New York Magazine Perks Program

NYC-based perks program for subscribers

I recently worked on the New York magazine perks program which offers NYC-based perks for subscribers. The perks program is supposed to be an additional benefit for current subscribers and ideally attact new subscribers.

perks UX perks redemption user experience in the New York Magazine app

Initial Ideas

The original idea for perks was that there would be two types of perks: promo code and wallet pass and the marketing team would decide which type was best for each vendor.

design exploration for perks
design exploration for perks
design exploration for perks

The marketing team started looking into vendors and most of the initial vendors who agreed to participate were better fits for the wallet pass perk type. So, I decided to focus only on that experience for the MVP.

step 1 of pass UX step 1 - "add to wallet" button
step 2 of pass UX step 2 - 3rd party pass popup
step 3 of pass UX step 3 - native Apple "add to wallet"
alt pass design alt pass design
alt pass design alt pass design

Then, the wallet pass vendor we were originally looking into was a bit difficult for both product and marketing to use. It also was too expensive so we decided to design a native redemption experience. This gave me more control over the design but also was a bit difficult because we no longer had a bar code for the vendor to scan. How can we make sure users don't redeem the perk more than once?

MVP Launch

For the MVP, we decided to have a screen that asked if the subscriber is at the vendor before redeeming the perk. Then, someone who works for the vendor (cashier, server, barista, etc) could look at the timestamp to see check that the perk was redeemed recently.

step 1 - redeem button step 1 - "redeem" button
step 2 - are you there? screen step 2 - "are you there?" screen
step 3 - redeemed screen step 3 - redeemed screen
redeemed stamp on perk redeemed stamp on perk
receipt screen receipt screen

This flow worked but we noticed that with the first perk (free coffee and cardamom bun at La Cabra), subscribers were flying thru the flow and redeeming the perk before they were at one of the La Cabra locations. I needed to add some steps that slowed them down and made sure they were physically at the vendor's establishment.

Post-MVP Updates

Before the Balthazar perk launched, we updated the flow to ask the user if they were there and specifically have a "no, i'm not there yet" button. When I showed this to a few users, this worked well to slow everyone down so they didn't click the buttons without reading the copy.

To make the perks page feel more New York Magazine-branded and less marketing-y, the design team suggested using custom illustrations for each perk. They decided to go with Leon Edler who did some amazing and very cute illustrations for the first round of perks.

step 1 - redeem in-store button step 1 - "redeem in-store" button
step 2 - yes/no buttons step 2 - yes/no buttons
step 3 - activate perk step 3 - activate perk
step 4 - show to team member step 4 - show to team member