2

For a fantasy sports draft app, I'm trying to design a voting system where winners receive trophies in categories like "most lopsided trade", "best overall draft" and "best draft steal". The voters would be the participants themselves, typically between 10 and 30 in total.

The voting period would ideally take place after the drafting is finished, and the user would be guided through a screen for each category to be voted upon during a specific time limit (perhaps a minute or so).

The main issue is the sheer number of (very subjective) detailed options to vote upon (tens or hundreds of trades involving multiple players of differing values and salaries). To combat this, I'm thinking of a two-stage process (per category). The first stage would be a simple (low mental effort) list of ~5 options that the user ticks yes/no to. Each option would be presented to at least ~3 users in aggregate, and the options with the lowest votes would be discarded. The second stage would present the remaining options in more detail, and the user would rank their top 5 picks (1st gets 5 points, 5th gets 1 point), and the option with the highest points wins that category.

How should I encourage users to complete the full voting process?

I've been thinking of either an additional trophy awarded for full participation, or some way to make the user's own trades more prominent during the voting process the more often she votes.

Am I on the right track here? Or are there any other systems like this in existence that I could draw some inspiration from?

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4
+50

From my point of view, the best way to engage the users to vote is to reward them. But I won't make their trades more prominent because this could influence the results in a bad way (e.g. an user, who has done some poor trades, could get more votes in a certain category just because their trades would be more visible and the other users would simply vote his/hers trade thinking that that trade is considered to be the best from the list).

Your idea is on the right track, all you have to do is figure out what reward is best to get the users involved in voting.

I would give to the users, as a reward, some points / a certain amount of virtual currency (to be later used) if, at the end of the voting period, their chosen trade wins.

Pros: this way, you would make the users analyse the options first and only after that they would vote.
Cons: there is the possibility that the user will give 5pts to what they consider to be the best trade, and to the rest of the trades he/she will give them random points.

Improve this answer
3
  • I'm (perhaps naively) hoping that the users, having invested in upwards of an hour on this draft already, will be eager to see/influence who 'won' (as long as the voting period is kept relatively short). I'll have to play around with some different mechanisms to see which works best.
    – sheldonbaker
    Mar 31, 2016 at 18:57
  • If the reward is present, then yes, they (or at least the majority of them) will be eager to see who won (as you said: as long as the voting period is kept relatively short).
    – Phreak
    Apr 1, 2016 at 7:20
  • 1
    If you want to make sure that, indeed, the users will vote what they truly consider to be the top 5 picks, you can make a more advanced reward system. For example: give the users a certain X amount of pts / virtual currency if they get all the top 5 trades right. If they get 4 trades right, give them X-Y pts / vc, ..., and so on.
    – Phreak
    Apr 1, 2016 at 7:31
4

I would be concerned that reward for voting is actually for action of 'ticking box' and 'marking 1-5' and is not a reward 'for accurate voting'.

The effort of mentally parsing a trade far outweighs the UI interaction cost, so the most logical user activity is to rapidly click 'whatever' and earn their virtual currency.

Also in small groups expect people will single out friends/rivals for reward/punishment if possible.

Thus even if do manage to keep voting activity high with large rewards, will it have value?

If thinking in response to this problem about some sort of 'bad voter punishment' algorithm, much rather spend effort on doing computer calculated Awards. That is best UX.

Improve this answer
5
  • Cool point that "the effort of mentally parsing a trade far outweighs the UI interaction cost". Unfortunately, building an AI to hand out awards would be extremely complicated and subjective due to the nature of these trades, so I have to hope that users (after spending a decent chunk of time doing the draft) will also be engaged enough for another five minutes to do accurate voting.
    – sheldonbaker
    Mar 31, 2016 at 18:48
  • Regarding the value of the votes/awards themselves, the awards/voting period is mostly to alleviate a very anticlimactic end to the draft (the draft results in this game are essentially only for reference purposes since the user won't actually be playing with the team they drafted - it's kinda a one-time mini-game).
    – sheldonbaker
    Mar 31, 2016 at 18:52
  • So the user won't get a reward, but instead, he can be punished. Is it ok to "punish" the user? Knowing that this mini voting competition has no influence, whatsoever, over the game itself, why would you scare the users for a random vote? The user already invests a lot of time on playing the game, so investing another chunk of time on something that will give him nothing in return, would you see it like a thing the general user would do?
    – Phreak
    Apr 1, 2016 at 7:26
  • I think that the answer may lie in "will also be engaged enough for another five minutes to do accurate voting". If users are genuinely interested in trades that others made, then no additional reward required. Rewards may be more likely to skew the voting than ensure volume for statistical accuracy. i.e. test a UX with rewards first, simpler anyhow
    – Jason A.
    Apr 3, 2016 at 8:43
  • @Phreak has a good point. It is possible that a user perspective could be: "I put all this effort into setting up my trades. I am then asked to reward others for *their* trades and at the end of the day my trades get 'thrown away'. What the heck?" An alleviation for this specific 'disappointment' could be that rewarded people get an advantage in the next phase - but still in play is both the "known friends trades" and "accurate voting" issue.
    – Jason A.
    Apr 3, 2016 at 8:51
2

Yes, this very good practice. Inspite of a lenghty voting system, you divided it in 2 stages.

This will engage the user. My suggestion would be after each vote (what user vote) let the user know that he earned something and guide him that If he finishes the voting he will get some amount of points and this make user to finish.

Improve this answer
2
  • That's a good idea - progressively show the user that he's X% on his way to earning a trophy for voting
    – sheldonbaker
    Mar 31, 2016 at 18:54
  • @sheldonnbbaker exctly, this way he will anticipate the end.
    – Abhishek Sharma
    Apr 1, 2016 at 4:14

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.