Add elements of development and accomplishment to your product.

Elements of development and accomplishment is the second element of the Octalysis Framework. This one is probably most used by the gamification specialists and considered the easiest to implement.

Implemented correctly, this is a very powerful element to increase user engagement.

The key of adding these elements is that the user must be proud of overcoming the challenges that are set out for them.

1. Never make your user feel dumb.
   If the interface of your product is too difficult, and the user does not know what to do, they will be less likely to use the product in the future.

2. Add progress bars.
   This is one of the simplest and best-known gamification elements. It increased profile fill-in rates on Linkedin by 20%.

3. Make your users feel like rockstars.
   Let them feel that they are popular and everyone wants to interact with them.

4. Make your users feel accomplished.
   This can be done by adding badges or similar elements. However, the important thing is that you should give badges only when a user accomplishes something and is proud of it. Don’t give badges for free.

5. Design a status point system.
   Give points for accomplishing certain things with your product. For example, give points for commenting, sharing on Facebook, or tweeting. Bear in mind that the amount of points a user gets for each action should be designed to strengthen your relationship with the user. This means giving more points for writing comments and less for sharing on Facebook. Make a spreadsheet and define the desired actions and how meaningful they are to the user.

6. Add a leaderboard to your product.
   An important point to make here is that the leaderboard cannot show only the top 10 positions, because that will most likely demotivate the users. It will be too difficult for them to get in the top 10. Instead, you can do a few things to make it better: make a leaderboard for groups, reset leaderboard weekly, and show only a few upper and lower positions (so the user competes only with the closest neighbors).