Background
Revamping our gamification and ranking system to increase engagement. The new set of badges need to show a clearer sense of progress in terms of design. We reworked our ranking system to feature 14 levels instead of 10.
Points system
Previously, users progress through each rank by writing quality reviews (reviews with high word count and photos). The new system now uses a point system. Different contributions(posting reviews, photos, recommended menu, etc.) will reward users with points that progress their rank.
Visual design
We redesigned the rank badges. We explored different options. We want a look that is playful but not too comical. The team was struggling to get approval. Finally, I did direction B and got the go-ahead.
Final design
I have to carefully scale the design to make sure there is a sense of progression to these ranks.
Ranks with the UI
I didn’t design the UI myself but I supervised the design process.
Result and hypothesis
Unfortunately, this was released during the start of COVID-19. Not really a great time for driving engagement. Normally we would be hypothesizing for a 10% uptick in contributions.
To hypothesize, with data from the previous experiments I think it’s fair to expect a 10-30% increase in contributions due to the excitement of the new system mostly from loyal contributors. But without other factors in gamification such as robust rewarding or social factors, this number might be hard to sustain. We needed more work in this area.
Convert users to regular contributors
Another metrics that we should keep a close look at is the number of new contributors who return to contribute compared to the old version. The hypothesis is that we make rank progress easier at the beginning. It should attract and convert users to become regular or repeat contributors at a higher rate.
Theoretically, it should be easier to get contributions from new users than expecting loyal contributors to contribute more often since people aren’t going to go out and dine then review much more often.