Role
UI/UX Designer
Type
UX, PM, Dev, Content, Animation
Duration
13 Weeks
Platforms
Mobile, Tablet
Plus Challenges is a feature designed to keep top users engaged after finishing all available content. It unlocks personalized archived content, extending gameplay without extra production cost.
TL;DR
Our most engaged users were churning because of content shortage.
Once users completed all available content, they had little reason to return. Creating more content at scale wasn’t realistic, since it required significant time and cost.
Plus Challenges: a personalized way to unlock archived content
We built a system that unlocked older content once users ran out of live content. The main task was making the ux feel exclusive and personalized within the existing product.
9.7% increase in WAU, 12% increase in average revenue per DAU.
Personalized in-game items and extra content were highly appreciated by users. The feature drove a noticeable increase in weekly active users and average revenue per daily active user.
Garden Joy is a mobile design game where users create outdoor spaces by completing Live Challenges.
We are losing our most engaged users due to content shortage.
Once users ran out of content, they had no reason to return. This led to declining engagement, reduced spending, and eventual churn among our most valuable users.
We needed a way to keep them engaged without overwhelming our art team and content team or compromising the curated experience that defines Garden Joy.
12% of our weekly active users were completing every available Live Challenge. They accounted for over 50% of our revenue.
Scaling Challenge production wasn’t sustainable, and it wasn’t strategic either.
Each Challenge requires handcrafted art and curation. Even at full capacity, a single artist produces only 1 to 2 Challenges per day. Scaling content would have meant a major increase in workforce and cost, which the art team and leadership opposed.
And even if we could scale, the risk was clear: we didn’t yet know if users wanted significantly more content. We needed a smarter, leaner solution.
How might we deliver scalable, high quality content to our most engaged users without increasing production costs?
This question became the foundation of the feature.
We introduced Plus Challenges: a dynamic system that unlocks archived Challenges only when users run out of new ones.
We called the feature Plus Challenges, a new tier of content that felt personalized and infinite.
I created early mocks to test the concept with our UXR team, focusing on validating usability and intent to engage before moving into refinement.
3 key UX decisions →
User testing confirmed that the idea was compelling, but only if it felt premium and rewarding.
We tested early prototypes with users across three segments: capped, near capped, and others:
76% of capped users said they would complete all or most Plus Challenges
49% of near capped users expressed the same intent, showing potential to increase Challenge completion
Even among “other” users, over 70% indicated interest in engaging with Plus content
However, the insight that shaped our direction was qualitative:
“I would love this, but only if it feels exclusive, not just a way to recycle old content.”
That sentiment became the direction of the next refinement.
We focused on every refinement to make Plus Challenges feel special, not secondary.
We gave Plus Challenges a slightly different look to help them stand out and feel more special, using subtle gradients and a locked state to hint that they were premium.
Surfacing old Challenges meant that some wouldn’t match current events or weather - a summer-themed Challenge might appear in winter.
To minimize this tradeoff →
Personalized in-app purchase →
We extended this personalization to monetization. Each Plus Challenge surfaced tailored premium items that had previously expired. Since the feed varied per user, so did the store items, making each experience feel more curated and exclusive.
This feature later impacted our roadmap, we began using the same personalization system in regular Live Challenges.
Significant gains in engagement, playtime, and revenue with zero added production cost.
Positive feedback from users:
“I’ve been waiting for something like this. It makes the game feel alive again.”
“The Plus Challenges are my favorite part of the game now.”
The system required no additional content production, and delivered strong results across engagement, retention, and monetization.
This project taught me how to drive high impact through systems thinking, not surface changes.
The hardest part was creating a feature that didn’t change much visually but still had a big impact on how people played and on the business. I had to think carefully about every part of the UX, making sure it stayed simple while still feeling fresh.
What I’m most proud of is the rare win-win outcome. Users wanted to enjoy more content, the business needed to increase revenue. Plus Challenges delivered both.
It reminded me that great product design isn’t about what’s new. It’s about delivering what’s meaningful!
