Badge progress bar - a not-so-complicated idea about "my upcoming badges"

Contribute Feature

AI-generated summary

The discussion explores the idea of adding progress bars to badges to show users how close they are to earning them, aiming to increase motivation and engagement. meglio proposes that badges with measurable criteria (like receiving likes or posting frequently) could display a percentage completion, with a visual progress bar. For badges with multiple criteria, the badge creator would calculate a total score to determine progress. haydenjames suggests a dedicated “Badge Progress” section on the profile page to highlight upcoming badges. However, ToddZ raises concerns about promoting unhealthy gamification and clout-chasing, citing past discussions on the topic. meglio counters that the emotional uplift and joy from seeing progress outweigh potential downsides. twofoursixeight questions how this would work for badges earned repeatedly, suggesting options like showing progress for the nearest badge or multiple bars, though noting the latter could be messy.

1

So, if badges mostly “count” something, we can add progress bars to badges :heart_eyes: !!

This will act as another kind of motivation: when you look at the badge list, and you see that tiny progress bar under each unreached (yet) badge that is getting increased day by day while you push yourself to the limits to gain at least one more of those :joy:

In the personal badges list:

badges
badges2155×863 61.8 KB

The same works for the global badges list.

For the badges which can only be gained once, some helper text should be shown instead, i.e. “This badge can be granted once only”.

Implementation

A badge creator will optionally return one more column from the SQL query indicating percentage of the badge completeness, for example: percent_completed.

From there it should be doable to use the number to build progress bars when applicable.

If any badge is “coming soon” (i.e. has reached 90%+), we can also show some sign of excitement on top of the user profile menu avatar in the top right corner.

Examples

For a “received 10 likes badge”, the percentage can be calculated pretty easily - we have the number of likes received, and we know that 10 likes is 100%. Work out the proportion and you get the percentage.

Things get a bit more complicated when it comes to multiple criteria used in a badge. For example:

  • topic received 10 likes
  • has at least 20 posts
  • has been there for 14 days

In this case, it is up to the badge creator to implement the calculation strategy. The simplest way though would be to just add all things together:

10 likes + 20 posts + 14 days = 44 points = 100%

Then you have the current state for a topic:

5 likes + 10 posts + 7 day = 22 points
= 50% completeness.

Still pretty easy to calculate.

I’d like to find out if anyone likes the idea? :hushed:

Personally, I think this is FUN and JOY big time!

15 Likes
Ask discobot when you will get badges?
Missing images at Meta.discourse.org
2

I’d love to see a new section under “Top Badges” (screenshot below) called something like “Badge Progress” or “Next Badges.”

This section could display progress bars or text indicators for the next three badges that users are close to unlocking. It would provide a quick way for members to track their upcoming badge achievements and encourage engagement as they get closer to unlocking new badges.

The image is a graphic that appears to be a list of top badges, possibly for a social media platform or online community. (Captioned by AI)
The image is a graphic that appears to be a list of top badges, possibly for a social media platform or online community. (Captioned by AI)1100×444 18.7 KB

1 Like
4

13 like to your post but zero votes. :neutral_face: (i just voted)

Was this 2016 thread posted before the voting system, maybe? Thus lost/buried.

5

I’ve seen a few different discussions around this idea [1] and personally I land where Tobias did:

A bit of gamification via recognition is one thing, but exposing the precise mechanisms to clout-chasing is another. If that’s the general consensus, it’s probably why this hasn’t gone anywhere.

  1. View progress towards a badge?, Badge Progress Trackers, Show badges progress, ↩︎

3 Likes
6

Thank you so much for the feedback and background.

8

8 years later, I would still be very excited about this feature. To me it indicates that someone’s conclusion that “creates unhealthy incentives” is much less valuable than the emotion that the feature creates, and therefore it is worth it 100%. There are lots of poeple for whom it will be uplifting and lots of joy to see the progress, and sometimes it is an extra visit to the website.

1 Like
9

How would badges like “Nice Topic/Reply” and “Nice Share” work in this case? Those can be earned many times.

Maybe show a percentage for the closest one so far? Or many bars? (but they are messy ways to track badges)

1 Like