Greenstamps

Type: B2C, marketing/customer loyalty mobile app
Size of team led: 3 (2 developers, 1 project managers)
Duration: 2024

The Story

S&H Greenstamps is an iconic marketing loyalty program that began in 1896.  When a customer shopped at a participating merchant, they received physical stamps that they pasted into a book.  Once the book was full, they could redeem the stamps for merchandise.

While many people remember this loyalty fondly and still cherish the items they received, not many people have heard much about S&H Greenstamps in a while.  That’s about to change!

Discover

S&H Greenstamps is relaunching their loyalty program digitally.  Instead of collecting physical stamps that can easily be misplaced, S&H had a vision where customers can now collect digital stamps.

S&H Greenstamps initially went to a different product designer/developer who created a web app for them which was very problematic for users.

Define

Users found the interface of the web app to be so cumbersome that they were not able to register for an account.  Particularly, the date picker for the birth date was not intuitive.  Their customers felt frustrated and stuck.

The web app also used QR codes to redeem stamps which allowed the user to upload a photo and left the product open to fraud.

S&H Greenstamps came to me after a frustrating experience with their previous product designer/developer.

Key Research Insight:

The web app displays a message that says the camera is recording which makes the user uncomfortable.

Design Challenge 1: Address user concerns about safety and usability

How do I resolve the issues with usability and security?

Before I could solve this problem, I inquired about the long term vision of this product.  What new features were on the horizon for the future?  What were the company’s goals and objectives for the next few years?

They asked if there was any chance we could “fix” the existing web app.  If we could fix it, would it save cost rather than completely redesigning it.

Through my research, I found that we could update their existing product to meet their immediate needs.  However, the features that they planned for the future including push notifications and utilizing advanced hardware capabilities within the mobile device, were more advanced than what we could accomplish with a web app.

My recommendation was to redesign and redevelop the app as a native iOS and Android app.  Even though this approach would be more costly in the short run, it would save them cost in the long run and would be a wise investment.

I also recommended switching from using QR codes to NFC scans for a more secure way for their customers to redeem stamps.

Design Challenge 2: Minimize user actions

Key Research Insight:
When a customer is standing at a checkout, they doesn’t have a lot of time.  We need to make it a fast as possible to redeem stamps.

My original user flow:

This still required too many user actions.  I needed to make it even easier.

Here is what the final scan looked like right from the home page:

In my initial design, I created a home screen with icons for the 4 navigation items needed. The feel I was going for was simple, clean and modern.

The client’s feedback was that they wanted to incorporate a nostalgic feel that was still in-line with their original branding dating back to the 1800’s.

We added a new background image that captured the sense of place you’d find in a small town with mom and pop businesses.

Result

I worked with S&H Greenstamps to replace the QR code fraud issue with NFC tags.  We changed the registration process to make it easier for users to register.  Since the redesign, there has been a 97% increase in user engagement (redeeming stamps).

I also led the development team as we created the iOS and Android apps. I created all the marketing for the app stores and took the app live.