How we turned a corporate training course into a gamified learning experience
How do you make corporate training courses more engaging? Gamify it. At least that was the approach we took with NUS Medicine’s Service Odyssey. NUS Medicine wanted to make service excellence learning more engaging for their staff. Instead of just another mandatory e-learning module that people would rush through, they wanted to create an experience that the staff would actually enjoy and want to complete.
The mission
The goal was to encourage staff to learn about service excellence in a fun, interactive way while building a stronger service culture across the organisation. They also wanted something that could continue to grow and be used beyond a one-off campaign.
Our Starting Point
We were engaged to conceptualise, design and implement the entire Service Odyssey experience, from strategy to execution. Our scope went beyond just creating a gamified platform. We developed the overall learning journey, storyline and characters, branding, game mechanics, animations, music, marketing materials, activations, analytics, and everything in between. We also trained the client's team so they could continue managing the platform after handover.
The Brain Juice Approach
The BJC Shift
Rather than simply turning quizzes into a game, we designed an entire learning experience. We wanted to create an environment that would engage users rather than feel like something they just needed to do. This led to us building a unique world with original characters, storylines set around space exploration, and themed learning "planets" to make service excellence feel more immersive and memorable.
Throughout the project, we engaged users through focus group discussions and testing sessions to gather early feedback and refine the experience based on real user behaviour rather than assumptions.
Our Role
What We Did
Aside from just the development of the course itself, we also connected both online and offline experiences by pairing the digital platform with physical events, exclusive merchandise and interactive festival booths. Each activity was designed to encourage participation, make learning enjoyable and create multiple touchpoints for staff to engage with the programme.
This gave staff more reasons to participate and helped reinforce learning beyond the platform itself.
Some of what we did included:
• Designing the overall Service Odyssey learning experience and game strategy
• Creating the Service Odyssey world, characters and branding
• Developing five themed learning modules ("Planets")
• Designing personality quizzes, mini games, quizzes, flashcards and reflection activities
• Producing animations, videos and music
• Running focus groups and user testing sessions
• Planning and executing the launch campaign and EDMs
• Designing and producing exclusive merchandise and rewards
• Supporting activations at the LIFT Festival and OKW Festival
• Monitoring platform analytics and refining the experience after launch
• Preparing backend documentation and conducting handover training for the client team
Our impact
Ripples & Results
Through this project, we transformed service excellence learning into something more engaging and enjoyable for the staff. Rather than treating it as another mandatory module, participants interacted with the platform through storytelling, games, events, and rewards.
It showed how digital learning could be strengthened through physical activations, helping create greater awareness and excitement across the organisation. The client also recognised the platform as something with potential to grow and support future learning initiatives across NUS Medicine.
Highlights:
• Reached 180 staff sign-ups within the first three months, exceeding the project's KPI for staff participation.
• Recorded 6,313 learning activity completions, averaging over 33 interactions per player.
• 106 staff completed the full learning journey, achieving a completion rate of almost 59%.
• 91 limited edition plushie rewards were redeemed, showing strong engagement with the reward system.
• The OKW Festival generated the highest number of sign-ups, contributing 52 new users in a single day.
Reflections
“One of our biggest takeaways was that meaningful gamification goes beyond simply adding points or badges. When storytelling, thoughtful design, physical experiences, and user feedback all come together, learning becomes something people genuinely want to take part in instead of something they feel obligated to complete.” Jenni Jang, Portfolio Executive
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