One of Microsoft’s less successful efforts to teach customers how to use the Microsoft Office productivity tools (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) was the infamous Clippy, the animated character who popped up to offer advice on how to use Office. Even though Clippy had failed, Microsoft still wanted its customers to learn about features that might help them get their work done better.
That was the inspiration for Ribbon Hero, a tutorial embedded in Microsoft Office that gives incentives for users to learn more features. Ribbon Hero provides a game-like way to depict mastery of these features. By scoring points for using new features, players can “level up” as they use Office.
For more information…
Ribbon Hero web site
Microsoft article about using Ribbon Hero
Forrester Research blog about Ribbon Hero
