Jacknd

Pollinate Rewards App

The Rewards app is a white labelled customer facing app produced by Pollinate which enables client banks (Tyl by Natwest) business merchants to provide personalised offers and a loyalty solution to their customers.

My Role

I was assigned as the lead designer for the project, collaborating with another designer, alongside a diverse team of product owners, managers, and developers.

Upon joining Pollinate, I observed that the app, which was already live, lacked fundamental user experience elements and consistency. This observation was reinforced by feedback from our client, Tyl by Natwest, and other key stakeholders. They highlighted issues such as bugs, inconsistencies, and a poor user experience overall.

Research & Discovery

Product Audit

Initially, the other designer and I collaborated over several calls to dissect what aspects of the user experience were effective and what needed improvement. To ensure efficiency, we set a time limit for this exercise, preventing us from spending too much time on this phase.

Competitor Analysis

Additionally, I dedicated time to analyzing various competitor products in the rewards and loyalty sector. This analysis aimed to enhance my understanding of how these products facilitated user personalization, streamlined offer redemption, and simplified point collection processes.

Design Process

Following the initial research phase, we focused on restructuring the Information Architecture (IA) to better organize our features and highlight those offering significant benefits to users. I also introduced reusable patterns in the app to establish consistency across different sections.

Every week, our entire domain team met to showcase the features we were developing. This regular session provided valuable feedback from various departments within the company. It allowed us to gain early insights into technical capabilities and establish clear expectations for what a superior user experience would entail in the future.

Prototyping & Testing

Once the initial explorations were progressed to a good point, I worked with our research team to pull together a plan of how we would test individual use cases with users in moderated and unmoderated testing. We determined the type of testing needed by the complexity of the feature that was created as well as how different of an interaction it was compared to normal behaviours that users would be expecting from a native app.

Key areas that we tested was each of the main navigation features, this included a re-ordering, introduction of a new loyalty tab in replace of the previous activity tab. This was something that was felt needed by myself and stakeholders as something to replace due to the main focus of the app being a ‘rewards’ app. Loyalty was previously hidden within merchant profiles and not very easy to find new loyalty schemes from other merchants.

A/B Test

Moderated

Unmoderated

Participant Observation

“I really like this page. I really like to see brand icons so I immediately understand where I am, My brain loves alphabetical order as well.”

“Ok, I wasn’t expecting this but it looks like a list of loyalty cards, like in Apple Wallet’

Recommendation

It would be helpful for users to see how many points they’d be using to redeem a particular reward so they could make a decision between spending immediately or saving for a different reward.

Refinement & Iteration

Collaborating closely with the research team, we extensively iterated on specific features, such as the new loyalty tab in the navigation and the functionality of the loyalty area. I introduced the concept of a digital wallet, a familiar behavior for users due to its presence on Android and iOS devices.

In testing, we discovered that users missed crucial information needed to fully utilize the feature. After testing with multiple users, we revisited the designs and made slight adjustments. These changes ensured that consumers comprehended the information displayed on screen, enhancing their overall user experience.

Implementation

To enhance the user experience, I recognized the limitations of our existing design system in terms of scalability and suitability for the app. It was primarily designed for web and desktop, missing crucial components and containing elements not suitable for our needs.

So, I developed a new design system tailored specifically for our app. This strategic move allowed us to create new client versions swiftly within days, a process that previously took weeks. Additionally, we could easily customize files with new client themes. This streamlined approach saved us significant time and resources, enabling us to focus on enhancing the product itself.

Following the launch of the improved Rewards app, my colleague and I meticulously reviewed newly developed features. We ensured these features met design standards and had the expected user interactions. This involved close collaboration with the development team, providing feedback promptly, and maintaining an open dialogue. This efficient workflow prevented wasted time and ensured correct implementation before each release.

Lessons Learned

A crucial lesson I learned from this project is the importance of fostering a strong collaborative relationship with my development team. Involving them early in discussions, especially during the discovery of new features, significantly reduced the occurrence of bugs and technical issues throughout the project.

In the past, they had been excluded from the process which made them feel disconnected from their future work. However, once we implemented this open collaboration, they became engaged in the project and were more enthusiastic about our work.

In the end, the project was a success. We effectively resolved the initial issues of unhappy clients and a poor user experience. We received extensive positive feedback from various stakeholders within the client company, praising the improved app. Lastly both consumers and merchants showed increased engagement with the app, indicating its enhanced usability and functionality.

Looking forward

During this project, I collaborated closely with my Product Lead to explore new business opportunities within the app. Throughout the process, I kept in mind the need for scalability and flexibility to accommodate future features.

One such feature was a Tap & Collect solution, allowing consumers to order from food and beverage merchants and collect in person. This was particularly relevant due to the large number of restaurants and takeaways among the client's merchants.

Considering this, I envisioned future enhancements that would expand the app's capabilities. These innovations would not only broaden Pollinate's product offerings but also support the growth of more businesses.