rewards network
dashboard redesign

Rewards Network is a Fintech company based in Chicago. By offering financial and marketing services such as capital and promotional programs, Rewards Network helps local restaurants grow as the leading dining rewards program in the United States. 

At Rewards Network, the portal was the heart of the business. Restaurant owners relied on this portal to inform and alert them of happenings within their site locations. The portal was a new addition to the business model and was in need of an overhaul. 

  • the challenge

    Design an experience that increased overall engagement, built confidence in Reward Network’s marketing services and displayed a much more modern portal.

  • the solution

    Design an interactive, dynamic, and personalized dashboard featuring meaningful notifications, robust diner review interactions, and translating analytics into insightful business recommendations.

  • my roles

    UX/UI
    Product Design
    Design systems
    Marketing
    UX research
    User testing
    Stakeholder interviews
    UX workshops
    Design deliverables

the design process

  • Together with the Director of UX and the product team we developed the project scope and business goals of the new dashboard experience.

  • My research included competitive analysis, reviewing user data through various testing methods, and intaking user analytics through Hotjar.

  • We analyzed the data infostructure with the data science team and proposed a scalable and modular architecture for the dashboard. I lead workshops with product and development to define the user needs and design the UX.

  • We used Invision to create an interactive prototype that mimicked the look and feel of the final dashboard. We wanted to test our design hypotheses and collect user feedback before moving to development. We engaged the Director of UX, Product, engineering, and other key stakeholders throughout the prototyping phase.

  • Based on the user testing results, project goals, and high value features, I created and delivered high fidelity mockups and design systems of the final design of the dashboard. I collaborated with the product and engineering teams to deliver the design assets and specifications. We conducted QA sessions to verify that the implementation matched the design and met the user expectations.

current dashboard design

  1. discover and define

  • What was the problem? The current dashboard was not allowing for dynamic interaction.

  • What was the project scope? Modernize the current dashboard to allow for real time notifications, alerts, impactful analytical data, and communicate value to being on the program.

  • Who were the stakeholders? Product and sales teams.

  • Who were the end users? Restaurant owners, client success and sales teams.

  • What was the hypothesis? The dashboard was hard to navigate, no notifications or alerts, and no incentive to keep coming back to the portal. 

The current design was designed and developed iteratively using a module layout. This was great for keeping a consistent look and feel across devices, however lead to reduced scalability and limited modernization opportunities.

One of the bigger problems was if a restaurant owner had multiple locations they had to jump back to a location filter on a whole different screen before they can move forward and view data and analytics for that unit. This made the experience unproductive, depersonalized, and time consuming.

  • our goal

    Identify the best features for creating a portal dashboard that is easy to use, informative, customizable, and profitable for our restaurant owners.

  • make it modern

    • Personalize the modules

    • Display dynamic data

    • Design dynamic notifications

    • Market new services

    • Increase value awareness

  • supportive details

    • Multi unit log in

    • Static vs. dynamic notifications

    • Creating sticky value

    • Level up our marketing message



We used surveys, interviews, and walked through the current system with users to get insights on how they were feeling. We extracted key words from their feedback to highlight their pain points.

2. research

I conducted interviews with a variety of participants including sales account managers, client success team members, and restaurant owners. This process further cemented our specific user goals that were not being achieved such as:

  • No value associated with analytical information.

  • No notifications or action items.

  • Cannot see current listing of events and specials or how to use it to market their restaurant. 

Quotes from the testing field:

“I have multiple locations and it is time consuming to go through each location individually”

“I don’t know what I am looking at, there are no notifications”

“I don’t know how to best market my restaurant”

interview findings

In collaboration with the product team we used an empathy map to understand the user’s thoughts, feelings, actions, and pain points around the current dashboard experience. We then analyzed the empathy map to identify the user needs and goals. This helped us to synthesize a plan to design and develop better modules for the new dashboard that would address the user problems and enhance the user satisfaction.

User personas

We created a set of user personas that represented the different types of users who would use the dashboard based on our current demographic data and user research. The personas included different types of users like restaurant owners, account managers, and client success teams. We used the personas to guide our design decisions and empathize with the user needs and expectations.

  • project feature priorities

    Areas to focus on included:

    • Reviews page

    • MCA banner/page

    • Notifications

    • Analytics


  • MVP

    • Bubble up important data

    • Pair metrics with insights

    • View and manage statements

    • Track sales performance

    • Market your restaurant and engage with diners

    • Access help and support

    • Notifications that can be personalized per client





  • benefits

    • Increased website visits/engagement

    • Reduce number of member service calls

    • Increase services to new clients

    • Decrease churn

    • Trust in the program


Initial dashboard layout
Early wireframes and user flows

3. wireframes

First, we drafted a layout for the early dashboard modules based on our research. We then held workshops with the product and development teams to explore and propose a range of options for the revised dashboard layout and flow. The workshops involved brainstorming, sketching, and testing different ideas with the users and stakeholders. We then met with the development leads, front and back end developers, and marketing departments to ensure we were designing with scalability in mind.

My goal was to get a deep understanding of how the data was being processed in order to design a modern user experience both visually and technically.

I organized workshops to gain insight on how the sales team operated alongside the portal dashboard. This allowed us to design using a holistic approach with a wide user base in mind.

module organization

To design a more user-friendly and effective dashboard, we analyzed each module and aligned its information with the relevant business goals. This way, we could highlight the value and purpose of each module for the user. Our aim was to avoid the confusion and frustration that the current dashboard caused by having unclear and cluttered information.

We wanted to create a more modern and familiar experience for our users, similar to what they were used to working with in other platforms.

hi fidelity screen mocks

Once I had the flow ready, I moved on to designing hi fidelity designs in Sketch that would introduce new UI elements to the dashboard. I wanted to make the dashboard more visually appealing and intuitive for the users. I experimented with different color schemes, icons, and UI elements to see how they affected the user’s perception and interaction with the dashboard.

Alternative color way

Key takeaways from our testing sessions

Restaurant owners were most interested in seeing their recent diner reviews and being able to respond to them quickly.

Our sales team loved the banner that called out when they were elgible for additional funding.

User flow: Events and specials update

Our users are now able to view and edit their events and special listings on their dashboard screen, save changes to those listings, and switch locations without navigating to multiple screens.

After holding workshops with the product and engineering teams, we developed a prototype based on business needs and technical restraints.

How did we test?
We ran small guerrilla style testing moderated by myself and marketing/product leads.

What did we test?
I created a simple prototype in Invision that myself and other moderators would walk through using a script. We focused on having the user interact with the notifications, and discovered the expected and unexpected results from their actions.

How did we document our findings?
We recorded the sessions, took notes, and provided summaries and recommendations after each test was completed.

Restaurant owners wanted to be able to update their photos and menu items on the fly, which was more challenging from a technical standpoint.

top features

After extensive user testing on both the current and the new models, we were able to prioritize the top features that would meet our user experience goals. These big ticket features offered monumental value with low to medium effort from our development teams.

The new design accomplished the following goals:

  • Welcome the user and offer guidance

  • Provide an overview of their accounts, highlighting key metrics

  • Translate metrics into insights

  • Highlight areas of improvement

  • Increase value awareness with an understanding of our services

  • Communicate new services to consider

After testing with users we uncovered the most sought after features.

  • areas of delight

    • Insight bar

    • Events and specials editable table

    • Location filter

    • Notifications

  • important insights

    • Events and specials are updated the most

    • An overall star rating raises member value

    • Notifications would rotate as needed

    • Mixed reactions on the order of notifications

    • Insight bar creates sticky value



  • summary

    Our users all agreed that keeping the familiar color palette with the addition of the blue insight bar created a balance of familiarity and change. The notifications and events and specials areas drove the most excitement for member value while creating the sticky value that was the number one business requirement.

5. deliver: module Ux enhancements

Merchant Cash Advance
Two of the most important components in the portal was the MCA (Merchant Cash Advance) and the reviews module. These areas were the heart of the member experience, and were vital to creating value and retention.

Our cash program was one of the biggest pushes from sales.
Previously, there was no way to do this other than having the sales team communicate this offer to the restaurant owners via phone or email. This new design eliminated the bulk of the work from the sales team. I worked with product team to examine the business goals, ROI, and sales goals. Over the course of just 2 weeks, we conducted workshopping sessions to uncover how we can best approach verbiage, the sign up process, and customer retention.
As a result of the new user experience utilizing new UI and marketing verbiage, the number of cash advances for restaurants increased by 49%, with over $8M in cash funded since April 2022.

Reviews Page
The previous version to view and respond to diner reviews was clunky with limited filtering options. The new version had extensive filtering, easy reply functions, and at a glance icons when viewing the page in a hurry. This was the most interactive feature on the portal, and most important notification.
The new Reviews page saw an immediate jump of 53% in user interaction within 5 months after launch.

MERCHANT CREDIT APPROVAL
Diner reviews - mobile
Diner reviews - desktop

  • project summary

    The new portal dashboard increased retention, created sticky value, and created a cohesive look and feel to the entire portal experience. Within four months, we successfully delivered a new portal dashboard that surpassed both the business and the user experience goals we had set.

    We solved the problem of a dashboard that was hard to scale, use, and navigate by applying several strategies, such as:

    • Collaborating across functions to align on the goals, scope, and requirements of the dashboard.

    • Assessed the technical constraints and possibilities.

    • Conducting intensive workshops and user testing to understand the needs, pain points, and preferences of the dashboard users.

    • Prototyping rapidly and iteratively to test and validate different design solutions and features.

    • Incorporating feedback and data into the design process to optimize the dashboard performance and usability.

  • Design principles

    • Most of our users utilized the portal on their desktop, however responsive design was used and imperative for scalability.

    • Clear, consistent and logical data that helped our users find and interpret the data they need.

    • Fast access to relevant data with prioritized notifications.

    • Filters, sorting, search, and drill-down features helped our users customize and explore the data. 

    • Data visualization was used through out the dashboard to increase engagement.

    • Value based analytics were bubbled up to keep our users engaged and coming back to the dashboard.