Gamification is the process of incentivizing the ideal behavior you intend to see within a system. That system can be an actual game, with bonus tokens for completing adventures for example, to coloration of data corresponding to key performance indicators (KPIs), such as billable hours recorded and legal services billed.

Within gamification there is both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic rewards are inherently satisfying, whereas extrinsic rewards are based on achieving rewards. We tend towards software that is mostly based on intrinsic motivation, such as ranking at the “top of your associate” class within legal billing software, or hitting 5/5 goals you are set for a given week.

Gamification within legal software relies heavily on game design theory.