Wow this sounds super interesting. Thanks for sharing and summarizing :)
The idea of skip days/weeks sounds very compelling and makes a lot of sense. The primary downside I see with it though, is that it's conceptually a lot harder to explain and understand than "work towards your goal every day"
There's a bigger risk people will lose their streak, because they misunderstand how it works. Or they simply stop ignore it altogether, because it's too confusing.
Duolingo lets you buy "streak freezes" which are basically skip days that are automatically applied whenever you accidentally skip a day that would have reset your streak. I think they have a limit to how many you can use in sequence.
Skipped days wouldn't count towards your streak count, but they would ensure it wouldn't get reset to zero.
What would you think of this?
Conceptually it's similar to what you describe, but I think a bit simpler to grasp. Basically the streaks continue to work as-is, relying on consecutive days, but if you skip the odd day your streak continues going the next day.
Maybe you earn a free 'streak freeze' every 5 days or so. They don't expire, but you can only keep up to 3 on your account. While you got 3 unused streak freezes, you won't earn any additional ones.
Some other ideas I had were to allow members to choose their own streak requirements. The current 7-days-per-week approach would be considered "hardcore mode", but you can change to a more relaxed 5-days/week system if you prefer.
We'd show your choden difficulty-mode along with your streak. So it still is fair to people who prefer a harder mode.
Duolingo gives you points for completing lessons that you can trade in for streak freezes. A streak freeze costs 200 points (IIRC), and you seem to normally get ~5-10 points per day that you complete a lesson (closer to 5 or 6 on average, it seems a little random). But basically it seems like you earn enough points to buy a streak freeze every month or so.
Wow this sounds super interesting. Thanks for sharing and summarizing :)
The idea of skip days/weeks sounds very compelling and makes a lot of sense. The primary downside I see with it though, is that it's conceptually a lot harder to explain and understand than "work towards your goal every day"
There's a bigger risk people will lose their streak, because they misunderstand how it works. Or they simply stop ignore it altogether, because it's too confusing.
Duolingo lets you buy "streak freezes" which are basically skip days that are automatically applied whenever you accidentally skip a day that would have reset your streak. I think they have a limit to how many you can use in sequence.
Skipped days wouldn't count towards your streak count, but they would ensure it wouldn't get reset to zero.
What would you think of this?
Conceptually it's similar to what you describe, but I think a bit simpler to grasp. Basically the streaks continue to work as-is, relying on consecutive days, but if you skip the odd day your streak continues going the next day.
Maybe you earn a free 'streak freeze' every 5 days or so. They don't expire, but you can only keep up to 3 on your account. While you got 3 unused streak freezes, you won't earn any additional ones.
Some other ideas I had were to allow members to choose their own streak requirements. The current 7-days-per-week approach would be considered "hardcore mode", but you can change to a more relaxed 5-days/week system if you prefer.
We'd show your choden difficulty-mode along with your streak. So it still is fair to people who prefer a harder mode.
I am okay with any of them. They all sound great. Maybe except the part where you can only buy reserves instead of earning them.
Give people options. Let them have the ability to earn reserves.
Any worries about making it complicated just use a simple projection calculator.
Give them a calendar and let them pick a day to stop doing stuff. Then show them how long they can go without doing stuff until they lose streak.
Have this feature regardless the underlying calculation, then is fine.
Don't make the users think.
Also follow stackoverflow way of showing them based on their streaks they are top x%. Rather than showing a pure linear rank by raw streak.
This gives people a chance to feel they can move up
See attached
Duolingo gives you points for completing lessons that you can trade in for streak freezes. A streak freeze costs 200 points (IIRC), and you seem to normally get ~5-10 points per day that you complete a lesson (closer to 5 or 6 on average, it seems a little random). But basically it seems like you earn enough points to buy a streak freeze every month or so.