Game design
Behavioural design
The problem
NewU is a health and vitality platform that companies offer their employees. Getting companies on board was never the issue. HR teams signed up and launched initiatives on schedule.
The issue was what happened next. An employee would complete an activity once or twice, then drift away.
Almost all of NewU's engagement came from outside pushes: reminders, HR nudges and calendar pings. When the prompts stopped, so did the behaviour. The platform wasn't earning attention. It was renting it.
Adoption wasn't the problem. The habit was.
How might we turn a wellbeing platform employees try once into one they return to without being reminded?
What I found
To understand why employees drifted, I looked at the experience through Nir Eyal's Hook Model. It explains how habits form through a loop of four steps: a trigger, an action, a reward and an investment.
NewU only had half of that loop. There were triggers, but they all came from outside. There were actions, in the form of activities like meditation, breathing and challenges. Then the loop stopped. Rewards were flat and predictable, and there was nothing for employees to build up or invest in. With no reason to come back, they didn't.
This matched a belief at the heart of NewU: users don't lack intent, they lack momentum. And momentum is simply a loop that closes faster than it fades.
If we complete the loop, with a trigger that fires, an action that feels effortless, a reward that varies and an investment that sets up the next visit, engagement will grow over time instead of fading.
My approach
We co-designed four mechanics: streaks, XP, levels and small moments of delight. Instead of piling them on as features, I gave each one a job in the loop. Some did more than one job. What mattered was that no step was left empty.
1. Trigger: from outside to inside
We kept the helpful reminders but designed for employees to bring themselves back. The daily home became a return ritual, and a streak at risk turned their own progress into the reason to open the app. A six day streak doesn't need a notification. The streak is the pull.
2. Action: make the next step effortless
Fogg's behaviour model says behaviour happens when motivation, ability and a prompt come together. The cheapest lever is almost always ability, so we removed friction everywhere. Fewer taps to start, an obvious next action and nothing standing between wanting to do something and doing it.
3. Reward: make it worth showing up for
This was the step NewU had missed. A reward you can predict is a reward you stop noticing, so we built in variety: XP that animates the moment you finish, surprise bonuses at uneven milestones, level ups that unlock real content and celebrations that build on each other. Workplace wellbeing is personal before it is social, so we leaned most on rewards of progress and mastery, and kept team challenges optional.
4. Investment: set up the next visit
Every visit now leaves something behind: a streak day banked, XP saved toward the next level, content unlocked, a habit set up. That stored value makes leaving feel costly and makes tomorrow's prompt land harder. This is the step that turns a single session into a habit.
We weren't decorating activities with points. We were closing a loop.
What I designed
Reframed the gamification brief around the Hook Model and set the design principles with the team.
Designed the daily home and the streak at risk state, so employees come back on their own.
Cut friction from every activity, so the next one is always the easiest path.
Built variety into rewards with animated XP, surprise milestones and content unlocks.
Created the investment layer of banked streaks, saved XP and unlocked content.
Aligned every gamification element with the design system, so it all feels like one product.
Keeping it healthy
A habit loop is powerful, which means it can also be misused. I checked our design against Eyal's Manipulation Matrix to make sure NewU helped people rather than trapped them. Three decisions came out of that.
Decision | Why it mattered |
|---|---|
Streaks run in 7 day cycles with grace periods | Endless streaks create anxiety. A missed day shouldn't erase weeks of effort, and coming back after a break has to feel safe. |
XP only for meaningful actions | Points come from completing real activities, never from opening the app or tapping buttons. An honest reward keeps the behaviour honest. |
Badges for real behaviour | Badges mark a lasting habit or a finished challenge. Tied to real action, a badge shows progress. Tied to vanity, it is just a trophy. |
The test was never "does it drive behaviour?" It was "would I want this loop running on me?"
The results
Once the loop was complete, engagement started to build on itself.
Metric | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|
Daily engagement | 25 to 40% higher | Internal triggers and visible progress brought employees back without a push. |
Habit completion | 15 to 25% higher | An immediate, varied reward closed the loop right at the moment of effort. |
Drop-off after onboarding | Reduced | The loop kept reinforcing the habit through the critical first weeks, instead of relying on reminders. |
Employee sentiment | "Guided" | Employees said they felt guided rather than pushed. |
HR visibility | Clearer | Cleaner participation patterns made it easy to spot and support disengaged groups. |
Coming back after a break | Easier | Capped streaks and grace periods removed the all or nothing barrier. |
What I learned
Points, streaks and badges don't create habits on their own. A complete loop does. The real work wasn't adding rewards to activities. It was finding the step that was missing and closing it.
I also learned that the most ethical loop can be the most effective one. Grace periods and honest rewards made it easier for employees to come back, and coming back is what builds a habit.