A companion that fosters hydration habit

PROJECT

Gululu Gamification 2.0
Gululu Website

RESPONSIBILITIES

Web Design,  Game Design, User Research, Brand Strategy, Copy Writing, 

DESCRIPTION

My responsibility expanded from hardware design into software design so that I may approach this product as a holistic package.  The original game design suffered from a high user churn rate and the product website was very much tech-audience focused.  This project covered two critical touch-points that our team improved before we started selling the product to the general public.  The digital side of the product is the soul of Gululu Water Bottle so it is very important that we learn quickly from our Kickstarter pilot users and come up with an improved design.  

GAME VERSION 2.0

With version 1 game design, most drinking patterns peaked and dropped flat within 60 days.  In terms of "cost per hour entertained", we are right on par with the average indie games category at $7 per hour.  In order to attract average parents, we've set our new game design to achieve the same "cost per hour entertained" to that of a jigsaw puzzle, at $2.5 per hour.  Therefore, version 2.0 game design is targetted to sustain interest for at least 6 months or more.  We began a series of interviews to identify 3 key improvement area:

1. Improve stickiness of the reward system
2. Eliminate confusion around the game mechanism
3. Design for expandability

DESIGN COMMENTRY

Story Driven Game Play

User insights from version one indicated that children were not motivated to finish the game because they were confused about the end goal.  The redesign spells out a clear goal progression: by drinking more water, you will help your pet journey up and to meet new friends along the way.  

New Reward System

Immediate, daily, weekly, and long-term rewards were carefully designed to sustain interest and to allow future expandability.  A droplet of water is added for every sip the children take.  This is the most immediate form of reward.  To new creatures your pet meets every week.  Or exploring entirely different worlds after a month.   

Emotion as Reinforcements

Pet emotions were introduced as an enforcement method due to the user insight that emotional connections created a sense of responsibility with children.  It is carefully balanced so that kids weren't completely discouraged but provides the urge to maintain hydration.  

Habit Forming Treasure Boxes

Milestone treasure box and time-based treasure box provides collectibles and differentiates each plays through to enforce consistent hydration habit.  This was added due to user insights showing that kids might over drink one day and stop completely afterward but the old reward system would've been the same regardless of hydration pattern. 

MOBILE APP

With the game version 2.0 update, we had to ensure the upgrade transition experience for kids and parents were seamless.  Kids cannot feel discouraged about the interruption to the progress they've made so far.  Therefore, the new app update aimed to educate about the changes and recorded the progress to maintain game momentum.  

WEBSITE & COMMERCE

The Product Page

Based on our user research, we knew that we needed to spend the first impressions to address the reason why this every product even existed.  Focusing on the importance of forming a life-long habit of hydration first and foremost.  Features and specs are not introduced until much later. 

RESEARCH & INFOGRAPHIC

Pre-Purchase Customer Funnel

We analyzed and categorized over 2000 comments on Facebook to understand what are the reasons potential customers are turning away from this product.  A majority of the users had comments about the product value proposition.  This was a critical piece of information that helped guide the information architecture of our site.   

Through social media commenting behaviors, we also realized that gifting may be high potential sources of conversion.  This insight helped to inform our e-commerce experience design.