Dashboard + Farmville = Super productive party people

A few years ago I started my first company, Ants, and I put a lot of effort in creating the startup’s business system. A big challenge was of course to create relevant dashboards – I wanted every employee to have a simple and efficient overview of the information they needed. Definitely a difficult task, but I think I did a pretty good job.

Fast forward a few years. As founder and developer at 49lights, a small IT-business specialized in E-commerce, I was extremely impressed with the stickiness factor of Farmville. A game that at first sight looks dull gains 100 million players, and most of them are newbie players. Taking a closer look at the game it’s apparent that it’s not your average game – almost every aspect of the game is perfect in terms of creating a long-term relation between the player and the game, perfect in creating the same kind flow as a slot machine.

The synthesis of these two experiences is obvious – a dashboard with gaming capabilities. Relevant information mixed with flow creating experiences as levels and badges. Curate your coworker’s dashboard and get extra experience points. Add features that make the employee craving to come back to their dashboard. Minimize thresholds so that it’s easy to understand data.

I understand that a business system where everyone’s home screen is as sticky and flow creating as Farmville is impossible. But it’s probably money well spend to investigate just how Farmville gained 100 million users.

I wouldn’t trust any designer with a Farmville level less than 32. Would you?