Connect cycling rewards to the reasons people ride.

The brief was to improve Qingju’s growth system with user engagement as the goal. Our review of the product at the time found tasks, levels, badges and points separated from one another, with progress and benefits buried in the navigation.

I proposed leisure cycling as the research direction. Commuting usually has a fixed destination; parks, greenways and city exploration introduce questions about where to go, what to see and what to remember. This was a scenario hypothesis that shaped the research.

We combined interviews, a questionnaire and field observation to explore leisure riders’ behaviour, motivations, sharing habits and awareness of benefits. The original project documentation records 11 interviewees, 128 questionnaire returns and 85 valid responses.

Recurring themes in the interview summaries included discovering unfamiliar places, visiting shops with friends, and recording or sharing a ride. I contributed to the early research and interviews, then translated these themes into personas and journeys.

A list of needs—exploration, social connection, memories—was not enough to guide the interface. Through user modelling and journey maps, I connected them to specific moments: choosing a route, pausing along the way and reflecting afterwards.

We did not treat another points-and-badges system as the only answer. Instead, we connected route discovery, ride records and growth benefits in one path. The ride itself provides value first; rewards make sense within that experience.

My low-fidelity work translated the opportunities into screens and flows for route selection, ride records, rewards and sharing. It gave the team a concrete basis for discussing entry points and task order before the final visual design.

Connecting routes, shops and rewards creates a more complete experience, but also brings content, partnership and operational costs. We did not include every interesting idea in the first proposal; we organised it around the core journey before and after riding.

Looking back, I would validate a smaller loop first: can someone find a route they want to ride, complete it, and understand the relationship between the ride record and its reward? Wider partnerships should follow evidence that this loop works.