Chapter 2. The Framework

Now that we have seen some uses of gamification in the real world, let's take a closer look at how we are going to create our gamified e-learning system.

As mentioned earlier, most gamified applications will fail. This is not because gamification does not work, but because we apply it poorly. We want to avoid this by adhering to a process and framework for developing our system. In this chapter, we will outline this framework and begin to give our system some structure.

We will follow a Gamification Design Framework, which is made up of six components. They are:

• Business objectives

• Target behaviors

• Players

• Activity loops

• Fun

• Tools

Over the next few pages, we will take a closer look at each and begin to put "meat" on the "bones" of our gamified e-learning website.

We will wrap up this chapter with a mock-up of what our final product will look like at a high level. This will make getting in the details and building our application considerably easier.