PD Rewards
Project Type: product design
Background:
PD Rewards is an application for providing sponsored job-specific weekly quizzes. It motivates users with both rewards and certified credits toward professional development hours.
Goal:
Create a functional prototype for testing and demonstrating the core concepts of PD Rewards
Interactive App Prototype:
The main goal of this project was to demonstrate the core concept of PD Rewards and allow for usability testing of its functionality.
Key Functions -
- Register new users and their professional information
- Provide an industry-oriented weekly quiz
- Redeem points for sponsor rewards
(registration)
Quiz Process:
Users receive quizzes every week tailored to their professional development. They earn in-app points upon completion, as well as bonus points if they read an extra case study on the subject. If users wish to leave a comment or question regarding a quiz they have the option to do that as well.
(quiz)
Reward Process:
Points are collected and redeemed in-app for a variety of rewards. Users are able to compare and easily expand individual rewards to read the specific offerings. Coupons are advertised as watermarked QR codes, which become available anytime when unlocked.
Website Prototype:
The primary function of the desktop app was to provide an opportunity for advertisers to target industry audiences and sponsor quizzes. Advertisers can learn about PD Reward's different advertising locations, upload their designs, select duration, and submit requests.
Secondary features of the website included a Q&A section and a download page with a simplified explanation of the product.
Research & Design Process
Functional Design:
Pictured here are task flows created to guide the conception of UI elements necessary for users to complete their goals.
Competitive & Comparative Research:
Based on user interviews and short surveys I created a list of C&C apps that users already interacted with regularly. It was important to consider design systems users would naturally recognize. This would help them to intuitively understand PD Rewards and minimize needed onboarding.
Research goals -
- How are users being quizzed?
- How are users being rewarded?
(Starbucks Rewards App)
Sketching/Wireframes:
Using the C&C research and task flows as a starting point I began drafting ideas. I generally like to draw this step by hand as it allows me to more quickly generate and move between rough concepts. Sometimes I'll actually create digital prototypes of drawn apps. Eventually, the ideas coalesce, and digitally polished versions get created in greyscale. In this case, I worked with handmade b/w wireframes until the visual design stage.
Design goals -
- How might we make professional development simple for users?
- How might we provide a quick and easy registration process?
- How might we create job-specific sponsorship/ad opportunities?
- How might we encourage further education on quiz topics?
Learnings:
Something about this project that turned out to be very educational was the interview process. I was provided contact with an incredible group of volunteer educators, both local and international, with whom I was able to complete online usability testing between design iterations. By quickly delivering, testing, and improving designs I was able to identify assumptions and avoid development issues further down the road.