What Happened at Gamification Europe Masterclass 2018
Hi Gamification Europe community!
It's been a busy few months since the end of our conference at the end of 2017 in Brighton, which has meant that this news section has been unfortunately neglected. This has led to a back log of things to say, so we have a lot to update you about what's been happening in the Gamification Europe sphere!
First things first, we feel it would be appropriate to share what went on in our Masterclasses in London on the 18th and 19th of June.
From the feedback we were provided at the end of our 2017 conference we noticed a trend suggesting that attendees would have liked more depth of discussion on certain topics with the speakers. In reflection of this we designed the Gamification Masterclasses to deliver this deeper and more personalised learning experience. These sessions were: ‘Gamification Design Sprint’ with Dr. Marigo Raftopoulas; ‘How to Create Gamified Tools’ with Bernardno Letayf; ‘The Escape Room’ with Michiel van Eunen and ‘Narrative is Key’ with Melinda Jacobs.
On each day two sessions ran simultaneously (sorry if you attended and wished to go to both! We would have all like to have cloned ourselves too!) with Marigo and Bernardo presenting on the first day and Michiel and Melinda on the second.
Day 1
Gamification Design Sprint:
Marigo’s Gamification Design Sprint delivered a substantial amount of content in the session. Starting with a vague business issue we were encouraged to focus and streamline a gamified solution which could have direct impact on the bottom line. A ‘playbook’ of the design process was provided to accompany the session and was of the marked quality of a professional. The materials allowed the teams to generate structured and implementable designs for their business issues.
The 3D visualisation of business issues highlighted to participants that the 'Wicked Problem' they were having in their operations could be managed and have a gamified solution implemented. Further the clarifying questions from other groups were seen to help everyone understand the specifics of their deliverables. A very well received session by all.
How to Create Gamified Tools:
Bernardo's Session focused on how to utilise gamification to design compelling and interesting software engagement loops. Drawing from his vast experience in education Bernardo created the 2017 Best Gamification Software as awarded by our own awards last November in Brighton. His tool is named Blue Rabbit and its aim is to completely redefine the way we think about education and the way courses are build and students are engaged. Bernardo shared with our attendees his insights and experiences designing and using Blue Rabbit.
His amazing learning material like cards, printed frameworks and magnetic board covered lots of gamification topics like game mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics as well as player types and motivation. All participants gave us amazing reviews for his session focusing on his passion for gamification and the very detailed and high-quality teaching material he brought with him all the way from Mexico!
Day 2
The Escape Room:
Delivered by an Escape Room design master, this course invited participants to join in another exciting design process. By playing a pop-up escape room in the morning players learnt the core principals of a successful Escape Room. In the session after, several case studies from Michiel's portfolio of successful Escape Rooms were discussed, encouraging explorative thinking about how effective design could provide specific results when the design process was targeted.
We did not escape :o!
To consolidate learning, the group split into two teams where they designed Escape Rooms for one another and then play tested. This helped to to embrace successes and drawbacks of certain features included or not included in each design. Overall a fun and engaging session.
Narrative is Key:
The second session of the day was led by Melinda Jacobs an extremely experienced UX and UI designer and an expert on narrative and telling stories. She introduced participants to the basics of storytelling and narrative setting the basis for all their future storytelling projects. Then the group moved into exploring motivation, values and reasons why we are doing what we are doing and how to narrate that to the customers-users of our projects.
Finally, Melinda talked also about the user journey and how to design it but also how to look and set up challenges, avoid pitfalls and give the users boosts to make the journey more enjoyable. Melinda was praised by everyone on the experiences she shared with them how deep her theory and examples were and how they helped them realise how important narrative really is.
Everyone that attended had a marvelous time, with the experts and attendees keen to come back next year for another session.
A huge thank you to our gamification stars and to all the attendees for their excellent ideas and insights.
Below we have links to two articles written by attendees of the event. We’re so happy you benefited from the sessions.
Charles Bennet
Albert van der Meer
That’s all for now folks, don't forget that our call to adventure super extra cheap ticket for the upcoming Gamification Europe 2018 conference in Amsterdam is live and you can check it out and buy one here:
Next week we’re planning to release a blog sharing more about the 2018 conference, so keep your eyes peeled!
