UX Intern @ Ant Group
Ant Group/ Financial app gamified experience
Process Highlights
During my 11-week internship at Ant Group, I collaborated with two UX designers on enhancing the user experience for Ant Credit Pay, a financial app by Ant Group. My primary focus was designing two gamified experiences, ensuring alignment with industry guidelines, user conversion strategies, and in-sector UX best practices, primarily using Sketch.
With a background in game design and development, this experience provided me with invaluable insights into industry-standard UX practices and how to create engaging and conversion-driven user experiences.
Timeline
May 2023 - Aug 2023
Disciplines
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Responsibilities
UX Mobile Design
Sketching
Tools
Sketch
Procreate
X
Ant Group is a global leader in digital financial services, offering inclusive solutions like payments, lending, and wealth management.
Ant Credit Pay provides flexible credit services, enabling seamless consuming experiences while promoting financial inclusion.
The credit system's mechanism significantly boosts consumer enthusiasm and drives user engagement. Our team focuses on gamified in-app activities, engaging users by offering opportunities to increase their credit limits.
Ant Credit Pay's Summer Celebration campaign was designed to boost user consumption through credit incentives while simultaneously expanding the user base via social sharing.
Only user experience flow is showcased here, UI design was separately done by other team.
1/ Knocking Ice Game
The core experience was a gamified credit-earning activity, where users could knock ice to unlock credit boosts, creating a fun, seasonal summer-themed engagement.
1.1/ Progress Update
We update the progress on every knock and celebrate every credit increase to timely engage users.
2/ Invite Friends
After reaching the limit, users can earn additional credits by inviting friends to help knock the ice.
2.1/ Invited Friends Help Knock Ice
The knocked amount contributes to both the users their friend's collection, encouraging social engagement.
2.2/ Promotion Page for Invited Friends
After friend help knocking ice, a notification page will be shown to attract new users into the activities.
Process
The cycle for these activities' UX design is usually within 2-3 weeks, with requirements of many features that fit Ant Credit Pay's activities traditions. To do that, we ran three sprints with timely checkins.
Create a seasonal in-app activity to boost user engagement and prepare for the upcoming shopping season by offering opportunities to increase credit.
After clarifying our focus, I researched gamified experiences that enhance user engagement, specifically apps that minimize user distraction. I identified features that align with Ant Credit Pay’s in-app activities while setting aside those that did not fit the platform’s experience.
From analyzing existing experiences, I identified core features that enhance user engagement. Some features, like instant feedback, are universally beneficial, while others are scenario-dependent. Given Ant Credit Pay’s role as an economic app and its goal of quickly attracting users through credit incentives, I prioritized features marked with ✅ for implementation in the first sprint.
My next step was to define the activity's theme that would fit Ant Credit Pay's in-app pages and the mechanics we need to apply. I created this moodboard to guide my decisions.
Here are my initial thought processes on our gamified experience and its objectives. The low-fidelity designs offered an early glimpse into how the experience could function, with all the key functions implemented.
With the original sketch, I conducted a quick review with my mentor, gaining valuable feedback for refinement and deeper insights into the platform.
After the initial review, I developed the first mid-fidelity wireframe, focusing on ensuring the experience aligns with user needs and the company's goals of attracting more users.
With a more detailed wireframes, I managed to receive more feedback from both my mentor and our product manager. I iterated my design again with my design solutions.
In response to the second review, I refined the user experience flow while applying design principles more effectively to reflect different states for better handoffs.
I'll be discussing three major improvements/design decisions I made in this phase to satisfy both the users and the company's goal.
1/ Simplified Main Page
Remove credit details
Users can check their balance in Ant Credit Pay, avoiding distractions.
Remove the ranking board
Protect user privacy and ensure a safe environment feeling.
Prioritize & limit buttons
Only keep the subscription button that fits our goal the most, others go to the hidden menu.
Streamline hints
Show one dynamic hint, updating based on status.
Optimize button logic to follow user intuition
Only one button: "Knock Ice" when attempts remain; "Invite Friends" when attempts run out
2/ Simplified Transition Animation
Transition Animation -> In-page Animation
Instead of removing all animations, I successfully persuaded the PM to retain this engaging element by integrating it into an in-page animation, allowing users to watch or skip as they prefer.
3/ Refined Invite Friends Guide
Emphasize user's goal for inviting friends
Displaying clear numbers gives users an intuitive sense of effort required (which is minimal), encouraging them to share.
Include a celebrating badge after friends successfully help
Keeping the focus on the main goal without distractions, reinforcing task completion,
4/ UX Handoff Document Logics
Emphasize user's goal for inviting friends
Displaying clear numbers gives users an intuitive sense of effort required (which is minimal), encouraging them to share.
Include a celebrating badge after friends successfully help
Keeping the focus on the main goal without distractions, reinforcing task completion,
Through the creation, iteration, and completion of three wireframes, I successfully finalized the UX flow for this gamified experience, ensuring alignment with the platform culture, goals, and user needs. The following UX flow represents the final handoff.
This internship was my first step into the industry, allowing me to merge my game design background with UX design. I gained valuable insights into standard UX practices, the difference between game design and integrating game mechanics into UX, and the importance of user-centered design.
Throughout the process, I deepened my understanding of key UX principles:
✅ Less is More – Prioritizing clarity and simplicity.
✅ UX is People – Designing with user needs at the core.
✅ Make It Easy – Creating seamless, intuitive experiences.
By thinking from both the company’s goals and the user’s perspective, I learned to prioritize, refine features, and craft guided experiences. Moving forward, I aim to strengthen my UX fundamentals, stay updated on the latest UX trends, and continuously learn to become a better UX designer.