Miro
Figma
2 Weeks
User Research
Designer
One fine day I was contacted by my good friend Russ Diaz, who was contacted by a hiring manager at Reddit (I was so jealous!). He wanted to do a case study in preparation for his interview and as an 8 year veteran I was happy to help.
I spend way too much time on Reddit, but of all of our acquaintances, we only knew one person who had ever spent anything on Reddit and that was 4 years ago. Reddit is known for being the front page of the Internet. It's become famous for being the most successful forum in the world with over 52 million users visiting the site daily, but nobody we know is motivated to spend money.
Using my background in free-to-play gamification, I suggested some visual changes we could implement to support more engagement with the award system.
Glorious Leader
Russ and I had worked on previous projects together and he ran this project. He's been using Reddit for 3 years casually.
russelldiaz.com
Reddit Veteran
Me! IĀ have been using Reddit for 8 years and have multiple accounts. I might be a Reddit addict.
Reddit Noobie
Karen had heard of Reddit, but it was this project that finally prompted her to create an account. Welcome to the club!
karenlo.co
Reddit has had some big redesigns over the 8 years I have been using it. IĀ introduced the group to some of the changes from Reddit Classic to the New Experience.
Coins are Reddit's main currency. Coins can purchase the awards that have become a main feature on the platform.
Awards are how Reddit users appreciate each other. Users can award posts or comments to show how much they enjoyed them. Some awards even give Premium content to the recipients.
Reddit uses gamification methods like its Karma and Awards system to motivate users to interact within communities (subreddits). Does this motivate users to desire awards?
Reddit uses Coins to allow users to purchase Awards. These in turn can then be gifted to others. The Coin purchases themselves, however, give no benefit to the purchaser.
Is it that feel good emotion knowing that someone might appreciate even a free one? Is it giving another user premium access? Why, oh why, would people care?
We started by sending the survey out through our own social networks, but quickly discovered a problem: they were all lurkers. Here's some highlights from that survey.
Full Survey ResultsIn essence, these guys were true lurkers, with very little participation. Let's see what they think about the awards:
The responses showed a lot of negative sentiment or apathy towards the awards.
The users who had been on the site before the awards system and free awards were implemented were more likely to dislike the system.
It seems that lurkers don't even give the free awards they are given. The 5% who gave the medals also purchased them, however both were one time purchases 2+ years ago.
Based on our survey results, veteran users don't tend to participate and thus, aren't inclined to use the award system.
Obviously, our survey didn't reach the users of the award system. While it is important to note that lurkers are the vast majority of the Reddit population, we wanted to know the motivation behind participating in the award system.
Luckily, Russ had been awarded his first Gold award so posted our survey in r/lounge, r/samplesize, and r/awards, which gave us insights into parts of the awards community IĀ didn't know existed.
These guys are a younger crowd (although the remaining 50% ranged in ages from 27-63), with younger accounts, who were actively participating.
They had a very different take on the awards system:
I had never even heard of collecting before. So I was surprised to find that there was an entire community that traded awards between each other. This group loved awards. This isn't surprising since this survey was posted to targeted subreddits, although it does show more participation with awards with accounts that were created after the awards system was implemented.
Again, not surprising since this was a targeted audience. But in this group we see that even the free awards do not go to waste and are valued.
We asked these users how they felt when gifting an award and it's clear that they all had emotional responses:
"Giving awards makes me even happier than getting awards. It's always better to give than receive :D"
"Like I'm paying it forward"
"Giving gold felt awesome. I wish I had enough coins so I could give gold everyday"
We also learned more about the purchase habits of these users.
Based on these results, we found that active participation through posts and comments put more value into the award system and thus into Reddit.
Yes! As we found from our surveys there is a whole community who collects awards on top of Karma. That collecting bug and need for the rarest awards drives some users to participate more with the awards system.
Well, most don't, unfortunately. Even in the awards community, people aren't seeing the value of spending their money on awards. In these niche communities Coins are earned by simply commenting or posting. There were many one-time purchases of coins, but they were infrequent.
For those warm and fuzzy feelings that one gets when we give. Some people mentioned that it felt like a "virtual hug" to receive and give an award. There are some users who feel an emotional connection with others on the site and want to award them.
These are slight visual changes that can motivate users to connect their money to Award values. It prompts users to visit the awards area regularly with the free award and allows them to view their own Coins and see what they can buy with them in one place.
The only thing Coins buy is Awards so make Awards the go-to option on each page.
1. This will make sure users know that they are not getting free Coins (which is what our Reddit Noobie thought).
2. By moving it down to the Award option, a user will see that vibrant red āFreeā on every post, prompting them to click and open the Awards tab if only to get rid of it.
3. This promotes more user engagement with both posts and Awards.
If users are going to connect Reddit Coins with Awards, they need to be shown together.
1. Move a usersā balance below the option to buy Coins. That way they can see their own balance without switching windows or going to the Coins menu and see immediately above where they can āGet Coins.ā
2. Move the Gift Box into the Awards area so users can understand that they will be receiving a free Award, not free Coins. This will also make users see all the other awards and compare the free one to the purchasable ones, putting a relative price tag on the free content.
3. Put Coin icons in front of all prices. Itās like putting a $ sign before a money transaction. This way users know that they cost Coins and see the repetition of Coins=Awards.
Get rid of Reddit Classic! IĀ know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but hear me out. I interviewed a lurker friend of mine and he still uses classic on both mobile and web. All the new redesigns, marketing techniques, free award, and even the purchase Coins option are not there. I had him change to the New Experience and that was the first time he ever claimed or saw the free award option. He still didn't use it, because he went right back to Classic where he forgot about it immediately, but he at least knows it is there now. Reddit should take that plunge, anger a few people maybe, and make the experience universal.
Every purchase of Coins should come with some benefit to the user who spent the money. I understand the intent behind Karma and the pay-it-forward frame of mind. However, if there is no benefit to the user who made the purchase, then the only benefit is to the receiver of the Awards, meaning the only motivation to make a purchase is to hope that another user appreciates your award. The purchaser may not even be thanked for it.
āPer our surveys, it doesn't take much to make them happy. This can be Premium benefits for the higher valued purchases or simply trophies, something customizable for your avatar, or a short period of the ad-free experience. Heck, one person even suggested donating a dollar to Wikimedia for every dollar spent. (I'm not sure how feasible that is in the long run, but, as someone who has never made a purchase in 8 years, I would be inclined to buy coins if I knew some of it went to a charity that I supported. Maybe set up an Extra Life campaign or something.) This way, a user can actually experience some form of benefit for their own accounts, which can prompt further one-time purchases or even Premium subscriptions.
Reddit should gamify the platform more. The process has already begun and should be solidified. Coins are equivalent to an in-game currency and thus, an economy. There is already an entire community who "trade" awards, which I never even heard of before this project. If coins are to become more relevant, both the giver and receiver of even free awards should get at least 1 Coin. That way, more users can experience Coins for themselves without spending money and are awarded for their participation using Awards.
Further gamifaction methods that can be utilized would be to expand achievements and potentially develop a leaderboard. There could be a leaderboard for who gives/receives the most awards, upvotes/downvotes the most posts or comments, or even just troll boards like who rickrolls the most users. Make the competition fun.
