Rewards & Referrals

My role

Sole UX Designer leading end-to-end design, partnering with marketing designers on visual assets.

The team

3 Designers (1 UX, 2 Marketing), 2 PMs, 2 Growth Managers, 4+ Engineers, QA, Copywriter.

Overview

From 2023 to 2025, we evolved a simple referral page into a scalable rewards center supporting user growth and engagement. Referral has always been a key part of US Mobile’s growth, with a dedicated bottom navigation tab and strong emphasis on word-of-mouth sharing. As the sole UX designer, I led multiple key releases, redesigning referral flows, refining reward structures, and introducing referral tracking to improve clarity and conversion.

Before

Slide to view

After

Impacts

↑ Referral-driven growth (key avenue) ↑ Share conversion ↑ Rewards activation

Design Highlight 1

Redesigning the referral experience

Problem
Users had to manually copy referral codes and switch apps to share them, creating friction. Key actions and information were not clearly prioritized, which reduced visibility and engagement.

Approach
We transitioned from static referral codes to personalized referral links to enable seamless sharing and measurable attribution. I also restructured the page hierarchy to surface primary actions, clarify information, and create a more intuitive and engaging experience.

Design Highlight 2

From Referral Page → Rewards Center

The shift
As referral incentives evolved from service credits to higher value rewards, the experience needed to grow beyond a single feature. What started as a referral page became a centralized Rewards Center, supporting multiple ways to earn beyond referrals. This shift required rethinking the structure and mental model, clearly separating how users earn rewards from how they access and manage them.

Structuring the Rewards Center
With this expanded vision, I explored several structural directions to evolve the referral page into a scalable rewards system. The main challenge was designing a layout that could support future earning programs while keeping referral clear and easy to access. I tested different ways of organizing earning opportunities and reward visibility, balancing long term flexibility with simplicity.

Balancing now and future
Although the long term roadmap included additional earning programs, the MVP centered on referral. At the same time, rewards are only issued after a six month qualification period, meaning many users would see a zero balance for an extended time. To balance this, we introduced a two tab Rewards Center: Refer a friend to focus on earning actions, and Rewards to manage earned value when available. This structure kept referral as the primary driver while ensuring the system could scale over time.

Design Highlight 3

Designing the Rewards Card System

Multi-state experience
Introducing cash rewards required building a wallet-like card system from scratch. The experience had to support users with no cards, one or multiple active cards, and paused or closed states, while keeping access to card details, transactions, and usage rules intuitive. As the sole UX designer, I worked closely with the product manager to translate evolving third-party requirements into a clear and scalable rewards experience.

Compliance and friction
Because the rewards card was issued through a third-party partner, users needed to confirm their identity before activating a card. Close to launch, we were asked to add this verification step before users could access the rewards experience. Given the tight timeline, we first placed verification at entry to ensure compliance. After reviewing the requirement more closely, we confirmed that identity confirmation was only necessary before card issuance, not for referral. We then adjusted the flow, moving verification into the Rewards tab so users could continue referring friends without interruption, while still meeting compliance when they chose to access their card.

Design Highlight 4

Improving referral transparency

Opportunity
During our first company hackathon in early 2025, I proposed improving referral transparency. While sharing and rewards were clearly structured, users lacked visibility into when and how their referral rewards would be issued. We introduced a referral tracking experience to bridge this gap and make reward progress more transparent.

From concept to priority
Within a three-day cross-functional sprint, our team defined the scope, designed, built, and demoed the feature. The response from leadership was strong, and the concept was later prioritized for production. The tracking system has since been introduced, improving clarity around reward timing and progress.

Key takeaways

Shaping clarity instead of waiting for it
This project faced pauses, scope changes, and uncertainties, making it easy to get stuck waiting for clarity. Instead, I proactively researched how other platforms handle referrals and rewards, gathered insights from users, and explored potential directions. This allowed me to move forward with design ideas rather than waiting for every detail to be defined. I realized that while stakeholder input is important, taking initiative to uncover insights and shape the direction myself leads to stronger, more informed decisions.

Optimizing design within constraints
I learned that even with strict requirements or third-party guidelines, there’s often room to improve the UX. Many constraints are negotiable when we align on mutual goals. By actively discussing ideas and collaborating with stakeholders, we can find solutions that meet requirements while enhancing the user experience.

Prioritizing user needs over visual trends
Initially, I focused on aesthetics and design trends, but I realized that great design is about solving real user needs and aligning with business goals. While I understood this in theory, working on real projects and collaborating with the team helped me truly internalize its importance.