Lucky Lincoln Gaming — Redesigning Loyalty Rewards Kiosks

Context

Lucky Lincoln Gaming (LLG) is a licensed Video Gaming Terminal Operator based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2014, LLG is the leading innovator in the industry. They developed the unique loyalty rewards program — — Lincoln’s Rewards Loyalty Kiosk, that has become the industry staple. Players use kiosks to earn points toward free plays and other rewards. At the same time, owners are able to reward customers, collect users’ data for marketing purposes and better manage their businesses.

To increase users who sign up for the loyalty program and reduce dropouts, the company decides to install a mini-tablet right next to each slot machine. Because of the installation of mini-tablets, the company wants to revamp the design of the kiosk to better accommodate the change.

Current Workflow

The loyalty kiosk is a touch screen machine of size 84" tall by 30" wide with a 47" touch screen. To sign up, users need to scan their IDs. Then users go to the slot machines and log in on the mini-tablet right next to them. The mini-tablet starts to count points based on how long the player has played. Players originally need to manually check in every hour on the kiosk to receive points. Now, the mini-tablet will count the points based on how long the users have played. For the players, the loyalty kiosk is the hub to manage their accounts, where they can redeem points, check offers, and keep track of their rewards.

Discover

I conducted user interviews, did market research and talked to my colleagues to understand the problem.

User Research Phase 1

To investigate how to better leverage mini-tablets and improve current experiences, I decided to conduct interviews with multiple stakeholders, including players, location owners, and Chief Marketing Officer.

Most importantly, I conducted interviews with 11 users at gaming parlors. Our main users are females around 46–55 years old. They did get confused by some features on the kiosk and needed help from attendants. Sitting in the gaming parlor, I found that only half of the players use the kiosk. I approached players who went directly to slot machines and asked why they didn’t use the kiosk. They told me the following reasons:

1. Because the machine requires IDs to sign up, they’re concerned about privacy issues.
2. Some sections on the homepage are confusing, e.g. they cannot tell the difference between bonus cards and offers.

Old Design

Business Needs

With the installation of mini-tablet, users have to log in with phone numbers. However, the old sign-up process makes entering the phone number optional. In the new flow, the company wants to make sure to collect phone numbers from the players. Also, the company envisions the kiosk to be its major marketing tool to attract new users and retain loyal customers. Lucky Lincoln relies on user information (phone numbers and email addresses) to contact its customers whenever they have major live events and promotions.

Problem

So what problems are we trying to solve here?

I synthesized the input from players and the company into one question:

How do we create an elder-friendly experience that minimizes privacy concern while satifying the company’s marketing goal?

I recognized the sign-up flow and the homepage are two essential components that I should focus on to resolve user confusion and achieve the company’s marketing goal.

Market Research

Because this is an area I have little knowledge in, I conducted extensive research in related fields such as bank ATM machines, designs for the elderly and other similar kiosks. This product is complicated because the medium it is displayed on and its target audience requires designers to consider the physical dimension and the accessibility of the product.

Before I moved into the design stage, I summarized the following points to keep in mind:

1. Physical dimension

What is the field of view? How big the screen is? How much pressure needs to be exerted on the screen? How much animation is needed?

2. Inclusive design

Introduce features one by one to prevent cognitive overload. Avoid splitting tasks across multiple screens. When using icons and symbols, try to pair them with texts.

Define — Sign Up

With the mini-tablet installed, it also brought new potential entry points to sign up. All of the three options are not perfect and have tradeoffs. Tying back to the problem statement, we want to ensure the product is elderly-friendly and retains its business value. We decided to go with the first option — sign up on the kiosk.

Content Requirement

What information is required when users sign up?

We reduced the information required to the minimum as users feel worried about their privacy when asked to give out too much detailed information such as address. We also make the email address optional because many elderly people do not have emails.

Sign-up User Flow

To satisfy the company’s marketing goal while not intruding on users’ privacy, we suggested 3 potential sign-up user flows:

1. Scan IDs to sign up and fill in phone number (privacy concern)
2. Use phone number to sign up and manually fill in personal information (too many steps )
3. Use phone number to sign up, and choose to either scan ID or type to fill in information (flexible, users can choose)

We decided to go with the last one because it caters to different types of users’ needs. Users who value privacy could choose to type out the information while users who value convenience could scan IDs.

Design — Sign Up

After I explored single-page sign-up and multiple-step sign-up, I decided to take a middle ground, so it’s clear that users need to enter the phone number while not making them feel there are many steps to go through. Users would enter the number and confirm first, then entering the rest of the information or scanning the ID to finish the sign-up.

Define — Homescreen

Based on the preliminary around of user research, I recognized the current design of the homepage is another painpoint that would frustrate users and lead to drop-off. Therefore, I conducted a second round of interview to learn more about users response.

User Research Phase 2

Research questions include:

• What are the mostly used features on the kiosk?
• Do users know what is Promotions/Offers/Bonus cards?
• What information do users want to see when tracking their stars/rewards?
• Is there anything confusing to you?

Do users know what is Promotions/Offers/Bonus cards?

What information do users want to see when tracking their stars/rewards?

Based on users’ responses, I made the following adjustments:

• Highlight the reward section and display it in a way that encourages progress-tracking
• Eliminate unnecessary sections and merge overlapping sections
• Motivate users to keep playing and coming back
• Feature promotion events

Design — Homescreen

I broke the homepage down into elements and made explorations on each of them.

The final homepage:

Visual Design

I also created a brand-new visual system for the kiosk and revamped all the screens. I took yellow out from the logo as the primary color. Another reason I chose yellow is because it is the color of coins and gold, which indicates good luck and money.

Screens revamp:

Results

1. DAU of the Loyalty Rewards Kiosk increased by 35% and the retention rate increased to 85%
2. More elder-friendly interface design
3. Successfully collected phone numbers for marketing purposes

What I Learned

1. Design solutions should always be backed by data.
2. The way you’re asking questions determines if you can capture effective information from users. Don’t make questions sound like tests.
3. The solution is hardly optimal in real-life situations. Coexist with constraints and work out the best solution possible.
4. Inclusive designs sometimes mean you cannot always go for the most effective design.