How I helped a lock screen app for earning rewards become more valuable to its users

S'more is a rewards app that allows you to earn points in exchange for placing ads and content on your lock screen.

Users can also complete offers, play games, and use the refer a friend feature to get more points. Once users earn points, they can redeem them for gift cards.

Company
Digital Intent

Year
2016 – 2018

Role
Product Designer

Team
Product Managers
Android Developer

Platform
Android App

The Problem

S'more started as a simple MVP – it attracted early adopters and proved valuable to users, but users wanted more. Feedback from users led S'more to conclude that the app needed to provide more utility. How do we make the app more valuable and attractive beyond simply viewing ads and earning points?

Challenges

There were several goals and challenges that I grappled with while working on S'more.

I needed to introduce the material design framework into the app. Material design would make the app feel more at home on the Android platform, make users more familiar with design patterns, and speed up development time.

I needed to introduce a new brand color and update the existing brand color palette across the product.

I had to bring a feeling of fun to the product. The app used a simple illustration of a camping scene on its home screen. My goal was to use a similar illustration style in new product features.

Ideation

Our team often ran surveys with users to uncover new feature possibilities. We also did internal workshops with the S'more team and white-boarding sessions with product managers to sketch-out flows and discuss opportunities for new features.

The User

S'more's users mainly were in rural areas, middle to low income, and skewed younger. We kept this top of mind when discussing new features and design strategies. We were able to be a bit more playful with proposed solutions to appeal to a younger demographic. We also always wanted to give users more opportunities to earn points and earn higher amounts since that is the user's primary goal.

Onboarding

Goals

There were several goals for the S'more onboarding design. We had to make the process simple and playful. To motivate users to complete onboarding, they get points as they complete each step. Rather than using several form fields on one screen to collect user info, we asked questions in a fun, informal way. Another goal of onboarding was to cut down on the number of users using fake email addresses, so we explicitly tell users that we need their email to send them their points.