Gamification System Design

At Experts Exchange, we serve a global community of IT professionals. For decades, members have come to the platform to get help and give help — sharing knowledge, solving real problems, and learning from one another. But over time, something changed.

Engagement began to taper. Long-time members were quietly drifting. And new users often needed more incentive to dive deeper.

So, I led the design and rollout of a gamification system that didn’t just reward participation — it made people want to be part of the community again.

Strategy & Overview

Experts Exchange has always had a point-based reward system — it just got buried. Starting around 2016, the platform shifted away from visible points and rewards in favor of a more “professional” brand position. The intent was valid, but the impact was clear: user engagement declined, and long-time contributors felt under-recognized.

This project was my response.

I proposed a reimagined gamification system that brought back the best parts of our legacy reward structure — updated with modern UX, scalable infrastructure, and a phased roadmap to deliver value at every stage. We designed it to:

• Increase engagement from new users through tangible early rewards

• Reactivate legacy users who had lost interest

• Boost contributions across key activities like questions, solutions, and articles

• Reinforce brand loyalty through progress, recognition, and community pride

Target Users & User Story

Our primary audience was new users arriving via organic search — especially those solving time-sensitive problems. These users are skeptical at first. But with the right incentives, they’re willing to sign up, engage, and stay.

User Story: “I’m a developer Googling a problem. I land on EE and see I can earn a t-shirt just by participating. I need an answer anyway — might as well sign up. Two posts later, I’ve got my shirt, and I’ve realized this is actually a solid tech community. I’m sticking around.”

Our secondary target was lapsed contributors — past users who had once been active, but disengaged when rewards disappeared. We designed every element to remind them of what they loved about EE, now with modern design and expanded reward systems.

Research & Competitive Landscape

We reviewed leading community platforms — Stack Overflow, Reddit, Quora, and more. While most offer digital badges or rep systems, few provide physical rewards. No one in our competitive set offered real swag, shirts, or incentives for everyone.

We also evaluated new competitors like AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT), which offer fast answers but no gamification, no recognition, and no sense of contribution.

EE’s differentiation became clear: real community, real people, real rewards.

Execution: A Phased Rollout Built for Scale

I structured this project in five phases, allowing us to build momentum, collect feedback, and minimize development risk. Each phase built on the last.

Phase 1 – Foundation

• Designed and shipped the Points & Rewards Dashboard

• Built components to show level progress, earnable rewards, and point-earning activities

• Created dynamic elements like toast notifications, profile-level badges, and level-up prompts

• Introduced new level icon system (Bronze → Emerald) with 25+ tiered designs

Phase 2 – Challenges & Achievements

• Added support for time-based challenges (e.g., Winter Challenge)

• Designed UI for grouped achievements, each awarding unique digital badges

• Linked achievements to physical rewards — t-shirts, bonus points, custom avatars

Phase 3 – Certifications & Overview Page

• Updated topic certification badges and introduced new progression tiers

• Built the activity overview dashboard to visualize a user’s journey and progress

• Separated key sections into Levels, Challenges, and Certifications for UX clarity

Phase 4 – Sharing & Showcase

• Added social sharing tools so users could instantly share achievements on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

• Designed the Trophy Room, a public-facing showcase of earned rewards and certifications

Phase 5 – Profile Integration & Launch

• Rebuilt the profile page to include full Points & Rewards data

• Created a logged-out version for social sharing and SEO

• Merged new dashboards into the home experience, retiring outdated JavaScript components

Every phase included detailed Figma mockups, front-end and back-end task breakdowns, and cross-team coordination. I worked directly with designers, devs, and leadership to balance feasibility with UX quality.

🔗 View the Figma project

Results & Business Impact

This project wasn’t about points — it was about participation. And it worked.

• 20% increase in account reactivations

• 25% increase in user contributions (questions, answers, comments)

• 18% lift in first-time signups

• Created scalable incentive programs tied to content generation, traffic, and revenue

• Established a UX foundation for long-term engagement mechanics and monetization

We reenergized the community — with the numbers and user feedback to prove it.

Lessons & Takeaways

• Gamification isn’t fluff — when done right, it’s strategy. It can reinforce the why behind a user’s action.

• Phased design protects UX and builds trust. By layering in value over time, we kept users excited instead of overwhelmed.

• Recognition drives retention. Especially in technical communities where expertise is core to identity.

Final Thoughts

This gamification system became more than a feature — it became part of the EE brand story. It showed how product marketing can fuse storytelling, UX, behavioral psychology, and revenue strategy to solve real business problems.