Design Brief
Gamifying the workday to increase employee retention
After a wave of employee resignations, a fraud detection company ("ACME") asked my graduate interaction design class at SJSU to increase employee retention and engagement by redesigning their web app. With clients like United Airlines and Airbnb, ACME caseworkers have an immense list of claims to review, and the recent turnover has made it even more difficult for managers to help their team meet KPIs.
ACME provided a design system for their fraud reporting software and challenged our class to redesign the workday experience for case workers and managers using gamification.
Role
Interaction Design
UI Design
Deliverables
Game Flow Design
High Fidelity UI
Tools
Figma
Timeline
4 weeks
Fall 2022
Personas
Case workers review up to 100 cases each week to flag suspicious activity for ACME. Each day feels the same for many case workers, with little recognition for their efforts, leading to burn out.
As more case workers resign from ACME, pressure is put on managers and the remaining case workers to handle the growing backlog of cases.
Adam
Case Worker
Goals
Pain Points
Mark
Manager
Goals
Pain Points
Design Process
Gamification can motivate employees, as long as the rules seem fair and the outcomes of the game align with the employee's goals.
I analyzed the needs and painpoints of each persona and worked with my classmate to 1. prioritize business goals, 2. align those goals with case worker motivations, and 3. map the logic, mechanics, and rules of the game for both case workers and managers.
Step 01
Prioritize business goals
ACME relies on their employees to make recommendations on cases by marking them as fraud or a false positive. Each recommendation also trains AI models that influence ACME’s ability to automate fraud detection.
To meet ACME's business goals, our design must be gamified to lead case workers to act on these 2 object-action pairs.
Based on ACME's business goals, my classmate and I chose 2 object-action pairs to gamify. This graphic shows that our design choices must be prioritized to motivate case workers to make recommendations for cases and AI models.
Step 02
Align business goals with case worker motivations
We designed 2 tiers of games to motivate case workers to make more recommendations for cases at ACME. Game 1 tracks case worker career growth and motivates them with competitions, bonuses, and promotions as they work through cases, while Game 2 highlights caseworker impact as they identify trends in fraud that are shared with everyone at ACME.
Game 1 uses motivators such as personal benefit, competition, and mastery to encourage case workers to earn rewards, promotions, and to move on to Game 2.
Game 2 motivates case workers who have earned the 'Trendspotting' status, which allows case workers to own trends and gives them the privilege to earn additional points.
Step 03
Map out game mechanics, logic, and rules
Both Game 1 and 2 follow 3 simple steps: make case recommendations, earn points, get rewards. However, the motivators and rewards evolve from Game 1 to Game 2 as case workers gain more experience and make recommendations for more cases.
As they progress in the game, case workers are encouraged to stay at ACME longer to earn new bonuses, promotions, and opportunities for recognition.
This design plan and game flow shows how case workers are motivated differently by the 2 tiers of games as they gain experience at ACME.
Design Walkthrough
Case workers need to see that their efforts are important and have meaning. My classmate and I adapted ACME's existing design system to motivate case workers by highlighting their career growth and impact at ACME with every case they review.
Now, case workers see how their daily efforts can lead to pay bonuses, prizes and promotions.
The Dashboard
Track progress towards pay bonuses and promotions
Case workers can earn points towards prizes, pay bonuses, and promotions by performing essential aspects of their role like making case recommendations and communicating trends in fraud with their team.
The dashboard gives case workers feedback on their progress towards privileges and bonuses, while leading them to take the next steps towards additional rewards and benefits.
Case workers see their individual impact and compare their team to top teams at ACME.
Managers adjust how bonuses and competition points are awarded while keeping an eye on KPIs.
The Queue
Leave feedback on cases to earn more rewards
The queue is where case workers are spending most of their time. Here, they're reviewing cases and are rewarded with points for leaving feedback for each recommendation.
Case workers leave comments and vote on fraud trends to communicate patterns across ACME. Points are awarded incrementally to encourage case workers to step through and learn about each stage of a complete case investigation.
Managers see who submitted trends, how the rest of the company is voting on trends, and can assign overdue cases to their top performers.
Comments are attached to each case and help managers resolve case worker's questions as they come up.
Arena Competitions
Earn prizes for competing with anyone at ACME
Case workers can opt in to compete for prizes by reviewing the most cases. New prizes are added to arena competitions each pay period to incentivize case workers to join new competitions regularly.
Case workers get feedback on their performance during any arena competition and see how they stack up to their fellow competitors.
Case workers compete with each other to win prizes like vacation coupons and charity donations.
Notifications show progress updates and use a call to action button to lead case workers back to their queue.
Disclaimer: The designs, content, and experiences portrayed are purely conceptual and not guaranteed to be built in their full actuality. Furthermore, "ACME" is a codename for the project during the visioning phase and will not be used in-market.
Reflection
Introducing gamification to enterprise software can be tricky, as employees generally can't opt out of the products their company uses. Our solution rewards required actions in ACME'S workflow and adds voluntary competitions to the mix, so case workers can focus on the basics of their career until they want to take on more.
In the future, case workers might have the opportunity to earn badges for learning new skills at ACME to inspire more growth and collaboration. I hope our ideas help ACME incorporate game elements to relieve burn out for their case workers!
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