Project Overview
This project is a challenge from the Thammasat Design Center's Gamification Design course. They allow students to complete this real-world project by applying gaming elements to non-game contexts.
The Challenge
How can gamification make listening to Storius more fun and engaging?
The Client
Storius App is the first free app providing travelers with local insights in short audio clips that are location-based and crowd-sourced.
Team
Kasina Songwatana & Hasnain Karim Rabib (Storyteller team)
Chotika Sopitarchasak & Chutiman Chuenjai (Traveler team)
Project Period
March 2021 - May 2021
Role
UX / UI designer
Business Objective
1. Make Storius more appealing to attract more users.
2. Enhance UX and UI
3. To be a new local traveling community
4. Encourage users to use Storius at the location
Summarized with Octalysis
After our team audit and design by using the Gamification framework, we imagine that it will increase the core drive that we focus on, Accomplishment (CD2), Ownership (CD4), Scarcity (CD6), and Avoidance (CD8). So Octalysis will balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which will help Storius get more user engagement.
Storyboard of Stakeholder's Assumption
Stakeholder's expectation
To be the world's voice database (Wikipedia Voice version)
Increase users
Encourage users to use Storius at the location
Encourage users to keep using Stories while traveling
Make more fun while using an application
Make more user-friendly UI
Methods I used
The audit
Using the Octalysis framework, they audited every prototype screen to determine which could use improvement. Additplaylist/lista ionally, we may analyze which inner drive we can enhance and the inspiration to apply this Storius.
Conclusion after the audit Storius
Lack of Extrinsic motivation
A low score (out of 10) on Core Drive 2 (Accomplishment), Core Drive 4 (Ownership), Core Drive 6 (Scarcity), and Core Drive 8 (Avoidance)
No onboarding screen
Storius icon doesn't represent in a straightforward way
Research
Competitive research
It should be an audio guide, travel app, or voice. I, therefore, believed I had to do a direct and indirect competitive analysis. Storius's abilities, which include audio guides with local knowledge when going into the area, were considered when choosing these rivals.
The indirect competitors
Abilities / Application | Storius | Spotify | |
|---|---|---|---|
Voice | ✓ | | ✓ |
Map | ✓ | ✓ | |
Information of place | ✓ | ✓ | |
Varieties of information | ✓ | ✓ | |
Save to favorite | ✓ | | ✓ |
Rating and Comment | ✓ | | |
Language choosing | ✓ | ✓ | |
Create a playlist/list | ✓ | | ✓ |
Create a tour | ✓ | | |
Advisor
The direct competitors
Abilities / Application | Storius | Audio guide | Foursquare | Trip Advisor | Google Map | Youtube |
Voice | ✓ | ✓ | | | | ✓ |
Map | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Information of Place | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Varieties of information | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Save to favorite | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Rating and Comment | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Language choosing | ✓ | | | | | ✓ |
Create a playlist/list | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ |
Create a tour | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | |
From the analysis:
There are many indirect and direct competitors
The physical competitor is an audio guide in the museum
Storius has a vital feature of various voice information
Storius can create their tours and share them with other users
Survey & User interview
To get more insights from users who probably be our potential users, we create a survey in the first place. After analyzing the survey result, we choose participants from our assumptions, e.g., travelers who have experience with an audio guide. We have the opportunity to interview 7 users from 77 people.
The survey result
99% of users use Google maps when they're traveling.
65% of users have experience with an audio guide.
49% of users are willing to pay for an audio guide if it can make them understand content more.
87% of users visited other cities and were toured by their local friends.
The critical insight from the user interview
7 out of 7 users have experience with a local guide.
7 out of 7 users will travel with a local guide when they need more insight or have a language barrier.
6 out of 7 users used to travel outside their own country.
5 out of 7 users think hiring a local guide is uncomfortable when they want to walk at their own pace.
Assumptions from interview
If we have a level system for travelers to show off their status on Storius and unlock some features & benefits
Then travelers would put effort into Storius to get to a higher level
Because status and achievement systems align with their eagerness to learn.
If we have a Storius Passport and let people collect stamps by listening to a story at the location
Then they would feel encouraged to use Storius whenever they travel abroad and listen at the locations.
Because of their sense of ownership over the stamp collection.
If we have a reward system, points could trade
Then they would frequently use the Storius more.
Because they expect rewards.
Conclusion after research
Most users are familiar with Google map for planning their trip
Users will plan before travel
Most users will hire local guides when they need more insight
An audio guide is users' choice when they need more information about the place that they visit
Sometimes, language is the barrier between users and local guides
Hiring local guides makes users feel uncomfortable when they want to walk at their pace sometimes
Most users will not hire a local guide if they have enough information about the place they travel
Strategy
Focus on Onboarding and Scaffolding Phrase
Users must go through onboarding to learn more about the application. The application is being used for the first time by the users. Our team also believes that we should improve the onboarding experience. Scaffolding, on the other hand, is a term that refers to a user's habit of knowing how to use an application and continuing to do so. Users will become accustomed to hearing this term based on the Hook model.
The Engagement Loop
See the whole engagement loop here
Conclusion of our strategy
We are focusing on the Onboarding phase that shows users how to use Storius for the first time.
We use the "Hook Model" in the Scaffolding phase to make a habit for users.
The Reward system is the key to making users engage with Storius.
An engagement loop is a plan to know what action will lead to rewards and create a habit.
Reward system
Points & Levels
Points and Levels are the way of investment. Users take any action on Storius and obtain points to collect. Points bring to Level for users to show off their status because our stakeholder wants to make Storius to be a new community and voice database of local stories. We use the "Hook Model" to create habits after users gain points and levels. They tend to use Storius because they already invest by using Storius.
Points
Level
Badges
Badges are one of the rewards that users can collect besides points and levels. Badges might gain harder than points and levels, and users need more effort to do and collect. Our team believes that users might tend to collect other badges in the Scaffolding phase once they get badges after they order points and levels. So it creates the habit of using Storius.
The passport stamp
Our stakeholders need to allure users to listen at the location; we created the passport stamp, which users will gain when they listen. We believe users will have more fun using Storius at the location.
Heart (Appreciation Rewards)
Our team wants to create a reciprocity program; It is giving and taking in Storius' community. Once users reach the level that we set or listen to a few times on Storius, they will receive a "Heart" and give it to their favorite storyteller, which will show on the storyteller profile. So storytellers can show off how much appreciation they get from listeners instead of followers. The other way to receive heart is trading 5 points. And to create more scarcity (Core drive 6 in Octalysis), we set that after users receive this heart, they have to give it to the storyteller within 24 hours.
Conclusion of the reward system
We give users points and levels to show their progress while they take action on Storius.
Badges will make users feel they own something.
A passport stamp is extrinsic motivation for users to listen to Storius at the location.
The heart is the reciprocity in the Storius community.
A Reward system is key to increasing users' engagement.
Wireframe
Prototype
See the whole prototype here
What I've learned from this project
1. Research and usability testing are essential, leading to insights so that we can create solutions according to users' needs.
2. I should do usability testing after I have done the prototype. And I should test the same prototype with other groups. So I can get honest feedback to enhance the next prototype.
3. Putting the gamification framework into the product is complex, and I must be rational in every step. Gamification is not just about Points, Badges, and Leaderboards without reason.
4. The Gamification framework is suitable for the product when we appropriately use it. Users can become addicted to the product when we use too much Gamification framework, which can affect their daily lives.
5. Rewarding the users is the key to keeping them engaged with the product.