A article on Gamification, it's uses and possible applications in real world context
Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification.
By definition gamification is just applying game elements in non-game contexts, sounds simple enough but is has far reaching possibilities. It has the potential to revolutionise the world of education and fitness. Let's start with an example of gamification, one would be replacing the grading system in schools with an alternative "levelling" system, where each grade is seen as a level. So instead of giving students letter grades for homework which only demotivates them as they did not receive the grade they were aiming for, rather give them positive points(experience) which adds up to a "level up" which sends them to the next phase of education. A system like this will give them more motivation to study as they are always gaining experience, not being exposed to scenarios of grade pressure. One could then expand on this by adding rewards to the students who gain the most experience at the end of each assignment/phase, add some sort of achievement or physical reward that they get as to motivate them to do their work to the best of their abilities. That is just some of the capabilities of gamification.
What really defines gamification is its ability to take tedious activities and making them fun or at least more interesting. Such as the activity of climbing stairs, in Los Angeles a building was installed with a "piano staircase" where each step on it was fitted with a sensor that plays a note when stepped on, a change was observed in behaviour of visitors. People stopped using the elevator and started climbing the stairs, some would actually run up and down the stairs for fun. Not only did this motivate less use of the elevator(which saves on maintenance costs) but also promotes fitness.
The process of gamification would start at identifying an activity that you want to gamify, and then document the phases/actions that the activity requires to complete (let's take jogging as an example, so it is a cycle of jogging, walking/resting, hydrating then starting over). One would then determine which step you wish to target (Ideally one would want to target all steps but otherwise choose the most difficult - the jogging part). Then apply a game design element such as, achievements, rewards, levelling etc (In this case it could be either competition/achievements/levelling. Let's go with levelling, one could add a daily activity logger for the time/distance the person has covered in a session of jogging and then gain experience for jogging which results in level gains, which could also be linked to achievements).
Gamification holds endless possibilities and is something that could really have a big impact on the world and the lives of everyone in it.
Hope you enjoyed the article.
