Sponsored Interaction Design Project • SJSU
Gamifying the Workday
An enterprise software that motivates case workers to progress through their career.
Jump to design processExplore the prototype
Sponsored Interaction Design Project • SJSU
An enterprise software that motivates case workers to progress through their career.
Jump to design processExplore the prototypeSummary
During a graduate interaction design course, I worked with a classmate to apply game design principles to software at a fraud detection company, ACME.
ACME sponsored this project with a design brief detailing the goals and pain points of their employees. They had recently faced a wave of resignations from their case workers, and challenged our class to redesign their software to motivate case workers to stay at ACME longer.
Responsibilities
Interaction Design
Game Design
Timeline
Fall 2022 – 4 weeks
Tools
Figma
Problem
Case workers review up to 100 cases each week to flag suspicious activity for ACME. Each day feels the same for many case workers, leading to burn out.
Case workers are resigning from ACME, putting pressure on remaining case workers to handle the backlog of cases.
Project Brief
Case workers are resigning because they don't see a clear path to success in their career: they want to know that their day-to-day efforts will be recognized and pay off in the long run.
Growth and impact are the top 2 motivators based on case worker's pain points and goals. My classmate and I targeted these motivators to design the new case worker software.
Adam
Case Worker
Goals
Pain Points
Mark
Manager
Goals
Pain Points
Design Process
Game theory principles can be used to motivate people at work, as long as the game seems fair and the outcomes are aligned with the employee's goals and ambitions.
My classmate and I applied game theory to ACME's workflow in 3 steps to meet business goals while motivating case workers to progress through their career, or 'play the game'.
Step 01
Gamify business goals
ACME relies on their employees to make case recommendations by marking them as fraud or a false positive. Each recommendation case workers make will train AI models and influence ACME’s ability to automate fraud detection.
To stay competitive in the fraud detection space, ACME needs case workers to perform 2 key object-action interactions: make recommendations on cases and AI models.
My classmate and I chose object-action pairs to gamify so case workers are motivated to make recommendations for cases and AI models.
Step 02
Design for case worker motivations
We designed 2 tiers of games to motivate case workers as they make recommendations for cases at ACME.
Game 1 motivates case workers by tracking their career growth as they work through cases, while Game 2 highlights case worker's impact as they identify trends in fraud and communicate with their teams.
Game 1 motivates case workers with competition by highlighting their peer's progress. Mastery is another motivator that guides case workers to close enough cases to earn access to Game 2.
Game 2 motivates case workers to reach 'Trendspotting' status, where they have the privilege to submit trends for additional points and have ownership over trends.
Step 03
Implement game mechanics
Both Game 1 and 2 follow the same reward structure: make case recommendations, earn points, get rewards. Game 1 is focused on motivating newer case workers by highlighting their career growth as they work towards bonuses and promotions, while Game 2 shows seasoned case workers the impact they are making.
The game's motivators and rewards evolve as case workers gain more experience, which keeps them engaged and looking forward to their next accomplishment at ACME.
This design plan and game flow shows how case workers are motivated differently by the 2 tiers of games as they gain experience at ACME.
Solution
My classmate and I adapted ACME's enterprise design system to create an engaging workday experience for case workers by highlighting their growth and impact.
Now, case workers see how their day-to-day work impacts their progress towards pay bonuses, prizes and career growth.
The Dashboard
Track progress towards pay bonuses and promotions
By making case recommendations, opening updates from their manager, and joining company-wide competitions, case workers can earn points towards prizes, pay bonuses, and promotions. The dashboard gives case workers feedback on how much progress they've made and what they need to accomplish to earn the next reward.
The dashboard highlights case worker's progress towards bonuses and promotions.
Case workers can see their individual impact and compare their team to top teams at ACME.
Managers can adjust how bonuses and competition points are awarded while keeping an eye on KPIs.
The Queue
Leave feedback on cases to earn more rewards
The queue is where case workers are reviewing cases and spending most of their time. They're rewarded with points for voting on fraud trends and leaving feedback for each recommendation: points encourage case workers to step through each stage of a thorough case investigation.
Case workers leave comments and vote on fraud trends to communicate patterns across ACME. They earn promotions and bonuses by voting on trends for each case, and can eventually submit trends themselves.
Managers can see who submitted trends, how the rest of the company is voting on trends, and assign overdue cases to their top performers.
Comments are attached to each case and help managers resolve case worker's questions as they come up.
Arena Competitions
Earn prizes for competing with anyone at ACME
Case workers can compete for prizes by submitting the most recommendations for cases. New prizes are added to arena competitions each pay period to incentivize case workers to join new competitions regularly.
Case workers can get feedback on their performance during any arena competition and see how they stacked up to their fellow competitors.
Case workers can compete with each other to win prizes like vacation coupons and charity donations.
Notifications show progress updates and use calls to action to lead case workers back to their queue.
Disclaimer: The designs, content, and experiences portrayed are purely conceptual and not guaranteed to be built in their full actuality. Furthermore, "ACME" is a codename for the project during the visioning phase and will not be used in-market.
Reflection
Introducing gamification to enterprise software can be tricky, as employees generally can't opt out of the products their company uses. Our solution rewards required actions in ACME'S workflow and adds voluntary competitions to the mix, so case workers can focus on the basics of their career until they want to take on more.
In the future, case workers might have the opportunity to earn badges for learning new skills at ACME to inspire more growth and collaboration. I hope our ideas inspire ACME to incorporate game elements to relieve burn out for their case workers!
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