Implement Badge system

[phoenixxxx]

Part of the MVP is to engage the user and drive traffic. In that respect, we will be using well established gaming mechanics we call badges (achievements, trophies, etc...). This is something well known in the gaming world, it is a source of pride for users, and it encourages friendly competition.

We need to create a Badge system. Each user can have a certain number of badges based on their achievements. The architecture will be heavily based on the current questions mechanism. Admins will be able to go to localhost:3000/badges and create badges based on whatever they want. Here is an example:

Badge ID: 0 Name: Jeopardy Pre-requisite: User must have answered correctly 20 music trivia questions Prize: Nothing.

Badge ID: 1 Name: Social butterfly Pre-requisite: Must have successfully invited 3 friends to a party Prize: $1.99 iTunes gift card.

Then the admin can manually choose from a list of badges one to assign to a given user assuming they satisfy the pre-requisite. A congratulatory email will then be sent (the content of which will be manually written by the admin).

The /profile page will perform (similarly to the way /home handles questions) the rendering of the list of badges.

Note: Admins will have to periodically check for user stats (aggregated under localhost:3000/administrator and see if users satisfy some pre-requisites).

[phoenixxxx]

@HamzaHutchinson

https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Building-an-Achievements-390c8f28

This is a nice little article on a proven badge system. I suspect we will not be able to use most of it, but it is a good read as you are designing our own. Also there is a brief explanation on why such systems are useful in retaining customer involvement.

[rishigupta9999]

IMHO this should be post MVP. We'll have data on customer engagement without badges or a gamification mechanism and can add this in v1.1. We can also measure the impact of badges then or A/B test them.

Right now we still have quite a long road to get to MVP, and we don't even know if this is a viable product at all. So I'd like to cut anything non-essential.