Games are engaging and fun

Health and fitness: One of the most recent and best-known examples of how gamification is being used in the health and fitness industry is the example of the Nike+ FuelBand. The FuelBand is strapped onto a user’s wrist and uses LED lights to form a progress meter—an indicator of how active the user has been throughout the day. This visual representation of daily activity hits the conscience of the user and innately pushes him or her to achieve a more active day.

Education: Khan Academy has revolutionised the education industry by allowing students to take self-paced classes and evaluate themselves by the number of rewards they earn from each class. A reward in the Khan Academy is a token of achievement for completing the given assignments regularly and correctly.

Food and beverage: Unilever’s Share Happy iVend, the world’s first smile-activated vending machine, offers a unique brand experience. The vending machine makes the experience of eating ice cream immersive by using an attractor screen and an interface that challenges the user to smile. The smile-o-meter encourages users to smile more and then allows them to select a free ice cream as a reward.

Gamification is great if done correctly; otherwise, it has its own pitfalls. It should be an added layer as a meaningful motivator around existing content. A game can become shallow when there’s not good content to bolster it.