Rewards Card System Exploratory Research
Overview
A financial services company was redesigning its rewards portal and rethinking the language it uses to help cardholders find their way around it. Before any creative or UX work began, I led exploratory research into what rewards, achievement and loyalty mean in people’s lives, so the words and framing would come from real human meaning.
The question
How do people think about reward? What do they feel when they use a rewards card? And what language helps them, or gets in their way, as they move through a rewards experience?
The approach
I led an online qualitative study with rewards cardholders. It explored their own stories and goals alongside their relationship with their cards, so the language and design could be built on what matters to them.
Outcome
The final report gave the team a human foundation for the redesign. It explored what reward, achievement and loyalty mean to people, how they use rewards cards today, what gets in their way, and what an ideal relationship with their card looks like. It also looked closely at the language of rewards, including how words and framing shape meaning and trust. The work went on to inform the creative brief and the UX and UI work that followed.