Where does it say that enterprise software has to be boring, complicated and painful to use?

Dave Concannon asks a much less rhetorical question in his blog post: Can Game Mechanics make Serious software “sticky”?

There are two things I loved about Dave’s post:

1. He talks about being addicted to MUDs. (Who wasn’t right? Hell, I learned to hack away in C/C++ to build features on a MUD I used to love)
2. He expands on the concept of “Braggable Moments” for “serious software”.

Dave defines “Braggable Moments” as, “…a shared action which elevates an individual user in status among their peers.”

What we often forget within the enterprise is that it’s a collection of individuals. It’s not a mindless hive. If it is, the company is in trouble. Each individual (or at least most individuals) should have a need to, and an interest in, standing out. That’s human nature. Doing so feeds the ego, makes people feel good and gets them recognition from peers and superiors.

Braggable Moments absolutely belong in Enterprise software

We’re seeing user adoption models change (going bottom up into an enterprise vs. top down), and soon, hopefully we’ll start to see the application of Braggable Moments and game mechanics inside Enterprise software. We don’t need to turn Enterprise software into Farmville, but adding game mechanics into Enterprise software can help address some of the key challenges: user adoption, training / user comfort, scalability and sustainability. How often have you seen a company purchase a piece of Enterprise software that takes too long to get rolling, is too hard to use, and never takes off? Game mechanics and Braggable Moments can absolutely help with those problems. And the Enterprise software companies that get that are going to catch on very quickly with users and buyers.