Gamification - Project 2

[The prompt: Create a gamified system for a city government to increase fitness & decrease insurance costs]

Most people realize that exercise and fitness are important to good health and quality of life.  No one likes to be sick or unwell, but sometimes the choices people make contribute to an unhealthful lifestyle and they need the structure of a program to make changes.  Creating a gamified system to provide extrinsic motivation and rewards is a way to encourage healthful habits, and when people start to feel the physical improvements in their lives, they will continue the behaviors for the intrinsic value.

For the employees of the city of Werbachia, I propose adding an activity reporting feature to the automated timeclock that the city uses to track attendance and hours.  This will be a low-cost, uncomplicated way for employees to report their daily physical activity and this data will be reported back to users in a weekly progress update that tracks their progress against themselves & against an average of the other city employees.

The game elements of this program include:

• checking in
• points for the different categories of activity (more for strenuous activity or muscle strengthening, fewer for light activity or cardio)
• badges for completing activity goals
• feedback (in the weekly report to track & compare progress)
• quests (a monthly newsletter will give activity suggestions and directions for completion of goals)

At the outset, primary motivation to record activity and encourage increased exercise will be extrinsic. By linking the activity report to the automated timeclock, every employee will have 4 opportunites per day to log their exercise (clocking in & out for the day and in & out for lunch). Because the city uses the same system for all employees, this will relatively simple & cost efficient to implement and maintain.

Every week the employees will receive a progress report which will give them feedback.  They will be able to see their own progress over time and compare their progress to that of the group of city employees as a whole.  The individual employee can choose to share this information with their peers, and this gives the user flexibility and control over the "game". This feeling of engagement is critical to a successful gamified system.  Those who are motivated by self-improvement will be pleased and those who are motivated by cometition with peers and the main group will be pleased as well.

Physical fitness is, well, physical and the more the city employees utilize the system and work to increase their activity levels to progress in the "game", the more they will become fit and feel more healthy and energized.  This good feeling becomes an intrinsic motivator for the user to continue to progress.  What was once a requirement becomes a good and rewarding habit.  In this way, using a gamified system to initiate & encourage increased physical fitness using external motivation leads to the creation of a desire to continue the habit for the intrinsic reward of health and happiness.

Gamification - project 1

The prompt: Provide reasons why gamification could be a useful technique [to sell breakfast pastry].

My submission: Gamification can be a useful technique to reach the goal of increasing the market share of Cereals Inc in the breakfast ready-to-eat market. Incorporating game elements to our product can make the experience more fun for our customers and can increase consumption and brand loyalty.

A primary goal of gamification is to engage people in everyday activities (customer engagement). By adding the right game-like components to our marketing plan, users will begin to associate our pastry with a fun and engaging experience they will want to repeat (easy fun).  We also want them to share with their friends and family, which will encourage more people to try our product in addition to the positive feeling that customers will get from sharing the information (people fun).

Games appeal to men and women equally, and the majority of people in the young adult demographic are comfortable with gaming (broad appeal).  Finding game elements and techniques that will catch and hold the interest of the consumer is becoming the new normal and the product that is fun to use will have an advantage.

It is also possible to use gamification to recognize and reward good habits. This could be as simple as eating breakfast every day or a more complex idea such as enabling users to track thier eating, nutrition and exercise patterns.  A sense of satisfaction from posting progress or meeting goals is another element of fun that gamification can provide.

The applications of gamification are many, but our goal is a simple one: for our customers to feel that choosing a breakfast pastry from Cereals Inc is more than just a meal, but rather a fun and rewarding experience they would like to repeat.

Juggling Goslings

My plate is full, full, full here at Chez Pickyknitter. I'm trying to pretend it is not far too much for one woman to handle.

Work - We've been on full schedules (8 hours x 5 days, minimum) for a few months now and I am starting to miss the slow weeks when we had 6 hour days. It was a nice break after the week of 14-18 hour days during month-end.  However, I like the paycheck and won't complain too loudly.

Reading - I have several books partially started & then set aside (Don Quixote, The Awakening, & Bleak House all spring to mind) but my current pusher book is An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon.  It is a weighty tome, but good for dipping in and out of, unlike the classics which require my full attention (and often, my notebook).  In addition, I am re reading the Harry Potter series and finished book 1 this week.  I will exchange it for book 2 tomorrow.

SciFi & Fantasy class (online) - I am behind in my reading for this unit... I'm not even entirely sure who the authors are.  I need to "get a move on" as the next essay is due by Tuesday. I should at least watch the introductory video for the unit tonight before I go to bed.

Gamification class (online) - I am caught up in the videos and the quizzes, but need to prepare the exercise / essay for the first class which is due in, uh, 19.75 hours. Yikes.

Knitting - I am almost done with the Springy socks but mislaid the contrasting color yarn at the last minute and now they are on hold. I picked up a scarf in progress to keep my hands busy, but am quite miffed about the socks.  I am in a Harry Potter themed knitting team on Ravelry (Soar, Ravenclaw!) and am planning 6 small projects to be complete before the month is out, plus trying to keep up with all the chatter on the forums.  Chatter is my favorite part; my Gamification instructor would nod sagely and approve of the social aspect of Ravelry being a huge part of the fun I have there.

Things being squeezed out - Soap. I have got to make soap.  Washcloths. I have got to knit washcloths.  Pets. I have got to walk / wash / snuggle / groom the pets.  House. I have got to clean the house. World of Warcraft. I have got to catch up and get ready for the new expansion.

All righty, enough procrastinating. Time to do some reading for class! 

School's In

I am taking an online class through Coursera and it started today. I watched 4 videos under 15 minutes each and am exhausted. Ironically, now that the instructor can't see me, I was not working on any knitting.  Maybe tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again. We are back from Scottsdale and the soaply festivities. We had a really successful show - met great people, saw some great presentations and got fired up again about the bath and body business, sold some soap, and knit like the wind. We have some big ideas for the Soap Plantation in the next few months.

We wandered by the Grand Canyon Deer Farm outside Watkins / Flagstaff on Monday and fed the deer. It was a good time. They had a baby reindeer which totally made my weekend. I asked after the llama's fleeces, but they are already going to a spinner.

I loved driving through the desert (or, more accurately, watching the desert pass by through the passenger window) - California desert, Sonoran Desert, the pine trees in Flagstaff, the just plain desert in Barstow. The saguaros were blooming, the air was clear, and it was pleasantly warm (for those of you who know me, you will know this means it was around 100). I even saw quail around the hotel where the convention was. They are just too cute for words, with their little topknots and very determined manner of walking.

Progress on the mystery scarf project was satisfying and rapid. I never want to knit anything but fingering weight cashmere forever. I will be so sad when this project is done - but I can't wait to wear my scarf now that Air Conditioning Season is upon us. I really will post a picture someday.

Progress on poor Icarus was slower - the yarn is too fine for knitting while the car is moving and the cobweb weight merino was too scratchy (!) after a whole day of knitting with cashmere. I want it done and displayed over at Knit N Stitch soon, so I will be getting back to it shortly.

School is DONE for the semester. I took my final exam tonight and did okay - okay for someone who did not study because she was at a soap convention. I am taking the summer off and then I will see about fall.

Netflixing has also been slow (see the excuse I used for school), but I managed to finish "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". I was watching, paying attention, covered in cats, and when I said to myself, finally! now we are getting to the heart of the movie! the credits started rolling. It seems that #2 is just a lot of set up for #3. Luckily I have gift certificates and a theater across the street. I will go see it soon - Thursday perhaps.

All the excitement, all at one time. Why spread it out? So I went to the dentist today, and on Saturday I am having my wisdom teeth out. I have avoided this for 15 years and Saturday is the day. So soon! The time slot was open and the price was right. I barely get over this shock, when I go to school tonight (a snoozefest by the way) and the professor tells us that the exam is on Tuesday. Like, next Tuesday. Like, I am sooooo requesting a medical delay. I feel bad for the prof some days - when the term started he had to restrict the class size to 50 and turn away something like a dozen people. Nowadays we have maybe 10 who come to class. Tonight we covered yet more radicals and then imaginary numbers (which are not radical. they are just plain)

I did however get quite a bit of Icarus done tonight - nearly an entire increase. It is already growing to the size where purling back makes my hands hurt. It's a good pain because it means I am just that much closer to being done. Woo!

Straight to Hell. I am going straight to Hell. I totally spaced on pictures of yarn for y'all. Sorry. Tomorrow for sure.

Last night I did get some McKenzie spun up and it is really much prettier than I anticipated. Very sparkly. In math class I managed to knit up the 2nd Browns sock all the way up to the same height as the first one (about 4" in basket weave pattern) before he let us loose. More reviewing - this week is all factoring all the time. Bor-ing. I came home, let the dogs in, fed the guinea pigs, and cracked open a beer - Black Hart brand. I have been looking forward to this beer - the name is nice and the label handsome. However, it was far too bitter for me. Drat. Back to Guinness.

I see on yahoo! that Johnathan Rhys-Davies (pant pant) is going to be in a Showtime production of The Tudors. It makes me want to buy cable service. But instead I went to Netflix and moved all his movies up to the top of my queue. There is even one where he plays opposite Clive Owen. I will not be available by phone or anything else on the day that one comes in - I'm just telling you now.

The Loopy Ewe (see link on sidebar) is updating her stock tonight. Did I mention that my birthday is coming up?

Happy Tuesday! Last night was quite nice. A quiet dinner at Best Thai (ginger delight with chicken and jasmine tea), a few more pages of "Beethoven's Hair" (I am nearing the end), then back home for spinning and tv. Watched a Netflix ("Heat of the Sun" with Trevor Eve *va-va-va-voom*), a Nature special on snow leopards, and then one on regular leopards in southeast asia. Reruns but always nice to look at.

I finished spinning the "Oyster" ingeo and then plied it all. I really like plying the ingeo - no matter how much twist is in it, or how much it kinks up, there is little memory to the fiber and it doesn't ever really tangle like fresh wool singles do. Pictures tomorrow. I will have to make up a gauge swatch and then start looking for tank top patterns to match my gauge.

While I was doing those things, I was also rinsing all the "Tidepool" sock yarn (that I finished plying in Visalia) and hung it up to dry overnight. So cute! Pictures tomorrow.

Tonight is a school night, but before then I am going to go home and start spinning some "McKenzie" from Ashland Bay (which I got from Ruth at the Dizzy Ewe - Ruth, send me your website address and I will put in a link). It is a grayish-bluish merino / silk blend, and is destined to be complementary hats for Pat and myself to wear in Scotland when we go.

I am still amazingly behind in my homework (due solely to laziness on my part), so may head over to the coffee shop after school and get a latte and some work done. We have a test coming up, and then all the assignments will be due. I got a 96 on our last (also the first) test, and tried to argue the 4 points last week. When I checked my work, I got $29.40 instead of $30 (it was a word problem) and I offered to just pay him the 60 cents. That did not work. Dang.

We (The Soap Plantation) have a big exciting announcement to make, but I suppose I should find out if I can spill the beans yet. Stay tuned!! In the meantime, our medium sized exciting announcement is that the shopping cart is up and running, so your 3am soap cravings can finally be satisfied. Woo. We will also be at the West Covina Egg-celebration on Saturday.

Well, it is time to hit the bricks, I think. We had a nice rainstorm for about 20 minutes this afternoon (2:00 to 2:20), and then it was bright and sunny - and windy - again. Hopefully the dogs will be dry.