Effectiveness of Gamification

[SuziW]

Is gamification more effective for onboarding or long-term engagement in portals?

I’ve seen gamification used successfully for onboarding new users, but I’m curious how effective it is for long-term engagement once users are familiar with the portal.

Are features like guided tours and social Q&A still valuable over time, or do they mainly help early adoption?

[GlideFather · Accepted solution]

Hi @SuziW,

I believe there's not any universal or right answer... 

There are always people who will never get engaged voluntarily themselves not even in million years, gamification or not... second group is people who will always use the gamification to get easy and zero efforts points (visible everywhere), and then the third group - the remaining others... :))

Hard to say how these groups would be represented in percentage rates. Maybe a good idea is to have a gamification combined with some other approach(es), but not strictly just that. Just an idea - a ruffle, a trivia, or a voucher prize, ... 

The very same thing will vary company from company as well as a particular group within the same company...

[SuziW]

Thanks for the detailed perspective 
I really like the way you broke users into behavioral groups. That matches what I’ve seen as well: no single mechanic works for everyone.

The point about combining gamification with other approaches (like light incentives or discovery-based elements) is interesting. It feels like gamification works best when it supports a broader engagement strategy rather than trying to carry everything on its own.

Also agree that results can vary massively between organizations and even teams within the same company. Curious if you’ve seen certain combinations work more consistently than others.