“Shaq knows the fastest route!”
Waze Gamification Case Study
Waze uses gamification to create an addictive, fun and useful Aha Experience.
Opportunity:
An army of Wazers submit continuous traffic updates to the rest of the community. More impressively, they do it while they’re driving. How does Waze convince hundreds of thousands of people to contribute unsexy traffic data for free? Read on.
Aha Experience:
Waze amazes me because it takes such an infuriating thing -traffic - and turns it into something so fun. It proves to me that, in fact, any experience can be reframed to be likable. You might just have to go to some extremes. Here are lessons to be learned from Waze’s gamification.
Give users (or customers) a name.
Waze users are… wait for it… Wazers. Giving them a name includes them in the game and in the community. It gives them an identity tied into your experience. That’s priceless.
Encourage friendly competition.
We are competitive by nature. Seeing stats or personal bests always tempts me to do even better than last time. And I’m even more competitive with other people.
Waze has levels and a leaderboard which automatically puts me in friendly competition with others. (Instagram’s Like button does the same, although the competition might not be as friendly).
Reward users.
Humans desire purpose and rewards. We are wired to think work = reward. When we do something and are rewarded for it, we want to do even more.
Waze awards me with points when I do something helpful. When I get enough points, I level up and get a more impressive avatar. And I get access to exclusive features like Shaquille O’Neal’s voice for audio directions.
Remember: the reward itself is less important than the fact that there is a reward.
Make it obvious how to participate.
If your customers don’t know how to get points and how to redeem them, it’s hard to get them to participate! Waze is consistent about marking point-worthy actions and has a My Achievements section that shows which actions win how many points.
Outcome
Waze used gamification to do something extraordinary - they convinced hundreds of thousands of people to input a constant stream of traffic data while driving FOR FREE! Waze sold for over $1B to Google in 2013. Today, Waze is home to tens of thousands of power users, hundreds of thousands of contributors, and over 500M total Wazers! Not shabby for “just another GPS app.”
Create exclusivity.
We all seek exclusivity. Waze offers exclusive avatars and features like celebrity voice navigation that not even money can buy. The only way to redeem them is to earn them. Exclusivity is the kingpin of all motivations!
Garrett’s Takeaways:
If gamification makes sense for you, double down on it! It’s not right for every company - a funeral parlor maybe should stay away from gamification. But gamification benefits the company with better engagement, and benefits the user with a better experience.
Gamification is possible anywhere. Waze offers just one flavor of gamification. We see gamification in Instagram likes and followers, your favorite cafe’s loyalty card, Fitbit dashboards, airline miles, etc. Chances are, it can work for you!
Study what’s been done before. The tactics I listed here are just a handful of an ocean of tactics! No need to recreate the wheel from scratch.