is the emotional path for them to get there, and how does your software—your business product, if that's what you're building—take them along the path?