10 Examples of Badges Used in Gamification

This post is part of a series on how gamification mechanics are used effectively in various types of consumer apps. You may find these gamification examples helpful if you are looking to incorporate gamification into your product strategy.

The Badges Feature and Its Role in Gamification

In gamification, "Badges" are visual rewards earned for achieving specific goals or milestones. They are interesting because they provide tangible recognition for user effort and progress. Apps use badges to motivate desired behaviors, increase engagement, and encourage continued use, ultimately adding value by making progress visible and creating a sense of accomplishment for users.

Now, without further ado, here are 10 apps that use the badges mechanic to delight and retain users.

10 Examples of Badges Used in Gamification

GitHub

GitHub uses a contribution graph to visualize users' coding activity, encouraging them to contribute more regularly to open source projects.

GitHub uses badges to encourage user activity and promote a sense of accomplishment. Badges are awarded for various achievements, such as contributing consistently to projects, actively participating in discussions, or successfully completing learning paths. These visual rewards provide immediate feedback on user contributions, motivating them to continue engaging with the platform.

By gamifying the software development process, badges create a tangible representation of progress and skill development. They also serve as a public display of a user's expertise, enhancing their profile and credibility within the community. This positive reinforcement encourages users to explore new features, contribute more frequently, and remain active on GitHub, ultimately leading to increased retention.

The badges feature adds value to users by providing a clear path for skill development and community recognition. They offer a visible record of accomplishments, which can be used to demonstrate expertise to potential employers or collaborators. Ultimately, GitHub's badge system fosters a more engaged and rewarding experience for its users, contributing to a vibrant and active developer community.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy provides free educational resources and uses points, badges, and progress tracking to motivate users to learn various subjects.

Khan Academy uses badges as a simple, visual way to acknowledge user progress and achievement. These badges, earned for completing exercises, mastering skills, or reaching milestones, provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage users to continue learning. By gamifying the learning experience, Khan Academy motivates users to spend more time on the platform, exploring different subjects and practicing consistently, resulting in increased retention.

Earning badges helps learners track their development and identify areas where they excel or need more practice. This feedback loop empowers users to take ownership of their learning journey and personalize their study plan. Ultimately, the badge system contributes to increased engagement and retention by providing positive reinforcement and clear goals. By making learning feel rewarding and manageable, Khan Academy encourages users to stick with their studies and achieve their educational objectives. This makes the app more valuable, as users are more likely to return and benefit from its resources when they feel motivated and see their progress recognized.

Simply Piano

Simply Piano offers personalized courses and uses gamified exercises to make learning piano fun and engaging. It provides instant feedback and adapts to your skill level.

Simply Piano uses badges as a core engagement tool, rewarding users for consistent practice and skill progression. These badges acknowledge milestones like completing lessons, mastering songs, or practicing a certain number of days in a row. This gamified system provides a sense of accomplishment and tangible proof of improvement, motivating users to keep learning.

Badges also add value by acting as visual reminders of the progress made. They serve as a clear indicator of dedication and skill development, bolstering confidence and fostering a positive association with learning piano. This positive reinforcement encourages users to return to the app and continue their musical journey.

Finally, badges encourage users to explore different aspects of the app. Some badges are tied to specific exercises or lesson types. This pushes learners to diversify their practice and discover new features within the platform, expanding their musical knowledge and keeping the experience fresh and engaging.

Strava

Strava is a social network for athletes that tracks activities and allows users to share progress, join challenges, and compete on leaderboards.

Strava uses badges as a core feature to boost user engagement and retention. These digital awards are earned for completing specific challenges, achieving personal bests, exploring new routes, or participating in Strava events. Badges provide immediate positive reinforcement, tapping into athletes' competitive spirit and desire for recognition. The app highlights badges prominently, showcasing accomplishments within the user's profile and activity feed as a continous reminder of their latest progress.

By gamifying fitness activities, Strava makes exercise more rewarding. Badges serve as tangible goals, encouraging users to push their limits and try new things. The diverse range of badges ensures that there's always a new objective to chase, preventing monotony and keeping users actively participating.

Beyond individual motivation, badges also add value by connecting users to the Strava community. Many badges are tied to group challenges or events, fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared accomplishment. Earning these badges signals participation and commitment, strengthening bonds and fosetering network effects.

Headspace

Headspace uses a progress system, badges and streaks to help users learn and practice meditation techniques to improve mindfulness.

Headspace utilizes badges to boost user engagement and retention by gamifying the meditation experience. These badges are awarded for achieving various milestones, such as meditating for a certain number of days in a row, completing specific courses, or hitting total meditation time goals. This system provides users with visual representations of their progress and accomplishments, fostering a sense of achievement and motivating them to continue using the app.

The badges also add value by subtly guiding users toward exploring different aspects of the app. By requiring users to complete different types of meditations or follow specific paths, the badge system encourages them to step outside their comfort zones and discover new content and techniques within Headspace. This exploration can lead to a more well-rounded meditation practice and deeper understanding of the app's offerings.

Ultimately, the Headspace badge system is a simple yet effective tool. It leverages basic psychological principles of reward and progress tracking to keep users motivated, engaged, and actively participating in their meditation journey, thereby increasing the likelihood of continued subscription and overall user satisfaction.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal tracks calorie intake and exercise, offering personalized goals and rewards to help users achieve weight loss and fitness milestones.

MyFitnessPal uses badges to motivate users to stick to their diet and excerise goals, resultilng in increase retention and engagement overall. These badges are awarded for completing specific activities or reaching certain milestones, like logging meals for a certain number of days in a row, tracking a specific nutrient, or completing workout routines.

The badges provide a sense of accomplishment and progress, tapping into basic human psychological principles that reward consistent behavior. Seeing a collection of badges can visually represent a user's dedication to their health goals, which reinforces positive habits and encourages them to continue using the app.

Beyond simple motivation, badges can also help users discover and utilize different app features. Some badges are designed to prompt users to explore aspects of the app they might not otherwise use, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the tools available and potentially increasing the value they receive from the platform. This, in turn, promotes long-term retention.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow uses a reputation system and badges to encourage users to contribute to the community and provide helpful answers to programming questions.

Stack Overflow uses badges to motivate users and encourage helpful behavior. Badges are awarded for various activities, such as asking good questions, providing well-respected solutions, editing posts, and participating in the community. This gamified system provides users with a tangible sense of accomplishment and recognition for their contributions. By earning badges, users gain a reputation within the community, signaling their expertise and trustworthiness to others.

This positive feedback loop motivates them to continue contributing and helps them feel more connected to the Stack Overflow community and bolstering network effects. The app even provides specific goals and guidelines to help users earn certain badges, further encouraging them to engage with the platform in a constructive way.

Ultimately, the badges feature increases user retention by providing a continuous stream of small rewards and a sense of progression. The visible badges on a user's profile demonstrate their knowledge and activity, which can also enhance their professional online presence and provide value beyond just the immediate problem-solving aspect of the site.

Untappd

Untappd is a social networking platform for beer enthusiasts. Users can rate and review beers, earn badges, and track their beer-drinking experiences.

By awarding badges for experiencing different types of beers, breweries, styles, or even checking in at specific locations, the app gamifies the beer-drinking experience. Users are motivated to try new beers and explore different breweries to unlock badges.

In Untappd, adges also function as a form of personalized beer journal, visually documenting the user's drinking history and preferences. Ultimately, badges encourage users to actively participate in the Untappd community by checking in beers, leaving reviews, and sharing their experiences. This increased activity strengthens the overall Untappd ecosystem, benefiting both the users and the businesses listed on the app.

Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club tracks runs and provides challenges, badges, and leaderboards to encourage users to achieve their fitness goals and compete with friends.

The Nike Run Club (NRC) app uses badges as a key tool to boost user engagement and retention. Badges are awarded for completing specific running challenges, reaching milestones, or participating in NRC events. These virtual rewards tap into our innate desire for achievement and perfection. The app strategically designs badges to encourage different user behaviors.

Some badges reward consistency, like running a certain number of times per week. Others promote exploration, such as running in a new location. Milestone badges, like those for running a 5k or marathon, offer a sense of accomplishment and progress towards larger goals. This variety ensures there's always a new badge to strive for, keeping users motivated to continue running and interacting with the app.

Overall, badges add value by providing a tangible sense of progress and accomplishment. They visually track running achievements and provide a motivating factor to stay consistent. They can also spark friendly competition among friends who use the app, further enhancing engagement. By gamifying the running experience, NRC's badges system contributes significantly to user retention and encourages a more active and connected community.

Playground Sessions

Playground Sessions teaches piano using interactive lessons and real-time feedback, turning practice into a game.

They use badges to encourage consistent practice and achievement. Badges are awarded for completing lessons, mastering songs, reaching practice milestones, and hitting performance targets. These visual rewards provides musicians with immediate positive feedback, reinforcing their progress and motivating them to continue learning. By providing clear goals and trackable achievements, users are more likely to stay engaged and motivated over time, resulting in better retention, and ultimately faster user growth over time.

Users strive to unlock new badges, pushing themselves to practice more frequently and master the piano. Ultimately, badges add value by offering a sense of accomplishment and quantifiable progress. Users can see their development mapped out visually, which helps them stay focused on their goals and track their improvement. The feature makes learning piano more rewarding and enjoyable, encouraging users to stick with it and reach their full potential.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of how badges can be used as a gamification mechanic to improve consumer apps and platforms. We hope you found these examples inspiring and that they help you think about how you can incorporate gamification into your own product strategy.

If you're looking to build gamification into your app or platform, we encourage you to check out Trophy, a set of APIs and tools for building gamified product experiences in hours, not months.