How should 'deprecated' badges or achievements be presented to a user?

Question

In our online education app, we use a badging system to show progression through categories of work. These categories now need to change and the tasks within them have to be re-categorised into new categories. This requirement is enforced by external factors (specifically, a change in the national education system) which some (but not all) of our users will be familiar with.

My challenge is that some users will have completed badges in the past that are effectively 'deprecated' as part of this process. We can store a record of these achievements, but how should they be presented to users? They are ultimately of lesser value as an indicator of progress against educational attainment, so I could hide them away in an 'archive' or similar, but this might be potentially de-motivating to people who have 'lost' a lot of previously achieved badges.

Answer 1

I quite like Foursquare's method for this - they use coloured badges for achieved, grey ones for unachieved, and add a 'Retired' banner to those that are no longer available:

Answer 2

All the answers here are glass half empty. Good news is, the glass is actually 90% full for you.

World of Warcraft (clearly what you should emulate if you're talking gamification) has this exact 'problem', and turns it into an opportunity.

Many of their in game achievements become unattainable, due to a variety of reasons. Do they delete people's achievements? Of course not. Do they downgrade them to 'retired achievements'? No.

They 'upgrade' them, from an achievement to a "feat of strength". In addition to 'deprecated' achievements, feats of strength include some preposterously difficult achievements, either too much effort for most people, or only a certain number are available. Examples for you could be, whenever a new module comes out, give out feats of strength for "Finish new module A first" or "be in the first 100 people to get 100% in 3 consecutive tests in module A". By including these very difficult feats of strength, you give "feats of strength" value above what a normal achievement has.

People do not think "What's the point of getting achievements, they might become deprecated eventually anyway". People think "I had better get that achievement now while I can, before it becomes deprecated."

Scarcity provides value. Something that is going to be unattainable in the future has value because of this.

Oh, and don't actually call them feats of strength.

Answer 3

An interesting clue in your question is:

"this might be potentially de-motivating to people who have 'lost' a lot of previously acheived badges."

How can you avoid disappointment? I think you need to re-frame the issue of "lost" or "depreciated" badges in to be more phrased in a positive way. Instead of presenting the old badges like "You've lost these badges" present it as if to say "This is record of all the badges you've worked hard for. Look how many you've earned!"

This way the old badges still contribute to an achievement—the total number of all badges earned.

Answer 4

If the current badges make use of colour, presenting the deprecated badges in greyscale might work in this situation.

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Answer 5

A possibility would be to mark the 'old' badges with a 'retired' label, as others have suggested, but maybe also include a new 'current' badge signifying accomplishment of the old badges. Maybe levels of a badge based on number of historic badges.

'badge buddy' 'badge all-star' 'look at the piles and piles of badges!'

Still see the old badges, get a new badge rewarding for the past accomplishments, and still not detract from the current badges.

Or, maybe not even with a 'retired' label, but rather a display of the year earned. An "xyz" badge that has a year on it woundt have any major negative connotation to it aside from 'not this year'.

Answer 6

In addition to Whillingx I would use an icon to ensure all colour perceptions are catered for.

Answer 7

Can't comment, so it comes as an answer:

I agree with edeverett that you must phrase it in a positive manner to lessen the disappointment. Is some sort of legend or hover-tooltip acceptable, or do you need it so be self-explanatory? If you CAN provide explanation, I´d vote for a e.g. a scholar hat as icon for the deprecated lessons. Why scholar hat?

Give the explanation "Extracurricular achievements." The message is "You are great for doing more than you have to." - even if it´s not quite what happened.

Anyway, the worst thing you could do is mark them as nullified, either by graying out or by striking out.

Answer 8

Don't show them.

To keep deprecated features in a live product means to find solutions to justify their integration -as you are now doing-, to document them internally, to maintain something that is essentially useless.

You are actually moving forward in time the act of planning and executing a final retirement of these features.

Since the national program will probably have impacted other areas as well, you could group these changes in some sort of document, post, or page that the users can read if interested (I'd like to see the stats anyway).

In my opinion your company is wasting money that should be spent on other areas that could impact more profoundly the final user experience.

Answer 9

I'd totally agree with Scott's answer. You shouldn't use "deprecated" or similar, it sounds like those achievements are demoted and lost their value. You should "upgrade/promote" them as they will become unattainable. They shouldn't be hidden, but maybe another section for them should be created. It's like e.g. football(soccer) world champion of the past - even though you may not be current champion, that achievement isn't "deprecated", it's the mark of strength.

Answer 10

I like the grayscaling approach mentioned in some of the other answers. Here's an alternative approach for your consideration:

Be up front about the change and explain to the users what is happening. Make a clear transition from the old system to the new system together.

The implementation details of this approach may be:

• Show a screen at first launch explaining the changes in the badging system
• Use only the new badges in the app in place of the old ones
• If applicable, translate any of the old badges to their new counterparts
• Provide a place ( maybe in their profile ) that lists their current badges. Show the new badges prominently but also provide a way to view the old ones. Maybe as a grouping below the new badges, or maybe theres a button to view a separate screen. You can allude to the old badge listing in the first launch explanation, e.g. "You can still view your old badges in your profile."