Whether you’re learning a new language or hitting daily fitness goals, gamification (ie: turning anything boring or repetitive into a game) can make the difference, big time.
After all, we're all Homo Ludens.
Let’s explore how Duolingo's user experience grasps that perfectly, and how this can inspire fitness apps to be more engaging.
Why Gamification Works: The Science of Motivation
Imagine you’re learning Spanish or trying to walk more each day.
What keeps you going? Initial motivation? Being goal-driven? These things tend to work well at the beginning but fade out.
What really makes the difference is discipline and habits.
Gamification bridges the gap between intention and action by turning routines into rewarding experiences and helping you build healthy habits.
With tools like progress tracking, challenges, and rewards, apps like Duolingo do a great job at making sticking to your goals easier.
The Gamification Playbook: Lessons from Duolingo
Instead of just describing Duolingo, let’s dive into what makes it work.
And for that, nothing better than the GOAT of gamification models, the Octalysis by Yu-Kai Chou.
This model grasps what makes us tick, and how it can influence behaviors through games.
Perfect fit for our article!
#1 Timed Challenges
Duolingo’s quick lessons add a sense of urgency, encouraging users to focus and perform under light pressure.
They also have challenges that last for a few weeks, which encourage users to complete lessons in a limited time frame to earn unique badges.
In fitness, timed challenges can be designed to boost intensity and engagement by creating a sense of urgency.
Octalysis Motivational Drives involved
- Dark Side / Scarcity: there's a unique price that you can ONLY get if you complete this challenge.
- Light Side / Accomplishment: After completing the challenge, you feel proud of yourself
#2 Mascots and Characters
Ever been threatened by Duolingo’s owl? I definitely have, and that can be very scary!
Mascots by themselves don't transform any boring experience into a game, but they can help you forget that you're doing something that's not inherently "fun" (ie: walking 12,000 steps around your block).
They help to change your mindset about the activity you're trying to stick to.
Octalysis Motivational Drives involved
- Mostly Ownership: when apps use mascots or collectible items, it works because we like to own things, and we like to make what we own better
#3 Badges, Quests and XP
Badges mark milestones and XP tracks progress, giving users a sense of accomplishment.
Mini-missions like “complete three lessons today” break larger goals into manageable tasks.
These metrics could help you:
- Set clear goals, that get progressively harder (ie: walk 50,000 steps this week)
- Trigger a dopamine release with a clear sense of reward (which is surprisingly addictive)
Octalysis Motivational Drives involved
- Mostly Accomplishment: Same as for timed challenges
#4 Leaderboards and Competition
Duolingo’s leaderboards encourage friendly rivalries, motivating users to stay active.
Fitness apps like Explora use this same strategy, letting you compete with friends to see who’s taken the most steps this week.
This doesn't work for everyone, but for users who like a good challenge (and to get bragging rights amongst friends), this can quickly become the main source of motivation to keep going and pushing!
Octalysis Motivational Drives involved
- Social Influence: Playing with friends, having rivals, wanting to show your progress
#5 Activity Streaks
The activity streak is a deceptively simple yet highly effective feature used by many apps.
Often symbolized by a flame icon, it represents the number of consecutive days a user has completed a significant activity (e.g., finishing a lesson, logging steps, or doing 10 push-ups).
The catch? Miss a day, and your streak resets to 0.
This tactic is incredibly effective for habit-building because it leverages key psychological motivators, particularly those outlined in the Octalysis Framework.
Streaks can be adapted to nearly any app and serve as an excellent tool to encourage consistent user engagement and habit formation
Octalysis Motivational Drives involved
- Avoidance: We want to avoid something negative from happening (losing our 509 day streak). This is a bit less "fun" but terribly effective.
Creating Better Gamified Fitness Apps
Gamification isn’t just for language learners.
When applied to fitness, it can help users create healthy habits and have a lasting impact on their health.
This is exactly what we are trying to do with our app, Explora.
Taking a look at the Octalysis gamification model, some motivational drives have not been explored as much in Fitness apps.
In the future, more focus on Empowerment & Unpredictability could create fresh, delightful user experiences and help create better habits.
Stay tuned!
