Gamification for this post is defined as applying a game, which also grants rewards, badges, or prizes. Can we apply this to technical writing? – Yes.
Gamification applied to an organization’s documents can encourage employees to:
- read their policies and procedures by providing a mechanism for them to check in and out in order to gather points which can then be redeemed within an organization’s store. The organization can provide rewards from something as simple as a better parking spot to gift cards.
- meet project milestones designated in requirements documents, technical specifications, or test plans during crunch time deadlines . The organization can reward them with, hopefully, some well-earned time off.
- participate in training programs and meetings. For this example, you could reward employees with, e.g., free lunches. Due to a lack of time, employees tend to skip training sessions and meetings. Gamification will provide an incentive for those with limited time to attend. Rewards can be given out for every individual, team, or Department who fulfill the requirements.
How does all this involve the Technical Writer?
As a Technical Writer, you could employ the use of Gamification in your, e.g., education or marketing material by being creative when designing these materials. The materials should be stylized and written in a game-like fashion, e.g., educational material should be written to cause the reader to want to read on. Not like a novel, but more in an educational way to make the reader want to learn more. Use your imagination and think of fun things to include.
Some ideas are:
- Include plenty of visuals for depicting examples or include case studies for reflecting what is being taught, mix in various tasks or quizzes, etc. Think of a puzzle and have the reader connect the dots or have a spreadsheet and have the reader fill in missing pieces.
- Include games, or questions and answers and challenges at the end of the learning program to make sure the objective was met and to reinforce the lesson. If the reinforcement quiz is electronic, then the points earned can be automatically added to the total rewards to earn more prizes.
Regarding marketing material and Gamification, an example is to apply QR codes and have the reader download an application from which they could learn more about the product.
What about the Content Manager?
As a Content Manager in charge of a group of Technical Writers, use Gamification to:
- provide incentives to encourage your team to meet milestones or deadlines. Challenge them to think of ways to improve current styles or to create new visual presentations to keep the reader more involved.
- help the team stay focused. When you are continuously writing and lose focus, you tend to get side tracked and sometimes the words seem to express boredom and that is one thing you do not want to do.
The Content Manager should harness team energy via games and challenges.
Gamification is a very popular way to gain more visibility and acknowledgment. If you have the imagination, then add more Gamification to your writing material.
Gail Zack Anderson, President of Applause, Inc., has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She
provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops.
Theresa Pojuner is a Documentation Specialist with over 20 years of writing experience and is skilled in many areas of documentation, for example, Style Guides, Training Manuals and Test Cases, wth a specialty n Technical Writing and Procedures.