Adding game-like elements to your website can help you deliver a fun and more engaging user experience. The complete gamification strategy you apply to your site, including all of its individual elements, makes up a reward system. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps you need to follow to create a reward system using BadgeOS, including its elements like achievements, points, and ranks.
Table of Contents
- What Is A Reward System?
- BadgeOS Reward System Elements
- Create A Reward System
- Share Your Reward System
- Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is A Reward System?
A reward system is the set of rules and rewards that are used to gamify your website. Your reward system should clearly show users what their “goals” on the site are. Think of it as an organized list of all the achievements, points, ranks, and additional gamification strategies used on your site. Additionally, it defines how user rewards relate to each other and to the user.
As a result, your reward system acts as a map that defines the journey that users will follow as they interact with your site from start to finish. The ultimate purpose of implementing a reward system is to make your website more like a game, and in turn, providing a rewarding and even addictive experience.
2. BadgeOS Reward System Elements
BadgeOS reward systems are made up of three main elements: Achievements, Ranks, and Points. These can be awarded to users for completing specific actions, known as triggers.
The BadgeOS triggers available with the core plugin are:
- Log in to website
- Not login for X days
- Comment on a post
- Comment on a specific post
- Publish a new post
- Visit a post
- Publish a new page
- Visit a page
- Register to the website
- Daily visit to the website
- Specific Achievement
- Any achievement of a type
- All achievements of type
Additionally, you can use a wide range of triggers available with our integration add-ons.
Achievements
The BadgeOS plugin allows you to create an unlimited number of achievement types. Once you’ve created an achievement type, you can create endless individual achievements within it. For example, you can create a “Medals” achievement type and then create many different individual medals that your users can earn for their site interactions.
Other Achievement Type names you can use include Badges (which are the default achievement type), Trophies, Quests, Insignias, Awards, etc. You can also opt for achievement type names that suit the branding of your site. For example, if you have a pirate-themed site, you can set up “Treasures” as an achievement type.
Individual achievement names can be named according to the accomplishment they recognize. This way users can clearly know what they are being rewarded for. For example, you can create a badge titled “New Team Member” that is awarded to users for registering an account on your website.
You can also use achievements and achievement types to create missions or quests. You can outline specific steps the user must complete to earn a certain achievement. Then once the user earns an entire set of achievements, they can unlock a final “Mission Complete” award.
Ranks
BadgeOS also allows you to create a user hierarchy using Ranks. You can create an unlimited number of Rank Types to create different hierarchies based on different requirements. Some examples of Rank Types you can use on your site include Tiers, Levels, and Status, with individual ranks added to each Rank Type. For example, if you created “Levels” as a rank type, you can create Ranks such as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and so on.
You also have the option to creatively name Rank Types and Ranks to fit your site’s branding. For instance, a Karate themed website could use the following ranks:
- White Belt – awarded to newly registered users.
- Yellow Belt – awarded to users when they collect 100 points.
- Orange Belt – awarded to users when they collect 250 points.
- Green Belt – awarded to users when they collect 500 points.
- Blue Belt – awarded to users when they collect 750 points.
- Black Belt – awarded to users when they collect 1000 points.
Depending on your preference higher ranks can be reached by completing a set of actions, earning specific achievements, or by collecting a certain number of points.
Points
You can also use BadgeOS to reward your website users with points. You can award and deduct points based on a wide range of user interactions, which allows you to create a robust point system for your site.
You can create different point types and name them according to your needs. For example, you could create point types such as Gold, Coins, Gems, Credits, etc.
If you use both achievements and points in your reward system, you also have the option to award points along with any achievement. All you have to do is specify the number of points and point type to be awarded on the badge’s edit page. Another way to integrate points with other BadgeOS elements is to use point requirements to award badges and ranks.
Relating Achievements, Points, and Ranks
BagdeOS allows you to expand the reach of your reward system by using all of the individual gamification elements together. Here are some of the associations you can build between achievements, points, and ranks:
- When your user earns a specific badge, award them a specific number of points.
- Allow users to reach a rank by collecting a certain number of points.
- Allow users to earn an achievement by collecting a certain number of points.
Additionally, using BadgeOS add-ons you can implement other gamification elements such as leaderboards and progress maps.
Leaderboards
Leaderboards allow you to introduce a sense of healthy competition between your site’s users and be a valuable addition to your reward system. You can display user’s Achievements, Points, and Ranks on a leaderboard using the BadgeOS Leaderboard add-on.
Progress Maps
The Interactive Progress Add-on allows you to create a visual roadmap that gives your users a peek into your reward system. Through the map, users can take a look at where they stand on their journey on your site, visualizing the rewards they have earned and the ones that are still pending.
3. Create A Reward System
Before configuring your reward system on your website, we recommend outlining it beforehand. A good method you can follow to create your reward system is listing the different achievements, ranks, and points you will use on the site to reward your users, before setting it up with the plugin. At this stage, it is also important to establish how the different elements relate to each other. This will prevent you from getting lost in all possible options and configurations available with the plugin.
Here’s an example of a simple reward system outline that you could implement on your website. In this case, we are focusing on an e-learning site:
Achievement type: Badges
- [Badge name: Welcome] Log in to the website
- [Badge name: 3 times login] Log in to the website 3 times
- [Badge name: First course] Finish your first course
- [Badge name: Second course] Finish your second course
- [Badge name: Third course] Finish your third course
- [Badge name: A-student] Successfully complete 5 quizzes
Point type: Credits
Every time you earn a badge, you get 10 credits.
Rank type: Levels
- [Level name: Newbie] Join the website.
- [Level name: Apprentice] Successfully complete your 1st course
- [Level name: Master] Successfully complete 6 courses
- [Level name: Legend] Successfully complete 10 courses
4. Share Your Reward System
Sharing your reward system will help your users better understand how to progress through your site and what interactions to prioritize in order to unlock rewards. You can effectively do this by creating a page on your website where you can display your reward system design and list the different gamification elements used.
5. Frequently Asked Questions
Do you provide assistance with Reward System design?
Our team offers gamification and reward system design services. If you need help designing your reward system, please send us an inquiry here.