This is the third post in a series about UX design principles we can draw on from video games. Click here to start form the beginning.
Ever spend hours building a virtual life in The Sims or conquering empires in Civilization? Surprise — that's great UX design at work. Video games are masters at onboarding players, keeping them engaged, and rewarding their efforts. I'm exploring how popular video games (The Sims, Civilization, Overwatch, Fortnite, Candy Crush, and more) create addictive and intuitive experiences. More importantly, we’ll translate those gaming UX principles into practical takeaways for your digital product — no cheat codes required!
Before I dive in, a quick note: I'll use examples from games purely to illustrate UX concepts. You don’t need to be a gamer or know these titles in detail – we’ll explain the context and draw out the practical insights for product design.
Engagement Loops: The "One More Turn" Effect in Civilization to Instagram and Duolingo
Great games are often described as “addictive” (in a good way) because they expertly create engagement loops – cycles of motivation, action, and feedback that keep players coming back. Sid Meier’s Civilization famously invokes the “just one more turn” syndrome: you intend to stop playing, but then you achieve a small goal or see a tantalizing hint of progress (a new technology researched, a wonder nearly built) and you can’t resist playing one more round. This is no accident – Civilization provides constant feedback and new goals (another city to build, another enemy approaching) that trigger the user’s motivation continually. Players are essentially caught in a loop: they have a motivation (expand my empire), they take an action (end a turn, make strategic moves), and then get feedback (you discover a new resource, or an enemy responds) that creates a new motivation.
In product design, an engagement loop might look a bit different, but the core idea is the same: give users a rhythm of action and reward that feels satisfying and open-ended. Social media apps do this by showing you new content and notifications (feedback) every time you refresh, prompting further action (liking, commenting, posting). For example, Instagram's endless feed and notification symbols are tuned to keep you in a loop of checking and reacting. In fact, Instagram explicitly mirrors game loops: someone comments on your post (feedback), you feel motivated to reply or check out their profile(action), which in turn might prompt more feedback – a virtuous (or vicious) cycle of engagement.
Product design takeaway
Design habit-forming loops by ensuring every user action has some immediate feedback and that there’s always a next step or goal visible. This doesn’t mean tricking or addicting users unethically; it means making the experience naturally engaging. Duolingo, for instance, uses short lesson levels (action) and then gives you XP points, progress toward your daily goal, and a cheerful animation (feedback). You see you’re only 10 points away from the next level (new motivation), so you do another lesson. That’s a positive engagement loop applied to learning. Even something as simple as a progress bar can drive engagement: showing 70% complete on a profile setup motivates users to finish the last 30% to “win” completion. The key is to always answer the user’s question “What now?” with a clear, enticing option.
However, a word of caution from UX best practices and gaming: don’t overdo the loop to the point of annoyance. In games, spamming players with constant pop-ups or too many simultaneous goals can overwhelm rather than engage. Similarly, in products, be mindful with notifications and nudges – they should group logically and respect the user’s attention. The goal is a sustainable loop, not burnout. When done right, your product will have users not only completing their initial goal but immediately finding a new reason to return, just as Civilization players can’t quit because there’s always another goal on the horizon.
Want to keep reading? I talk about building retention like in Candy Crush here.
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