Encore Rewards Cardless Play
Website Feature Design
Made it easy for Encore Rewards members to access and modify their loyalty account information to enable cardless play at casinos.
Encore Rewards is BC Lottery Corporations’s Casino loyalty program, allowing players to earn exclusive perks when visiting land-based casinos in BC and on PlayNow.com.
TL;DR
BCLC’s Encore Rewards team set out to digitize the loyalty program used at land-based casinos in BC. I was tasked with optimizing the website used by the loyalty program, CasinosBC.com, to support the transition and create a scalable system for future enhancements of the loyalty program. I led the auditing and redesign of the authenticated profile page to enable players to access their digital loyalty card and enhance self-serve profile editing.
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Contributions
Experience Design, UI Design, Usability Testing, Competitive Analysis, Component Design
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Tools
Figma, Lookback, Excel, Confluence, JIRA
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Team
Kathy Datsky, Sr. UX Designer, Product Owner, Senior Specialist, Developer
Problem
Requiring a physical membership card to access loyalty benefits at land-based casinos is inconvenient, time consuming, and wasteful.
For Loyalty Members
Previously, if an Encore Rewards member forgot their card, they would have to cut into their play time to visit Guest Services for a new card in order to access their loyalty benefits while playing and dining at the casino.
For Casinos
Being customer-facing, service providers experienced the brunt of the shortcomings, such as:
- Increase in wait time at guest services for other guests
- Increase in money spent on printing new cards
For BCLC
For the organization, having a rigid loyalty program meant they:
- Lost out on potential gameplay revenue while the member waited in line
- Negatively impact the environment by contributing to the creation of unnecessary waste
- Limited the future loyalty program evolution
Objective & Constraints
Make it easier for members to access, manage, and use their loyalty credentials to earn and redeem points at land-based casinos.
To solve this, the Encore Rewards team strived to digitize the loyalty program to allow cardless play at land-based casinos, with first implementing cardless sign-in on slot machines. To go along with the initiative, I was tasked with optimizing CasinosBC.com. To better understand and help define the project's needs before designing, I interviewed colleagues on the Loyalty team and the Senior Designer in charge of the slot machine iView screen designs. This helped clarify the problem and uncover project limitations.
Incomplete Member Data
Phone numbers, which are used as the cardless play number, aren’t required during loyalty program registration; meaning, data may be missing or outdated. This created a risk in transitioning and enrolling members to cardless play.
Outdated Backend Systems
Although the cardless number is the member's phone number, the system had to store them as separate fields, preventing seamless integration and increasing the risk for data inconsistencies.
Operational Dependency
On-site events hosted by service providers required manual verification of loyalty cards for prize claims, creating a dependency for physical cards.
Scalability for Technology
Designs had to anticipate future capabilities and system updates, requiring flexible components and flows that could evolve with the technology.
Solution
Through an audit and heuristic evaluation of the website, a competitive analysis of other loyalty programs in and outside the gambling environment, and internal interviews, I identified 2 opportunities to make it easier and quicker for members to take advantage of cardless play.
01. Account Dropdown Menu
Quick access to new digital card and account information.
Outcome
- Streamlined access to account information across website, reducing friction and supporting self-serve account management.
- Introduced a digital Encore Rewards card to support the shift away from physical cards.
- Enabled digital card downloads for seamless access to exclusive casino events without needing a physical card.
- Adaptable to future loyalty program enhancements.
Pain Points Solved
- Loyalty members faced high cognitive load when trying to access their account details, as they had to remember where specific information was located.
- Deviated from common design patterns used by competitors, who prioritized persistent, intuitive access to account details that enabled self-management.
- Existing design did not allow to showcase the loyalty program’s shift toward a more modern, digital experience.
02. Reorganized Account Settings
Simplified account management and raised awareness of the cardless play option.
Anticpated Outcome
- Increased user engagement and empower to self-edit account information.
- Improved conversion rate to cardless play by informing users how it works and how to opt-in.
- Consolidated components to conform to the existing design system for visual and functional consistency.