Vitality Member Platform | Engagement Engine | 2022-2024
Building Vitality Gamification Engine
AT A GLANCE,
Engagement that serves health.
Most health apps struggle with retention—members sign up with good intentions, engage for a week or two, then drift away. Traditional gamification techniques often exploit attention rather than support genuine behavior change.
I led the design of a system that creates compelling engagement loops while ensuring every interaction connects to real health outcomes. We achieved 74% retention and 68% weekly engagement.
What I led and delivered
- Led Vitality's global engagement platform redesign, migrating 42M members across 12 markets to a unified gamification engine
- Partnered with behavioral scientists and legal teams to define ethical guardrails, replacing dark patterns with behavior-gated rewards
- Architected 6 core engagement mechanics, driving 74% retention and 68% weekly engagement
Interactive Demos
Try them belowDiscovery
Behavioral psychology framework.
I partnered with behavioral scientists to establish design principles grounded in psychology research. These five principles guided every engagement mechanic I designed, ensuring each interaction was backed by habit formation theory.
Variable Rewards
Unpredictable reward sizes (5-100 pts) trigger dopamine release, creating anticipation that drives repeated engagement.
Instant Gratification
Immediate feedback (points, animations, celebrations) creates positive reinforcement within seconds of completing actions.
Progress Visibility
Clear status tiers and progress bars tap into completion psychology. Members 80% to next tier engage 3.2x more.
Loss-Free Design
Members never lose points or status. All mechanics are additive, avoiding anxiety that comes from streak-breaking penalties.
Behavior-Reward Connection
Every reward mechanic requires completing a genuine health action. No engagement-only loops that don't connect to outcomes. This ensures gamification serves health goals, not just app metrics.
Solution
The engagement loop.
I designed every interaction to follow a five-stage behavioral loop: Behavior triggers a system response, which activates an engagement mechanic, delivers a variable reward, and creates reinforcement that strengthens the habit. We built this loop into all six core mechanics.
Research-backed
Every mechanic maps to published behavioral psychology research on habit formation and motivation
Ethically constrained
Built-in guardrails prevent dark patterns that exploit rather than support member wellbeing
Click each stage to explore the psychology behind it
Engagement Loop Architecture
The behavioral psychology framework behind every interaction
Variable Rewards
Reward Wheel.
I designed the spin wheel as our primary variable reward mechanic. Members unlock spins by completing health activities, then spin to earn 5-100 bonus points. The unpredictability creates anticipation that drives 2.3x higher engagement than fixed-point systems—backed by BJ Fogg's variable reward research.
2.1s spin animation - optimal anticipation window
No zero outcomes - minimum 5 pts ensures positive experience
Visible odds - transparent probability builds trust
Try spinning the wheel
Reward Wheel Demo
Variable rewards drive 2.3x more engagement
Spins
0
Coins
0
Cards
$0
Instant Gratification
Health Trivia Games.
I designed quick matching games to deliver instant wins while teaching health knowledge. Each 30-second game provides a complete dopamine cycle: challenge, effort, success, reward. Members learn nutrition facts, activity values, and health tips through play rather than passive reading.
30-second completion - quick wins fit into any moment
Educational content - games teach point values and health facts
Bonus points - completing games earns additional rewards
Play the matching game
Healthy Choice Challenge
Reveal fruits to earn points, avoid junk food!
Location Triggers
Gym Check-in with Geofencing.
I designed geofence-based rewards to create Pavlovian associations between locations and positive feelings. Using native mobile capabilities, we detect when members arrive at partner gyms (50-100m radius accuracy) and trigger instant check-in prompts. Time-based bonuses at 15 and 30 minutes encourage longer, more effective workouts.
Native geofence detection - 50-100m radius accuracy with battery optimization
Time-based bonuses - 15min and 30min milestones
Streak tracking - weekly consistency visualization
Try the check-in flow
Gym Check-in
Location triggers reward higher engagement
Progress Visibility
Status Tiers.
I designed clear progression from Bronze to Platinum to leverage "near-miss" psychology that drives continued engagement. Members can see exactly how far they are from the next tier and what benefits await. Higher tiers unlock tangible partner discounts, travel upgrades, and premium experiences—not just digital badges.
4 status tiers - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum
Tangible benefits - real discounts and upgrades
Access not exclusion - core features available at all tiers
Explore status progression
Status System Demo
Progress visualization drives 74% retention
Status Tiers
Motion Design
Animation as behavioral reinforcement.
I designed every animation to serve the psychology—not to make things "feel nice," but to create anticipation, cement achievements, and guide attention toward health outcomes.
From the 2.1-second spin curve that builds excitement to the celebration pause that lets dopamine hit, motion design amplifies the behavioral mechanics. We maintained 60fps across all platforms.
Click each principle to see the animation in action
Design Decisions
What We Rejected.
Some of the most powerful engagement techniques are also the most exploitative. Working with behavioral scientists and legal counsel, I deliberately rejected dark patterns that boost metrics at the expense of member wellbeing.
Streak Penalties
Dark pattern: Losing points or status for missing a day creates anxiety-driven engagement.
What I built instead:
Additive-only points. Streaks visualize consistency but breaking them doesn't trigger losses.
Infinite Scrolling Content
Dark pattern: Endless feeds maximize time-in-app but don't serve health goals.
What I built instead:
Action-focused interface. Every interaction maps to a specific health behavior completion.
Loot Boxes / Mystery Rewards
Dark pattern: Unknown reward contents (common in gaming) exploit compulsive behavior.
What I built instead:
Transparent reward ranges. Spin wheel shows all possible outcomes before spinning.
Push Notification Nagging
Dark pattern: Frequent reminders create pressure rather than motivation.
What I built instead:
Member-controlled frequency. Maximum 2 notifications per week, customizable timing.
Legal Compliance
Designing within legal constraints.
Variable rewards and spin mechanics could be classified as gambling under New York State law if not carefully designed. Working with legal counsel, I ensured every mechanic avoids the three elements that define illegal gambling.
Legal Definition: Gambling requires (1) Consideration (payment/entry fee), (2) Chance (random outcome), and (3) Prize (something of value). Remove any one element, and it's not gambling.
Health insurance context
As a health insurance rewards program, we face stricter regulatory scrutiny than consumer apps. Every engagement mechanic must comply with insurance regulations across 12 markets.
NYC gambling laws
New York has some of the strictest "games of chance" regulations in the US. Our design approach eliminates gambling classification while maintaining engaging mechanics.
How I designed around gambling laws
Legal review outcome
External legal counsel in NY, CA, and UK jurisdictions confirmed my engagement mechanics do not constitute gambling because I eliminated consideration (no payment required) and prize monetary value (points cannot be cashed out). My behavior-gating requirement further distances mechanics from pure chance-based gambling.
Design constraint becomes design strength: By building mechanics that explicitly avoid gambling classification, I created inherently ethical gamification. The legal guardrails forced me to connect every reward to genuine health behaviors rather than exploitative attention loops.
Trade-offs
Ethical Tradeoffs.
I navigated gamification as a double-edged sword, making deliberate choices about what techniques to use, what to reject, and how to balance engagement with member wellbeing. Working with the team, we aligned on principles that prioritized health outcomes over app metrics.
Ethical Guardrails
Design principles that protect member wellbeing
Positive-sum rewards only
Members never lose points or status. All mechanics are additive. We rejected loss-aversion patterns that create anxiety around streaks.
Transparent probability
Spin wheel odds are visible. No hidden mechanics or "near miss" manipulation. Members know exactly what they're engaging with.
Health behavior tied to rewards
Every reward mechanic requires completing a genuine health action. No engagement-only loops that don't connect to outcomes.
Impact
Behavior change that drives business value.
I tracked both health outcomes and business metrics. Gamification only succeeds when member engagement translates to genuine behavior change—and when that behavior change reduces healthcare costs and increases lifetime value.
We achieved 74% retention (vs 40% industry avg), reducing member acquisition costs by 85%. The increased health activity correlated with 23% lower insurance claims and $2,400 average reduction in annual healthcare costs per engaged member.
Business Impact
"I never thought I'd be excited about hitting 10,000 steps, but seeing my status climb to Silver made it feel like a game. Now it's just part of my day."
Michael - 8-week program completer, South Africa market
Reflection
What I Learned.
Designing ethical gamification requires constant tension between what drives engagement and what serves members. The hardest decisions weren't about mechanics—they were about restraint.
Key Takeaway
Behavioral psychology is a tool, not a goal. The most effective engagement comes from mechanics that genuinely help members achieve their health goals—not from exploiting psychological vulnerabilities.
1. Start with behavior science earlier
We built mechanics first, then consulted psychologists. Starting with behavioral frameworks would have prevented two major pivots.
2. A/B test reward ratios more aggressively
Our initial variable reward ratios were intuition-based. Post-launch testing revealed optimal ranges we could have found sooner.
3. Build ethics review into the design process
Retrospective ethics review caught issues late. Embedding ethical checkpoints at each design phase would save rework.