In general, digital products are developing in a way that improves user experience and engages more users. A trend that's on the rise is gamification. Investing in gamification has increased by 60% from 4.91 billion USD in 2016 to 11.94 billion USD in 2021, according to Statista. It seems gamification is a “standard” that every Fintech product (and digital banking product) must have [1] [2] [3].
Below are some references to help you better understand the gamification field in Fintech. In case you already know what gamification is, you may skip this part and move to the section Design gamification feature for Fintech application.
Some commonly used digital banking strategies are leverage points, leaderboards, challenges, and milestones.
There are some examples,
The conversion rate of companies applying gamification in operation is 700%, and 50% of startups say it is part of their strategy, according to Finances Online.
"These interactive programs are part of an important strategy for MoMo to move towards Vietnam's first super app," said by Nguyen Manh Tuong, executive vice president of M_Service, the owner of the MoMo e-wallet , Forbes Vietnam.
Good products provide experiences that meet customers' needs and offer after-sales programs to create loyal values. In the last step of a customer journey, customers will think about their experience, bad or good, whether they are worth sharing and recommending to others, or whether to continue using its products.
After-sales or reward policies are the most common way to help retain customers. However, it must be carefully considered that these actions only affect the outside and do not solve the core problem of whether the quality of products/services satisfies customers.
How might we make customers feel comfortable and entertained during and after using the features intrinsically?
Fintech companies or banks all have a common fundamental goal of helping customers' personal financial lives better. Products for consumption, borrowing, savings, or investment are designed to satisfy customers' best interests and to help them get better means making the company better.
However, not all customers have the capacity and knowledge to manage their finances and control spending well. That is why customer training is essential.
How might we train and guide clients to have good financial habits that are simple, easy to understand, and take effortless to learn?
Corporate "Give Away" events effectively promote and attract users. Every year, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, Fintech in Asia (Wechat of Tencent, Alipay of Alibaba, or Vietnam fintech such as MoMo, ZaloPay, Viettel Pay, ...) all have games such as "Lucky draw", "Shake the tree". [5][6]
The design problem here is simply creating a game like what the market is doing. Do this over and over and over every year? Are users interested in continuing to play those games? Developing a community is attracting new users and retaining them afterward.
MoMo designed a gamification feature that was "unsuccessful" when their customers—winners were disappointed with the outcome, as opposed to the engaging gameplay they had created.
Funny moments below show users shaking phones to earn some "lucky money" during the Lunar New Year festival — It is enjoyable.
Is the reward commensurate with the customer's effort when participating in the game? What value does the featured designer want to bring to the client (financial and emotional components?)
In business, the primary problem is to reduce acquisition costs, retain new users, and form a habit of using the product with customers.
In terms of user experience, based on each level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs that the feature wants to achieve.
How to design a gamification feature that customers feel "desired" and attached to the product.
The basic idea (Hook Framework) :
When joining a game, funny is the highest level each person aims for, such as happiness for entertainment, self-satisfaction, or a bonus.
From what can be observed, Fintech usually aims for two levels of "Fun": Hard fun and People fun. These directions ensure a good viral element. However, the real difficulty is creating and Getting experience at the Serious fun level-what this article wants to share. It will not focus much on gameplay (such as the lucky wheel, map quests, "Pokemon GO", roll dice, shake/tap, lucky draw, collection, ...).
Anyone does not want to be a loser. However, the truth is that each person's physical and financial "capacity" is different, so the approach and goal when participating in the game are different:
Required data for analysis and design:
According to Marx's definition of a commodity, the restriction to gain is a characteristic of the commodity. It manifests itself as "Rarity and Randomness". In game design, the balance factor (experience, in-game financial flow for buying and selling items, ...) is expressed through the opportunity distribution chart (Gaussian distribution or Normal distribution), which helps the ecosystem work naturally and automatically.
The value of random brings the element of surprise; the change every time the game is replayed makes it more attractive and stimulating. However, there is a Love-Hate attribution of randomness for game designers when they want to intervene intentionally (pseudo-random) to enhance the experience for various purposes, such as rewards.
More for users, or want to increase the difficulty of the challenges, and so on. That term is called "Game balancing" by combining mathematics and psychology. In another article, I will illustrate how to design a good game used in the above Fintech products.
The design goal of gamification for Fintech applications is to improve Lifetime Value (LVT) while educating and motivating customers with good financial habits.