Yu-Kai Chou

Yu-Kai Chou is an author, speaker, and international thought leader on gamification and engagement. He is the founder and Chief Behavioral Officer of Typhoon Labs, a behavioral design consultancy that helps organizations increase engagement, utilization, and ROI through gamification and behavior-change techniques. With more than 20 years of experience in the gaming industry, Yu-Kai is an expert on how to win hearts and minds.

Yu-Kai authored ‘Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards’, a best-selling book that was praised by industry leading companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. From his book, Yu-Kai summarizes the 8 Core Drives that motivates people to perform and continue with a behavior to drive deeper engagement and create a long-lasting impact. Yu-Kai Chou is a sought-after international speaker, and he is regularly invited to give talks around the world including TEDx, and conferences like Gamification World Congress and TNW Conference in Amsterdam.

Yu-Kai is the co-founder of Gamification.org—one of the world’s largest online communities of over 20,000 professionals and researchers—and has advised more than 30 startups in the areas of engagement, motivation, and design. In addition, he founded and heads two other companies, the Gamification Summit and Gamification and Behavioral Design Europe, both of which help companies create more engaging and motivating user experiences.

Yu-Kai's book and his core drives of engagement form the basis of his approach, and he helps organizations and their leaders design gamified systems that help users take action, deepen engagement, and maximize their results. Yu-Kai has a passion for improving the user experience, as he believes that when people are properly motivated to take action, great things can happen.

Through his work with Typhoon Labs, he consults with top organizations, provides user experience and gamification services, and considers himself a “gamification evangelist.” He has been featured in dozens of major media outlets, and his insight and expertise have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and others.

Yu-Kai Chou is a pioneer in the field of engagement and motivation science and has effectively applied research-backed methods to everyone from children, to startup entrepreneurs, to Fortune 500 CEOs. He also devotes much of his time to mentoring and teaching students in Asia and around the world, helping them build a foundation of knowledge and experience they can use in their own work.

Yu-Kai’s influence in the world of engagement and motivation is both wide and far-reaching. For readers looking to take their user experience to the next level, Yu-Kai's book ‘Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards’ provides readers with the key frameworks and knowledge needed to understand how to deepen engagement through gamification. He’s also the perfect person to unlock engagement mysteries and make sure your user experience stands out.