Make a coin economy feel simple
Hike Rewards lives inside Hike Messenger. People earn Hike Coins for things they already do — chatting, calling, sharing — and spend them on recharges, vouchers and gift cards. The campaign line said it best: “Aap batein karo, aur recharge humein karne do.”
The challenge was making a coin economy feel simple: people need to see what they have, what to do next and what they can afford, without ever reading a rulebook.
- ResearchInformation architecture, competitor benchmarking and usability fixes.
- Late July 2026Lo-fi MVP wireframes and first design reviews.
- 26 August 2026MVP design approved; UAT on Android 1.0.51 and iOS 1.1.0.
- 20 September 2026MVP live for Hike Messenger users.
- October 2026Rewards v2 finalised and handed off.
Structure before screens
I started with the information architecture, so every module had one clear job before anything was drawn.
The lo-fi MVP then covered the day-zero sign-up reward, a first-time walkthrough, the Rewards hub, the coin ledger, and the state machine every mission follows.
The MVP: earn, claim, redeem
The MVP shipped the core loop on Android and iOS in light and dark: missions, the daily spin, a Store of coupons and gift cards, and a redemption flow designed for moments when money is involved. A voucher purchase asks for confirmation, then either explains the 24–48 hour wait for the code, or fails honestly with “Your coins are not deducted.”
Design principle: never make people do maths
Cost leads, balance supports, and the remainder is calculated for them. If the balance falls short, the card says exactly how many more coins are needed before anyone taps.
v2: a reason to come back every day
The MVP proved the loop: 63% adopted Rewards and around 19% redeemed. Version 2 is about habit. Rewards became four tabs with Today as the front door: your streak day, a time-boxed special mission, today’s missions, and a spin that unlocks after three missions.
A 30-day streak that forgives
One mission a day keeps the streak going, with a Mega Spin on day 7. Missing a day restarts the count, but everything earned is marked “Yours to keep” and your best run stays visible. Losing a streak shouldn’t feel like losing what you won.
Decisions and trade-offs
Claiming is a moment
Finished missions wait in Ready to claim instead of crediting silently. One tap, but earning becomes something people notice.
Streaks forgive
A missed day resets the count, not the rewards. People are far more likely to start again than quit.
Privacy on the leaderboard
On a privacy-first messenger, other players appear masked; your own rank stays pinned.
Honest failure states
A failed purchase says first that coins weren’t deducted — the only thing a worried user wants to know.
Only show what’s yours
“Missed” lists only missions you started, so the screen never shames people.
Speak like the user
Hinglish where it lands, like “Roz naye missions”, plain English everywhere else.
Where AI helped
I ran hi-fi design reviews through Figma MCP, so feedback pointed at real layers and components. I used Claude as a critique partner on the redemption screen, and built the clickable prototype in code with AI so stakeholders could feel the claim, spin and streak moments before engineering committed.
What I learned
In gamified systems, the rules are the interface. Most of the UX work happened before the screens — in deciding how coins, claims and streaks behave — so the screens had something simple to explain.