I don’t know what we did before the term gamification was coined. Back in the day we just talked about comparisons, metrics, charts and so on (or maybe "game mechanics" if you working on your PhD). But it’s nice to be able to wrap those concepts up into a single term, even if it does have a bit of a frivolous, video-gaming connotation. 

But, let’s not get hung up on the wording. Call it what you want, but the concept of providing detailed feedback about your customers’ use and abuse of their money is a critical part of being a 21st century financial provider. My absolute favorite thing about Mint is the weekly financial summary its been sending me for five years. It’s still the single most important financial tool I use.

Since it’s Friday, I will cut directly to the visual aid (screenshot below). The weekly activity tracking summary from FitBit provides good ideas for a comparable financial version. For example:

• Totals for the week
• Daily averages
• High/low days
• Badges
• Color coding: green is good, red is bad
• Leaderboard (if you are sharing with friends)
• Thumbnail picture (if you’ve uploaded)

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Progress Report from Fitbit (6 Aug 2013)

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Notes:
1. Graphic from WePlay, a London-based marketing consultancy.
2. For more, see the Online Banking Report PFM library (subscription required): PFM 4.0 (June 2012); Alerts & Streaming (July 2010);  PFM 3.0 (May 2010); Social Personal Finance (June 2007); Personal Finance Features for Online Banking (Aug 2006).