CASHBACK REWARDS
Creating a joyful rewards experience for Cheese banking app
OVERVIEW
Background
Traditional banks charge all kinds of account fees. For people who aren’t qualified for applying or credit cards, they can’t enjoy cashback rewards. Cheese mobile banking, founded in 2019, aimed to address this by providing a zero-fee debit card that offers cashback rewards.
Project Summary
In 2020, during my 4-month contract as a product designer at Cheese, I led a cross-functional design sprint to brainstorm an engaging cashback rewards experience. Collaborating with Product, Software Development, Growth and Marketing teams, we developed creative ideas to boost user growth and engagement.
How might we drive user growth and engagement through our cashback rewards experience?
THE CHALLENGE
Inspired by the Design Sprint method developed at Google Ventures, I coordinated a company-wide design sprint to brainstrom and crafted design solutions in a week.
Design Sprint Day 1
GATHER CONTEXT
Everyone participated in mapping out the Design Sprint Canvas - to identify business goals, resources, constraints, risk and opportunities.
Short-Term Business Goals
Cheese Mobile Banking has approximately 44,000 users signed up for its debit card. On the first day of the design sprint, CEO and the Product Lead outlined the short-term business objectives: to convert 5% of the signed-up users into first-time buyers (FTBs) and convert 10% of these FTBs into monthly active users (MAUs). An MAU is defined as someone who uses the Cheese debit card to make at least 4 purchases a month.
Design Sprint Day 2
GENERATE IDEAS
Giving that Cheese has a small team of 14 people, I invited everyone to join the brainstorming process. By providing an ideation template, I enabled team members, including non-designers, to contribute their ideas in writing or by adding screenshot references.
Design Sprint Day 3
DEMO & VOTE
We utilized lightning demos and dot voting to rapidly present and prioritize ideas. Lightning demos involved quick idea presentations by team members, followed by dot voting where each member allocated dots to their favorite concepts. This streamlined process efficiently identified promising ideas for further refinement.
Product Rewards Strategies ––– Defined by Dot Voting
Unlock surprise rewards (10-15% cashback)
Users complete a task in a limited time to get rewards
Maintain a streak (4 usages) in a month to get rewards
Convert signed-up users to first-time buyers (FTBs)
Convert signed-up users to FTBs
Convert FTBs to monthly active users (MAUs)
My design primarily focused on converting sign-up users into FTBs, as reflected in the first two ideas, while another designer focused on converting FTBs to MAUs, which is addressed in the last idea.
Empower signup users to earn the surprise cashback and become first-time buyers (FTBs).
DESIGN GOALS
Empower users to save more money by constantly using cashback rewards.
Make the cashback experience joyful and engaging.
Design Sprint Day 4
DESIGN & PROTOTYPE
Mapping out the user flow.
Home Screen (Before)
Cashback section sits on home screen right below “My Account”. On the left is the original design without the surprise cashback.
Quick Iterations
I crafted different concepts balancing between design consistency and the discoverability of the surprise cashback.
Interactive prototype used for user testing
The Surprise Factor
Unexpected rewards can enhance user delight and engagement, making the cashback experience more memorable and enjoyable. When a product offers more than what was expected, it can increase the perceived value. This can boost user satisfaction.
A Sense of Urgency
Setting a time limit creates a sense of urgency, motivating users to act quickly to get rewards. This can lead to higher overall engagement rates and user satisfaction. The more frequent users use the Cheese card, the more cashback they receive.
Design Sprint Day 5
USER TESTING
Surprise is not self-explanatory enough
“I am not sure I would click on this because the offer doesn’t look appealing. It also doesn’t give me any hints about the surprise.”
Accessibility concern
“It’s easy to miss this. This looks like promotional information, doesn’t look like I can fund account here.”
Lack of brand awareness
“I heard of Weee but I never use it to deliver groceries. I don’t know most of the brands here.”
FINAL DESIGN
Better Information Hierarcy
Final design shows better information hierarchy and increased contrast ratio of the design components.
Prompt Users to Take Actions
“Tap to reveal brand” feature nudges users to take action. Additionally, the high-percentage surprise cashback distinguishes this card from other cashback options.
Popular Brand
Offering a 15% cashback on a popular brand that many people frequently shop from enhances the perceived value of the offer.
Urgency
Displaying an offer with an expiration date encourages users to link a bank account and make a purchase, effectively converting sign-up users into first-time buyers.
