Unlockable Challenges
Engaging couriers with a succession of rewards
My Role
Led the product design implementation, including Competitive Analysis, Prototyping, UI/UX Design, and Usability Testing.
Timeline
Jan - Mar 2025
Project Type
Feature in the courier mobile app, designed on iOS. Used the PIE design system
Outcomes
Our goal is to improve courier engagement during delivery: shifts worked, shifts completed, and orders accepted
Final Design
Unlockable Challenges is a new feature aimed at incentivizing couriers to deliver more by providing a succession of rewards for deliveries. Designs are complete and handed off, but not developed. The primary KPI's we aim to address are shifts joined, shifts completed, and offers accepted.
Context: what are Challenges?
Couriers are given “Challenges”, or tasks, to complete for a reward. For example, “Complete 6 deliveries for a $25 reward”.
The Challenge Hub is currently live. However, its UI is outdated and is difficult to scale to accommodate Unlockable Challenges.
Unlockable Challenges breaks down an intimidating goal into achievable checkpoints
Long challenges with many deliveries can feel intimidating and unachievable.
Introducing Unlockable Challenges: Challenges with sections where completing each section results in an immediate reward and unlocks the next section. Unlockable Challenges breaks down a large, potentially intimidating goal into smaller, more achievable checkpoints.
Existing research
In-app progress tracking with transparent rules ensures a seamless experience
Designing Challenge types with achievability and autonomy leads to the optimal experience
The structure of Unlockable Challenges provides Couriers with an early win and a sense of progression as they accomplishment each checkpoint. This creates feelings of achievability, which drives satisfaction
Our opportunity to revamp and improve Challenges
How Might We's
How might we alter the existing Challenge Hub to accommodate Unlockable Challenges?
How might we design a clear, intuitive, and engaging Unlockable Challenges experience?
How might we show the courier’s progress in a motivating but non-intrusive way to increase offer acceptance, shifts competed, and shifts worked?
How might we increase a courier’s sense of accomplishment and competency as they progress through Unlockable Challenges?
Other Considerations
The bottom sheet for the matching to offers was currently being designed, so we had to work alongside those designers
Metrics:
Increase acceptance rate
Increase shifts worked
Increase shift hours
Improve delivery times (time from order placed to order delivered)
Competitive Analysis on sequential Challenges and rewards
I conducted a competitive analysis, looking at how competitors handed unlockable or sequential Challenges.
I also looked at types of progress bars to use, such as Duolingo's quests, a best-in-class example of gamification.
Here are some of my design explorations
Usability Testing to validate our new designs
I then conducted user testing with the following research questions:
Challenge Hub
Do Couriers understand unlockable Challenges as it is shown to them?
Do they find the unlockable Challenges motivating?
I also explored some other touchpoints to motivate the couriers
Offer Screen
Is showing the Challenge progress helpful?
Would seeing the Challenge progress at this point motivate them to take on an offer?
Post-order screen
Is showing the Challenge progress helpful?
Here are some of learnings we took usability testing:
Final Design
With some minor modifications, here is the final design, including the Challenge Hub, Challenge details, and the condensed view from the dashboard when delivering.
I decided to remove the progress in the offer screen as it was not helpful, and kept the post-delivery progress as post-MVP work.
Appendix: additional considerations
Tailoring the Challenge type based on order types
We explored both delivery Challenges and earnings Challenges. While delivery Challenges provide a reward after the courier completes a certain number of deliveries, earnings Challenges provide an additional reward after the courier has earned a certain amount (for ex: Earn a $50 reward after earning $150). From our research, we found that earnings Challenges motivate couriers to take longer, higher paying deliveries and reject shorter deliveries so that they can make more progress towards their reward. Depending on our network needs, we can use earnings Challenges to motivate couriers to accept more high-paying orders, and use delivery Challenges to motivate couriers to accept shorter deliveries.
Not just applying gamification, but addressing internal motivations
Gamification is about applying game-like elements to non-game environments, and we can learn a lot from games because players are motivated to play even though they don’t have to.
I studied the gamification Octalysis framework by Yu-Kai Chou Gamification. I learned the importance of not just copying game-like elements from other systems, like progress bars and badges, but to think about core motivations. From our research, couriers are largely driven by accomplishment, involving consistent offers, bonuses, and competence. Unlockable Challenges create this system by giving couriers a sense of progress, with a visual progress bar, and rewards as they continue to deliver.
Achievability, cohorting, and poor network conditions
From our research, motivation is directly correlated to achievability. If a Challenge is seen as unfeasible to the courier, then it will be demotivating and result in courier churn. With the introduction of Unlockable Challenges, couriers can have their rewards broken up into achievable segments, motivating them to continue delivering. Also, couriers appreciate seeing quick wins, and steady or increasing rewards.
In addition, Unlockable Challenges target both our full-time couriers, part-time couriers, and un-engaged couriers. It allows part-time couriers to unlock the initial, easier rewards, and full-time couriers to work towards the more difficult rewards. Also, even if there are low volumes of orders, couriers can work towards easy wins rather than choosing to work on another delivery platform. Unlockable Challenges are also effective an re-engaging couriers who don’t want to miss out on extra earnings.
Our survey showed us that couriers appreciated Challenges with either steady rewards, which were easy to track in their head, or increasing rewards, where couriers could achieve a quick win and work towards higher rewards, similar to how the initial boss in a video game is easy and provides a small reward, while the final boss is the most difficult with the best rewards.