The Mobility House · eyond · 2024
A reward system redesign at The Mobility House. Not by changing the interface, but by fixing the logic underneath it. EV owners earn FlexCoins for smart charging during renewable energy peaks. The problem was that the calculation model contradicted every user's natural expectations.
Year
2024
Role
UX Strategy · Logic Redesign · Cross-functional Collaboration
Team
Product Designer · Product Manager · Engineers
Platform
iOS & Android
The turning point
The UX problem wasn't a UI problem.
Users weren't confused about the interface. They were confused about the logic underneath it. Every single person interviewed assumed 1 smart kWh = 1 FlexCoin — a completely logical assumption. The old formula silently applied a constraint no one could see or predict. No amount of better copy would fix a model that contradicted how people naturally think.
01 — Context
FlexCoins are The Mobility House's loyalty mechanic. EV owners earn them by smart charging during renewable energy peaks, then redeem them for charging credits. Low coin accumulation was quietly eroding trust in the whole programme. The product team assumed it was a communication problem. It wasn't.
I asked users to predict their FlexCoin earnings before a charging session. Every single one predicted the same amount — and every single one was wrong. The breakthrough wasn't in the interviews themselves but in this one exercise: it made the mental model mismatch undeniable, and gave me a concrete artefact to bring to the product team.
The formula change itself was a single engineering ticket. The design work was in making the case for it — mapping the mental model gap, running a calculation walkthrough with the product manager and engineering lead, and validating the new model with users before shipping. Advocacy was as important as the design decision.
04 — Result
Increased engagement with smart charging and higher satisfaction with the rewards programme post-launch. Engineering aligned immediately — the simpler logic was not only better for users, it was also easier to implement and maintain. The formula change solved the trust problem, but it opened a new one — how do you encourage users to keep their car plugged in without an incentive baked into the calculation? That became the next design challenge.