Local Gem a Customer Loyalty App

 
 
 
 
 

Challenge

For 3 months, I was prompted to design a mobile customer loyalty app to support local establishments. I needed to conceptualize a way to encourage users to physically visit neighborhood stores and empower the community. This case study was part of my journey in completing my Google UX Certification. The project was focusing on the Design Thinking Model and followed one of Google's philosophy “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”

 
 
 
 

Goals & Deliverables

  • Exploratory Research & Competitive Analysis

  • Preliminary Interviews & User Personas

  • Usability Testings & Affinity Mapping

  • Responsive Mobile Prototype

Problem Statement

  • As a local coffee shop owner, the Covid Pandemic really took a toll on the amount of customers visiting my establishment. The frequency of visitors fluctuates throughout the week and it’s not very consistent.

Tools

Figma, FigJam, Zoom, & Google Workspace

 
 
 
 

Design Process

 
 

Utilized the Design Thinking model to focus on a human-centered design approach ⇲

  • Empathize: Conduct research in order to develop knowledge about what your users do, say, think, and feel.
  • Define: Combine all your research and observe where your users’ problems exist. In pinpointing your users’ needs, begin to highlight opportunities for innovation.
  • Ideate: Brainstorm a range of crazy, creative ideas that address the unmet user needs identified in the define phase. Give yourself and your team total freedom; no idea is too far fetched and quantity supersedes quality.
  • Prototype: Build real, tactile representations for a subset of your ideas. The goal of this phase is to understand what components of your ideas work, and which do not. In this phase you begin to weigh the impact vs. feasibility of your ideas through feedback on your prototypes.
  • Test: Return to your users for feedback. Ask yourself ‘Does this solution meet users’ needs?’ and ‘Has it improved how they feel, think, or do their tasks?’
 
 
 
 

Timeline

Month 1

Week 1: Design Prompt Overview - Goals & Expectations

Week 2: Problem Statement & Empathize with Users

Week 3: Brief Exploratory Research & Competitive Analysis

Week 4: Preliminary Interviews & User Personas

Month 2

Week 5: Design Principles & Usability Research Plan

Week 6: Establish 3 Main User Flows & Paper Wireframe

Week 7: Digital Wireframe & Low Fidelity Prototype

Week 8: Conduct Usability Test #1 & Affinity Diagram

Month 3

Week 9: Organize Feedback & Identify Action Items

Week 10: High Fidelity Prototype & Usability Test #2

Week 11: Compare Test Results & Identify Improvements

Week 12: Showcase Final Prototype

Local Gem a customer loyalty app to support local establishments

 
 
 
 

Exploratory Research & Competitive Analysis

  • Competitors provided a type of point system to reward their users.

  • The amount of points varies depending on the scale of interaction.

  • Users could gather points to unlock rewards such as discounts.

  • Most competitors track users that physically visited the establishments by either scanning or checking into the space. 

 
 
 
 

Preliminary Interviews

 
 

Purpose

  • Survey 5 participants within the ages of 18 to 35+ about their experiences on loyalty programs.

  • What encourages them to revisit the establishments and what does loyalty means to them? 

  • Informed them on my design prompt and I wanted to know what additional features they would like to add.

Takeaways

  • Participants enjoyed using the Starbucks app because of the conveniency. They appreciated how they can order ahead of time for pick-ups.

  • Participants were more likely to voluntarily look for discounts and deals because they often check their email inbox for brand updates.

  • Participants would like to visually see the amount of points they accumulate to unlock rewards.

 

Interview Questions ⇲

  • What’s your favorite store/cafe and why do you keep visiting it?
  • How often do you post on social media that you visited an establishment?
  • How often do you look for discounts and deals? What drives you to check?
  • How often do you usually send a review after visiting an establishment?
  • Can you describe a time you gave a review? Why?
  • Can you recall a time you used a customer loyalty program? Can you describe your experience?
  • If you can add a feature for this upcoming customer loyalty app, what would you like to add to it?
 
 
 
 

User Personas

 
 

Grace Harper | 27

Fashion Designer ⇲

B.A. Liberal Arts

Spontaneous, energetic, and enthusiastic. Life is never boring around her.

Goal ⇲

Joining events to connect with new people

Frustration ⇲

Tracking and balancing her expenses

Greg Chang | 31

Entrepreneur ⇲

B.S. Business

Practical and fact-minded. Very reliable and cannot be doubted.

Goal ⇲

Finding a balance between work and home life

Frustration ⇲

Utilizing his hours more efficiently

 
 
 

Design Principles

 
 

Community Driven

Aimed to optimize navigation to help people achieve their desired goals and to empower their local community

Rewarding Experience

Design elements were crafted with purpose for the users to feel excited and joyful in their experiences

Simplicity

Strived to make the platform straightforward and self-explanatory to enable users to act with confidence

 
 
 
 

Main User Flows

 
 

General Onboarding

The user will be creating a new account and updating their profile page

Receiving Points

The user will visit a local establishment, purchase an item, and write a review

Unlocking a Reward

The user will utilize the points they gathered to unlock a discount from the store

 
 
 
 

Design Evolution

 
 
 
 
 
 

1st Round of User Interviews

 
 

Research Goals

  • Testing 3 user flows from the Low Fidelity Prototype

  • General onboarding, unlocking a discount, & receiving points

  • Learning any pitfalls that I overlooked while designing the app 

  • Additional features that could benefit the overall experience

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

  • Time on Task

  • Navigation vs. Search

  • System Usability Scale (SUS)

 
 

Test Results

 
 

Average Time on Task ⇲

  • Task 1 (General Onboarding) → 3 min. 44 sec.
  • Task 2 (Receiving Points) → 2 min. 42 sec.
  • Task 3 (Unlocking Reward) → 1 min. 41 sec.

Quantitative Questions ⇲

On a scale from 1 to 5 (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

  • Was Task 1 (Onboarding) easy to complete? → 4.8
  • Was Task 2 (Gathering Gem Points) easy to complete? → 4.2
  • Was Task 3 (Unlocking a Discount) easy to complete? → 4.4
  • Was the text easy to read? → 4.4

On a scale from 1 to 5 (1=not at all likely, 5=very likely)

  • How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend? → 5

Qualitative Questions ⇲

  • How would you describe your overall experience with the product?
  • What did you like most about using this product?
  • What did you like the least while using the app?
  • What, if anything, caused you frustration or confusion?
 
 
 
 

Affinity Mapping

 
 

Sorted out the participants' feedback & comments
to identify patterns and themes:

Feedback & Comments:

Gems ⇲

  • I had a hard time knowing the amount of Gems I have
  • I don't want to accidentally spend my Gems

Reward Systems ⇲

  • Seeing the happy face when completing the task felt very encouraging
  • The extra layer on collecting Gems was a bit confusing

Profile Page ⇲

  • Reward new users by adding more information into their profile
  • I don't know where to edit my profile photo

Maps & Locations ⇲

  • It would be great to have a map section
  • I don’t know the exact radius of the store near me

Text ⇲

  • Some of the messages were not very clear
  • I didn't realize I had to spend $10 to use the discount

QR Code ⇲

  • I feel I could get flustered when opening my QR code
  • Minimize the amount of steps to take to open up the discount code

Planned out action items that related to each theme to improve the next round of revision:

Action Items:

Gems ⇲

  • Move the Gem icon to the left hand side of the total amount
  • Move the total amount of Gems on the top right hand corner
  • Add a safety net to prevent from accidentally spending Gems

Reward Systems ⇲

  • Reduce the amount of steps to earn and unlock rewards
  • Add a timeline to unlock the rewards again
  • Add a main icon for Gem activities in the home bar

Profile Page ⇲

  • Take out the Profile icon on the home navigator
  • The top profile icon should be the place to go to view the profile page and notification
  • Reward new users to add more information in their profile page

Maps & Locations ⇲

  • Add the ability to change your location spots (zip code etc.)
  • Add a feature to change the radius of the location
  • Add a Map feature

Text ⇲

  • In the second task, copy error it should be “Walk into”
  • Condense or remove some texts in certain spots
  • In the third task, the terms were lengthy

QR Code ⇲

  • Reduce the amount of steps to activate the QR code
  • Consider adding a safety net for using the QR code
  • Change the QR code into a Barcode instead
Establishing Action Items
 
 
 
 

Design Comparison: Low Fidelity vs. High Fidelity

 
 

Homescreen

 
 

Unlock Rewards

 
 

QR Code

 
 
 
 

2nd Round of User Interviews

 
 

Research Goals

  • Testing 3 user flows from the High Fidelity Prototype

  • General onboarding, unlocking a discount, & receiving points

  • Comparing results from the previous test & analyzing improvements

  • Additional features that could benefit the overall experience

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

  • Time on Task

  • Navigation vs. Search

  • System Usability Scale (SUS)

 
 

Test Results

 
 

Average Time on Task ⇲

  • Task 1 (General Onboarding) → 1 min. 47 sec.
  • Task 2 (Receiving Points) → 2 min. 15 sec.
  • Task 3 (Unlocking Reward) → 1 min. 35 sec.

Quantitative Questions ⇲

On a scale from 1 to 5 (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

  • Was Task 1 (Onboarding) easy to complete? → 5
  • Was Task 2 (Gathering Gem Points) easy to complete? → 4.5
  • Was Task 3 (Unlocking a Discount) easy to complete? → 4.8
  • Was the text easy to read? → 4.2

On a scale from 1 to 5 (1=not at all likely, 5=very likely)

  • How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend? → 5

Qualitative Questions ⇲

  • How would you describe your overall experience with the product?
  • What did you like most about using this product?
  • What did you like the least while using the app?
  • What, if anything, caused you frustration or confusion?
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

 
 

  • Created a successful prototype that focused on the three general user flows

  • Organized the feedbacks and found noticeable patterns to improve the design

  • Compared results from the previous test and analyzed the improvements