Google Play Points
Lead content designer
Google Play, 2017-2020
What I did
Google Play planned to launch a loyalty program for billions of users, and they asked me to figure out how we’d talk about it.
I created a system of simple concepts to build the visual design around and worked directly with the UX designer and PM to put the content through a grueling series of user research tests.
Explaining complexity
One of the hardest concepts to get users to understand is how points and level benefits roll over to the next year and when they don’t. To complicate things, Play planned to offer different boosts and multipliers for earning points.
After testing various options, I standardized our designs on the format “Earning x points per $1.” I’d love to say that I found an equally robust answer for explaining point and level rollover, but there’s always room for improvement. Over the course of the three years I worked on the project, we tried a variety of approaches that incrementally improved user understanding.
Making it local
Loyalty programs vary by country, and Play Points needed to adjust to local expectations. I made content modular and easily editable by locale, but the designer and I still iterated on design and research approaches for each country launch to make sure we got it right.
US launch: 3.4 million users joined and 151 million points earned in the first two weeks; added a donation feature to let users convert points into a monetary donation to multiple charitable organizations
Japan launch: 1 million users joined and 65 million points earned in the first week; 3,000+ mentions on social media from early users
South Korea launch: 775,000 users joined and 79 million points earned in the first week; 56% of new users opted in to receiving marketing comms, which is a 3x higher rate than normal
Press coverage
Google is bringing its free Google Play rewards program to the US
The Verge - Nov 4, 2019
Google Play’s US Store adds a rewards program with points for purchases, downloads & more
TechCrunch - Nov 4, 2019
Google Play Points launches in the U.S.
VentureBeat - Nov 4, 2019
Google’s Play Points program launches in the US to reward purchases
CNET - Nov 13, 2019