ROLE
UI/UX Designer
TEAMS
UX, PM, Dev, Content, Animation
DURATION
13 Weeks
PLATFORMS
Mobile, Tablet
PROBLEM DISCOVERY
We are losing our most engaged users due to content shortage.
Garden Joy is a mobile design game where players create outdoor spaces through Challenges inspired by real-world trends, seasons, and cultural moments.
Our handcrafted approach ensures content is curated, relatable and rich in detail - core to our studio’s values. But it also slows production.
How might we deliver meaningful, engaging content at scale, without adding operational overhead?
Highly engaged users, our top spenders and most consistent returners, regularly completed all available Challenges. But when they ran out of content, they hit a drop-off point: spending less, disengaging, or churning.
This content bottleneck wasn’t scalable. We couldn’t create Challenges fast enough to keep up. We needed a way to retain and monetize our most valuable users, without increasing production load.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
A system that makes content feel infinite.
We discovered an underused asset: thousands of past Challenges. Resurfacing them offers fresh, meaningful content to users with no added work for the content team.
We proposed a system called Plus Challenges that would:
Unlock a continuous stream of previously run Challenges
Personalize content per user, so only unseen Challenges would be served
Dynamically unlock Plus Challenges only after a player completes all Live Challenges
Instead of creating more Challenges, we created a system that made content feel infinite.
Why This Was Strategically Strong:
Scalable — it didn’t require new content to be produced
Engaging — users always had something new to do
Monetizable — these Challenges could include premium in-game items available for purchase
RESEARCH VALIDATION
User feedback validated the feature as a compelling, scalable solution.
We tested Plus Challenges with our most active players to validate appeal, clarity, and intent to play. We shared early mocks showing:
Feed placement – how Plus Challenges would appear alongside regular Challenges
Unlock condition – accessible only after completing all live Challenges
Player experience – replaying old but unseen Challenges with new rewards
Our goal: Would players actually want this? Would it motivate them to engage more?
The response confirmed strong appeal, especially from our core target group.
76% of capped players would complete all or most Plus Challenges
49% of near-capped players said the same, showing potential to drive completion of live Challenges
Even lower-engagement users responded positively, especially when framed as unlockable rewards
These insights validated our hypothesis and shaped critical refinements, emphasizing exclusivity, personalization, and feed hierarchy. With strong player signals, we confidently finalized the system and UX.
Identifying elements that need refinement.
These insights validated our hypothesis and shaped critical refinements, emphasizing exclusivity, personalization, and feed hierarchy. With strong user signals, we proceeded to flesh out the feature.
The goal is to maintain minimal changes while elevating the Plus Challenge section to feel more premium and exclusive.
FINALIZING THE UX
Plus Challenges were designed to feel like a natural extension of the Challenge feed, not a separate mode or gated feature.
Key design choices:
• Unlocks after all Live Challenges, making it feel earned
• Placed below Live Challenges, visible but unobtrusive
• Differentiated through gradients, a “Plus” tag, and tailored microcopy
We worked with the animation team to add UX touches, like a one-time daily unlock animation, to make unlocking feel more special.
These decisions reinforced status and progression while staying clear and approachable for newer or casual players.
A new monetization strategy:
Plus Challenges also introduced a new monetization strategy by featuring premium in-game items available for purchase on the feed. These items are tailored to the Plus Challenges, making monetization contextual and rewarding, while unlocking a scalable revenue stream.
IMPACT & RESULTS
Stronger ARPDAU, higher content consumption.
Plus Challenges launched as one of Garden Joy’s most anticipated 2024 features and quickly proved its value. While exact metrics are confidential, post-launch data showed:
Strong ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) gains among capped and near-capped players
Growth in daily active users, especially high-engagement cohorts
Higher content consumption without added production cost
The feature hit its core goals: monetization, retention, and scalability, while enhancing the user experience.
REFLECTION & TAKEAWAYS
Plus Challenges wasn’t about new content. It was about building a scalable, personalized system that delivered ongoing value and aligned with the business.
Reusing assets and dynamic unlocking showed how systems thinking enables sustainable, high-impact solutions.
Strategic UX Requires Product Ownership. Balancing value, clarity, and business needs meant:
Rewarding power users without confusing new ones
Surfacing monetization without undermining trust
Keeping things simple while the system scaled in complexity
This project pushed me to think like a product owner, not just a designer, where success meant seamless coordination across systems, not just pixels.