American Express: Plenti

the problem

Despite Plenti’s promises, many users are confused as to how Plenti differentiates from the loyalty reward programs that they’ve already joined, So we asked ourselves: How can we clearly translate and simplify our message for the users across the entire web and mobile app?

The opportunity

Revisit past usability testing results and research users’ responses through social media to unearth the most common pain points. Restructure the entire mobile app from scratch to create a more visually appealing and user-friendly app that users of all generations can use.

Customer Insights

Starting with the past usability research findings, I created an end-to-end customer journey to better visualize the happy path flow that most of our customer takes:

Next, I dived into a usability test that was conducted in September 2013 where 12 participants (8 women/4 men) actively engaged in loyalty programs was given a homework assignment to record their shopping behaviors a week before the testing session. The purpose of this test was to understand how participants feel toward rewards/loyalty programs and the Plenti app.

The results revealed their “little wins” when they shop with rewards/loyalty programs:

Furthermore, when the participants tested the Plenti app, they understood what it is and how it works, which resulted in favorable reactions such as “I love it! Sign me up!” and “I’m not a coupon clipper. However, this is a great alternative. I can earn points; there’s a value.” Overall, the participants were able to navigate through the Browse Offers section of the app and understood the green checkmark icon meant the offer was activated.

However, a host of questions from participants remained. It was clear that participants needed to be educated about Plenti (in particular, how it works):

• “What happens to the points I’ve already earned at each store?”

• “How do I track the points I have already earned?”

• “How much are the points worth?”

and had their expectations about getting started in the program:

• “I assume I’d have to sign up first, give them lots of information about me.”

• “I imagined I’d be able to see a list of all the stores that are a part of it.”

• “You’d probably have to upload all your cards before you can do anything else, right?”

competitive analysis

It was equally important to research other rewards/loyalty programs as their solutions to similar problems will help me gather insights into their strengths and weaknesses, which will help me refine my designs. I analyzed four competitors, and 3 of them had a transparent points system that translated earned points into actual dollar amounts, which helped users make an informed spending decision.

Qualitative Persona

Based on the past research, we recognized three key user types that our product tried to solve problems for, and we decided to focus on Bridget because she is the embodiment of all the key users.

CONCEPTUALIZING & testing

Our team conducted a design studio to brainstorm ways to display the user’s reward points and offers with the past usability research findings and persona in mind. In Plenti’s business model, the primary focus is on customers actively using offers and points to shop at participating brands. However, the current design of the home screen only encourages users to activate available offers with no incentives to start using them. And most importantly, since this is the screen users first see when they log in, we need to provide the users with a simple but engaging way to understand their progress towards earning rewards and using the offers.

Overall, our users have a positive reaction to the idea of a dashboard in the Plenti app. They appreciate the idea of the dashboard because it allows them to quickly start key tasks including:

• Check Plenti Point Balance

• Find Offers / Explore Offers

Still, users’ reactions and feedback indicate the dashboard can be improved to be more user-centered:

• The visual design and content should align more closely with the use cases and emotional needs of members

• Labeling and messaging should consistently be user-centric vs. Plenti-centric

Affinity mapping & iterations

We gathered a lot of feedback by testing our design concepts and asking questions to find trends on their goals and pain points. We then organized the data through affinity mapping.

Based on the results, I continually iterated my designs with the team over 5 weeks, and we were able to make three major improvements:

the final product

Results

Based on Plenti’s key metrics since the updated design launched on September 2016, there was a significant 75% increase in points redemption within the app and over 60% new member registrations compare to the previous year.