How to Gamify Your Mobile App?

Mobile gaming is the most important category of mobile application selling in the contemporary mobile market. The popularity of gaming apps extends far and wide; from school children to enterprise personnel, everyone finds gaming applications very engaging. This is the reason why the current trend in the mobile app industry is to gamify all types of applications. In a research report revealed during the latter half of 2012, it has been pointed out that mobile app users respond emotionally to any software that has an attractive design. Once the developers are successful in securing the emotional attention of the target customer base, the app is well on its way to success. In the same report, mobile market analysts say that enterprise app developers need to learn software building skills from the source named mobile games. The reason why gamification has become such an important aspect of the contemporary mobile application development industry is that it extends beyond fun and games.

One way in which enterprises can gamify the mobile apps deployed within their workplaces is to introduce the concepts of giving away badges, awards, and such other fun ways of rewarding and recognizing the influencers of software usage within the organization. The process of gamification allows the enterprise to build communities within an enterprise organically so that the target audience talks more about the services and products offered by the company and this has a positive impact upon customer retention. However, it is to be remembered that gamification is not a marketing strategy. This means that gamification will not necessarily bring more sales of an organization’s products and services, but it will definitely engage the current user base as well as attract an extended target audience, thereby raising the possibility of mobility.

Some ways in which developers can gamify all types of mobile apps are:

1. Creation of a gaming environment within an app is very important. This means that the gaming quotient needs to be introduced within every type of software, irrespective of the fact it is a game app or not. For instance, if an app development company has built an exercise app, it can allow users tracking and sharing results of their total exercise done in one day; aspects such as time taken and distance covered to run can be allowed to track and share, so that users become more motivated and engaged to their apps and are willing to use the app over and over again.

2. Creation of a sequence of bonuses and badges – Build a more interactive mobile application, even if the app is a financial software. For instance, the content of the app should have rich programs where users are compelled to fulfill requirements before they proceed towards the second level of usage. In this way, not only will the target audience be more curious to explore the additional functionalities of an app, but as a developer you will be able to retain more clients. Research shows that the users get the feeling of accomplishment that is comparable to advancing in subsequent levels of games. Also introduce the concept of rewarding points as customers move to the next level to establish a sense of achievement from using the software.

To conclude, the reason why it is important to gamify a mobile app is that it makes the users’ tasks feel like games.