Increased engagement on our career portal by 90% using a gamified feature at Accenture
Timeline
3 months
(Nov-Jan 2023)
Role
UX/UI Designer
Platform
Web application
Status
Shipped
Contribution
Product Strategy
UX Research
UX Design
Team
I collaborated with a diverse team of 10, including leads, product managers, developers, and testers.
BACKGROUND
User engagement on our site was low until we introduced the gamified feature.
So, at Accenture, we built a platform to help employees change careers and access learning modules to reach their aspired career path because, in many companies, they feel stuck in their roles with no support to make a change. However, employees weren't using the site as expected.
I brainstormed with the team to design flows for the reward system feature, explored and designed different screens to create a gamified experience.
IMPACT
The gamified reward system fared well, increasing the website’s engagement
throughout.
90% increase in engagement
During load tests, we typically had fewer than 10K users per week. However, after introducing this feature, weekly users surged to over 60K.
5x scale-up of function apps
After a spike in engagement, we scaled our instances during the second week's winner announcement to handle traffic.
PROBLEM CONTEXT
After launching the website, despite marketing efforts and asking managers to nudge employees to use it, we didn’t see much engagement. Based on our survey and research, we identified two key reasons why employees weren't using the website as expected:
Limited Adoption
Only early adopters were using website, while most employees - late adopters remained disengaged.
Lack of Awareness
Many employees weren’t aware of what the website does and its benefits, even with the marketing efforts.
Time Constraints
Employees were too busy with their day-to-day work and didn’t have enough time to engage and explore the platform.
CHALLENGES
How might we increase awareness of the website’s benefits to ensure more employees understand its value?
How might we engage late adopters while considering their busy schedules?
BRAINSTORMING HIGHLIGHTS
Things we kept in mind while brainstorming solutions to encourage late adopters to use our platform
To increase awareness of the platform’s benefits and make more employees understand its value
We introduced a card-based system where each card contains a task to be completed. By completing each task, employees earn points. As employees complete these tasks and earn points which can be claimed as vouchers later, they get a guided tour of the platform’s features, helping them navigate and understand its full value.
To Increase late adopters' engagement without disrupting their busy schedules.
Determined the best quarter in a fiscal year (Sept - Aug) for introducing the contest
Q1 - Planning & Goal Setting
Q2 - Relatively free (Dec - Feb)
Q3 - Taxes
Q4 - Reporting & Performance Reviews
Figuring out the duration of the contest so that employees can participate
“It takes 21 days to build a habit and 90 days to make it a permanent lifestyle.”
-Dr. Maxwell Maltz
Dec and Jan - Employees take time off.
Thus, we chose February, making it a 3-week contest.
CONCEPT
This is a 3 week contest where the employees can participate by creating a squad from 3 to 5 members
where they’ve to earn points by completeding the cards below
Card
Normal Card
Bonus Card
These cards will be released at the beginning and will always be available, helping users get accustomed to the platform.
Define your career path and set and update your aspiration
Take action
90
These cards will be released weekly, allowing users to choose their desired role and begin their learning modules.
All members of the league have saved their industry Aspiration
WEEKLY QUEST
Take action
300
FINAL DESIGN
An instruction page with details about the game and how to play. We made sure that the information is digestible by chunking it into smaller bits to make it readable and scannable.
www.iaspire.accenture.com
About
My Squad
My Missions
League Board
Winners
Home / About
How To Play
Read the rules of the game to best strategies on how to shine brighter in the league!
1
Create your squad
2
Complete the missions
3
Win weekly and League Awards
4
Track your Progress
Create your Squad
Participants
An individual can join only one squad.
Registration
February 3, 2023 - February 5, 2023
Complete the missions
How to Earn Coins
Access My Missions to view eligible actions and earn coins for yourself and your squad.
Timeline
First Weekly Quest: Feb 3 – Feb 9
Second Weekly Quest: Feb 10 – Feb 16
Third Weekly Quest: Feb 17 – Feb 23
Important Note
Quests are time-bound – Once a week is complete, you can no longer complete that week's quest.
Late registration impact – If you register in the second week, you will not be able to access the first weekly quest.
This page allows employees to create their squad. We have ensured that the design follows heuristic evaluation principles and properly handles error messages and negative scenarios.
www.iaspire.accenture.com
About
My Squad
My Missions
League Board
Winners
Home / My Squad
Build a squad
Ready to begin your All Star Journey? Start by giving an unique and exciting name to your squad and inviting members to form the ultimate team.
Write a name for your squad
*
Enter your squad name (Min 3 character)
Character: 0/50
Search members by name or enterprise ID and add them to your squad
*
Search member (Enter min 3 character)
Add min 4 and max 5 members in your squad
madhumitha.m
I have connected with my squad members to be a part of thus squad
*
Submit your Squad
We did not proceed with any of our UI explorations for the card, as the design language prioritizes subtlety and simplicity. In this design, users can click the 'Take Action' button to complete their tasks.
The leaderboard consists of the top 10 players, with a filter to view either the overall top 10 or the weekly top 10 players. We incorporated a touch of skeuomorphism in the design of the winner badges.
www.iaspire.accenture.com
About
My Squad
My Missions
League Board
Winners
Top 10 Squad Rankings
Weekly
Overall
Team Squad
Points: 250
2
Team Outliers
Points: 350
1
Team Faang
Points: 190
3
Leaderboard
1
Team Outliers
350
2
Team Squad
250
3
Team Faang
190
4.
Team Mickey
190
5.
Team We are Winners
190
6.
Team Rock
190
7.
Team Paper
190
8.
Team Scissor
190
9.
Team Winner
190
10.
Team Losers
190
CHALLENGES DURING CONTEST
Delayed Data Fetching
Some tasks required using external platforms, and fetching the data took longer than expected.
To accommodate this, we shifted the weekly winner announcement to Wednesday, giving us three days (from Sunday) to process the data.
Site Crash
During the second week’s winner announcement, the site crashed.
In hindsight, we should have proactively tested the function apps and ensured they could handle the load based on the number of registrations.
REFLECTION
This feature became a reality because we trusted our idea and effectively articulated it to convince our leadership team.
Looking back, there are several things we could have done differently, which we have noted for our next contest. For example, we need to ensure equal chances for both smaller and larger teams.
I’ve realized that post-release analysis and research are just as important as the development phase itself.
Additionally, the UI could have been more gamified, as some of our initial explorations were discarded for not aligning with our design language. Next time, we also plan to design for both dark and light modes.
Let’s chat!
Always happy to connect, brainstorm, or dive into something creative together.
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Madhumitha Manimaran © 2023.