Shaping

How might this apply to the Web?

Video games use shaping to help players succeed at increasing challenges. Rather than immerse someone in your application, why not start with a small set of features and reveal more with use? Or, you could offer rewards for mastery of a subject or increasing proficiency. Identify the desired behavior, list the steps necessary to reach that behavior, reward completion of a step until mastered, then add in the next step as a prerequisite for receiving the reward.