Gamification of therapy or gaming for good

“Up to a quarter of young people will have experienced a depressive disorder by the age of 19…However, fewer than a fifth of young people with depressive disorder receive treatment, partly because of shortages in the workforce.”

This quote is taken from a BMJ review of a 3D fantasy game environment, SPARX. It has been developed in New Zealand to help adolescents with mild to moderate depression who would otherwise be referred to traditional cognitive treatments and is in fact based on CBT.  A simplistic definition of CBT is this: it works on the premise of identifying negative thoughts, recognising that they are just thoughts or repetitive thought cycles and thereby dealing with them, instead of letting the depression cycle downwards.

The game provides fantasy spaces where the players combat and destroy game elements that represent typical thoughts.

And according to the BMJ review and research, it works. The results are equal to or better than the results from traditional treatment methods. Around 44% of those who played SPARX recovered completely from depression, compared with 26% of those in regular treatment.

I love gaming and though I’m not recommending  World of Warcraft as a therapeutic environment for the depressed (the pleasure of zapping demons aside) there is something powerful that role-playing games achieve in placing you in a different “brain-space”. It can create a space in which to explore adventure and imagination so why not a safe space to engage in therapeutic activity.

It will be interesting to see if the story is widely picked up on in the media. It’s much juicier to say that a boy killed his friends because he’d been playing Grand Theft Auto than it is to say that a young depressed girl was prevented from self-harming or anorexia through playing a fantasy role-playing game.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/20/study-playing-a-video-game-helps-teens-beat-depression/#ixzz1tiOQFiOu

Pinterest for words?

I have come across a new social tool called findings.com. It works in a similar way to Pinterest, but really isn’t that social. If you find a quote or an article or words that you like you can clip them and save them to your findings library. You can then add notes. Other people can then see or search through your findings and you theirs and you can reclip them, thereby extending your library.

You can’t as yet classify your clippings by area like you can with pictures on Pinterest, I think part of the aim is to create a serendipity of association. That’s even more likely when you consider that the tool has the involvement of Steven Johnson who’s book, Where Good Ideas Come From, includes the power of serendipitous assocations as one of the key ways good ideas are born. It’s still being developed, but I can see so many possibilities already. On the one hand the thing that makes it most interesting and, in my view, likely to suceed is that it allows for clips from Kindle to be included in your library and that they are seriously considering importing data from Evernote. On the other, the social and community level of this is missing almost completely.

I think they’ve missed a trick by launching without it. As soon as I found it I wanted to use it in a community way for a project, but I can also see multiple opportunities for collaboration – as long as there are areas and clippings etc that can be made private. There is certainly a sense in which a tool like this will be used for the development and thrashing out of personal ideas, concepts, team and individual theories and sometimes these need a little private incubation.

But all in all, hooray! I just love the fact that online territories continue to expand and evolve and just when you think we can’t come up with anything new, a bright shiny new experience pops up round the corner. Have a look at Findings if you are wordy person (like me) and maybe you’ll find a couple of things I’ve posted.

 

Social media customer service? It’s not rocket science

I’m slightly confused as to why people think their clients stick with them, or more importantly stay with them. Do they really think that they can serve up whatever user experience suits them and the customer will stick with it? I’m not just talking about functionality and usability, I’m also talking about customer service.

I have recently had a rather poor experience on a side-project that I run. I’m being moved from one provider to another against my will (the result of a buy out) and losing vast amounts of usability and some essential functionality as a result. Ok, I guess I can work with that and research ways around the problem eg other providers, different kinds of webhosting for downloading digital files.  I received assurances from the new provider that certain services would be extended to me for 3 months however these were then removed after 1 month. And when I called to ask if this could be dealt with in any way, reminding them of the previous conversation, I was basically told “computer says no” or not even that really. Finally, they emailed me to ask if I needed any questions answered about migration and I replied with 2 questions – that was 5 days ago and no reply as yet…So I am now in the process of having to migrate my project to another platform completely.

I’m lucky. I know the basics of programming and that gives me substantial benefits in terms of navigating my way around the multitude of website hosting providers, free software publishing platforms like WordPress and free creative tools that exist all over the web. So for me it’s more of an extreme annoyance than a complete full-stop to the project. But as I said, I’m lucky, most of the people using my old provider don’t have that kind of experience so they are left with reduced functionality and a new and rather slapdash provider.

While I appreciate that it’s not really an incoming company’s fault if they don’t offer the functions I need to make my project work, surely every company is now aware that even if they lose me as a customer, if they give great support/customer service then I am more likely to recommend them to someone else further down the line – net promoter score in a very literal sense! As it is I am highly unlikely to recommend the incoming provider to anyone.

There are so many simple, easy touches that make the customer experience better that there is no excuse any more for delivering a poor experience in usability and customer service. Web Hosting Rating asked me to look at their site and maybe write a review and frankly I am happy to, because they clearly demonstrate  just one easy way to make people feel more informed and better helped. It’s not rocket science, it’s a blog. And it’s not even a daily updated blog, it’s an information blog that provides guidance on making the most of the services they provide. More that this, it thinks widely. It references software you might want to host on the platform, how to install and apply it and suggests way to maximise your engagement. And of course all of this makes using their service more attractive and simpler.

There’s a lot of buzz about customer service via social media. It doesn’t have to cost the earth but I firmly believe it will make the difference between businesses succeeding and failing. I would be interested to learn how many of the people who were moved to my new provider are happy with the service they are receiving, how many will leave and how many will stay because they have to.

Gamification of…everything?

It seems you can’t move without brands and experiences attempting to gamify themselves. I have already posted about Weight Watchers gamification of their Points plan. Now I turn my attention to WordPress – mainly because I can’t escape it! Every time I post it gives me a new “goal” or marks me for managing to make a certain number of posts.

What all this misses is that the motivation for writing a blog is not about competing with yourself for the number of posts you’ve made, but more likely because you want to share something interesting or you want to share something with a community or you want to drive traffic. The only one of these motivations that could be gamified is the final one, driving traffic. Perhaps if WordPress got together with Klout or Peerindex, or even if they used their own delivery of statistics or number of ‘likes’ they would have a game mechanic that would drive more engagement. But the activity of blogging is not primarily about activity levels.

Brands need to think more carefully about the motivation of their users when they are considering integrating game mechanics, otherwise they are likely to be ignored at best or to create irritation at worst.

What do you think about the future of driving?

Lovely ideas – one guy thinks we’ll be swiming with our cars. I really hope that happens! It’s exciting enough with dolphins!

B-MAX – Ford’s new launch at Geneva

FordLIVE video from Geneva Motorshow

This is the first report from Geneva, where we’ll be for the next 11 days. We wanted to bring the buzz and entertainment of the motorshow – plus exclusive launches – to people who can’t make it, or who only go for a day and don’t get to see everything.

Hope you enjoy it!

Geneva motor show

One of the joys of working for Imagination is the opportunity to visit the motor shows. It’s rare to work for a business that combines the physical and virtual disiciplines in such a tangible way. Today we’re filming the first of our FordLIVE reports in 3 different languages for publication on YouTube and Ford’s socia channels so it’s even more multichannel than usual.

First film goes live tomorrow. I can’t twll you what’s in it or I’d have to kill you. Oh alright then, it’s the key premiere from the show. Looking forward to it.

Books for creative strategists 3 – Where good ideas come from

So we spend a lot of time looking at reports and research and then applying that to markets and coming up with interesting directions. Then we have a chat with the art directors and content producers and out of that soup come lovely ideas. But where do those ideas really come from?

I recommend you have a look at the book “Where do good ideas come from?” by Steve Johnson. He looks at creative and innovative environments and what unites them and then posits 7 patterns of innovation. And his ideas challenge many of the assumptions about creative genius and creativity in general.

Take for instance the Slow Hunch, the principle that brilliant ideas come out of slow building ideas, slowly developing thoughts and experiences. Often what turns a hunch into a real break through is that two hunches collide, not that a genius sits in a room with a strategic brief and delivers the next Facebook. He points out that creating environments where ideas can collide is all part of maximising the opportunities for great creativity. Well, just think about the coffee houses of the Enlightenment and you’ll see where he’s going with that.

Creativity is so important for our businesses but I have long felt that there is a real danger in designating some people as “creatives” meaning graphic designers and wordsmiths, and some people as “not creatives”.  A chance remark, a different perspective, a great understanding that comes from outside  the “creative team” can be the catalyst that delivers a brilliant new app or process or visual. There are loads more great thought starters in the book and ways that you can create environments to foster creativity. And it’s well written. What’s not to like?

 

Gamification of dieting? Points mean prizes, not.

The whole world seems to be obsessed with gamification these days. Is there nothing advertisers/marketing gurus can’t apply the principle to? Apparently not. I heard an ad on the radio yesterday on my way to work which informed me that the chirpy, happy lady on the Weight Watchers programme was now not joining Weight Watchers or “doing” Weight Watchers but are “playing” Weight Watchers”.

I get it. Let’s make this challenging and fun instead of challenging and difficult. Let’s use the ideas that already exist – points and treats – to create a game like feeling. But
I’ll be gobsmacked if this approach makes any difference to either numbers signing up or numbers succeeding in the programme. Why? Because it’s just a reskin so there is no new news to inspire joining, the play element is just a word change. There are no new apps, content and information.