API-First Loyalty Point Program' Software
Challenge
I was asked to come up with a design solution: a system for business owners to set up a Loyalty Program for their customers. This also included making it work smoothly for the customers who use the loyalty program through the business’s custom-branded mobile apps.
Industry
Cryptocurrency
Product lead, PO, 2 Devs, 1 Product Designer
Product Designer
Sometimes context is necessary…
LIKWID stands out as a modern and flexible loyalty platform designed for seamless integration. This platform offers access to member data, initiates targeted campaigns, and oversees rewards management so brands can create loyalty programs, handle intricate loyalty modules, or enhance their SaaS products and mobile apps.
In a nutshell, LIKWID is an app for businesses that want to create and manage loyalty programs using secure blockchain technology. It helps keep customers engaged and coming back, which in turn helps the business grow. It's designed to be easy to use and customizable to fit the brand of any business.
Discovery
On this occasion, I was asked to come up with a design solution for one of their most crucial functionalities: a platform flow for
With that in mind, we started noticing that defining the types of users for LIKWID was crucial for the creation of the product in an early stage.
My job not only involved defining these users but also understanding the use and management of Loyalty Point Programs within the economic sector we were targeting, identifying the gaps and needs our product would address, and defining the design objectives that needed to be tackled immediately. To achieve this, I conducted two rounds of interviews.
Interview with
Business Owners:
The first round of interviews with business owners interested in loyalty programs revealed several key challenges:
• Clarifying business goals and designing an effective reward structure.
• Creating strong incentives that drive buying behavior without reducing profit margins.
• Incorporating gamification elements and making it easy for customers to engage with the loyalty programs
Interview with
Customers:
The second round of interviews with users actively participating in loyalty points programs revealed several key takeaways:
• Desire for a personalized, easy-to-redeem experience with relevant, meaningful rewards.
• Appreciation for systems where rewards are automatically applied and easy to track.
• Preference for engaging with companies whose values align with their own.
As part of the evaluation of future features in the platform, I was conducting research* with the PM of the team, and during that assessment, we found out that:
Implementing a new loyalty points system in a business offers several benefits but comes with notable risks.
Customer resistance, as changes in familiar systems can lead to decreased engagement if the new system appears complex.
Technical challenges, such as integration issues, bugs, and potential downtime, can disrupt customer experience and trust.
Additionally, significant costs for software development, staff training, and ongoing support must be considered, potentially straining financial resources.
Define
To mitigate these risks, I took into consideration all the information gathered in the research and created some HMW q’s that helped quick off design process:
Essentially, we want to help the two user groups perform their tasks efficiently and easily. Merchants should be able to create and launch a campaign without obstacles while facilitating this process effectively, and customers should be able to redeem their points as easily as possible.
Reduce number of forms.
To lessen the "digital carbon" from the myriad of duplicate forms, our product will ensure the merchants and customers fill out information as few times as possible.
Making rewards available and easy to apply to digital or physical store purchases.
Provides a flexible, easy-to-use solution for reward redemption that works seamlessly across all shopping environments, increasing customer satisfaction and reward usage.
After having a general view of the main goals LIKWID wanted to target in this project, the services that offers, ideal clients, and agreements regarding the priorities, needs, and pains of the business, I had enough information to begin to outline the product. However, within our strict timeline, I cannot solve all of them. I must prioritize
This allowed me to make informed decisions that balanced user experience, technical constraints, and business goals, ultimately leading to a more effective and user-centered product, and gave me an idea of what to target next, starting with:
Develop
Information Architecture of the Dashboard:
As we had some technical limitations, a previous information architecture, and usage data from the users, I did a test to validate the navigation structure proposed.
The test helps us understand if the order of the information proposed, corresponds to the mental model of the users.
Following the card sorting of the mental model, testing it with different groups of business owners. This helped me reorganize all the content and create a site map with a goal: to help them navigate through the dashboard, create a campaign, and launch their loyalty program.
Findability of items
The design approach focused on enhancing visibility and making each item stand out, ensuring that users can easily locate and access the information they're looking for.
Progressive disclosure
It was important for me to introduce information across multiple screens to decrease cognitive load. The importance of empowering users with the ability to precisely filter information, enabling them to tailor their experience to their specific needs and preferences.
Why filters matter
filtering was crucial for some parts of the project. The users can toggle information on and off like a light switch, customizing their actions to fit their needs.
Delivery
Testing - 12 surverys later
I conducted 12 usability test with 12 merchants to collect information on what to iterate. Below are some of the most relevant topics we focused on in this particular case.
Clear distinction during the account sign-up.
The sign-up process for merchant wasn’t clear. The confusion came because merchant has two options to create his account: create an account as a business owner (full access of the LIKWID platform) or create an account as a team member (full access for the local app). With this iteration, I make sure to create a clear distinction during the account sign-up process using illustrations.
A new section in the NAVBAR
New icon was added from the navbar for easy access to send points and rewards to customers from the physical store.
Different Layouts for the mobile version with a clear objective
To effectively serve both merchants and consumers, Likwid's mobile version requires distinct layouts tailored to the unique needs of each user group. Merchants, who need tools for managing their business, would benefit from a dashboard-style layout that prioritizes quick access to inventory, sales data, and customer interactions.
On the other hand, consumers are focused on discovering products and making purchases, so their layout should be simple, intuitive, and visually appealing, highlighting products, promotions, and a seamless checkout process.
By establishing a clear distinction between these two experiences, we ensure that each user type can easily navigate the app and achieve their specific objectives, whether managing a business or shopping for products.
Even though we had some changes to make,
Overcoming time
