Your Bee Garden
Your Bee Garden is an interactive educational game designed to raise awareness about the importance of bees and encourage sustainable gardening practices. The game allows players to create and manage their own virtual bee-friendly garden, learning about flowers that attract bees, how to maintain a healthy environment for these vital pollinators, while rewarding players with Gisou Collector Credits.
Problem situation
Gisou’s annual Bee Season campaign aimes to educate customers about the importance of bees and strengthen the brand’s identity. During these campaign weeks, the Bee Learning Course is highlighted. The goal of the course is to educate participants on bee sustainable practices as novice bee keepers. However the course was failing to engage users effectively.
Many participants dropped out halfway through the course. Despite efforts to re-engage users through email reminders, the course did not retain their interest. Participants during initial tests, cited the course took too long to complete or was not very entertaining, although they did find it very educational.
Additionally, awareness of the Bee Season campaign was low, further undermining the campaign's goals. This highlighted the need for a redesign to make the course more dynamic, engaging, and aligned with user requirements.
Design Research
Understanding User Engagement and Motivation:
One of the core focuses of my research was identifying the reasons behind the low completion rates of the Bee Learning Course. Through interviews and surveys, it became evident that the course's static design and lack of interactive elements failed to keep users engaged. Many participants expressed interest in learning about bees but were discouraged by the course's length and the requirement to create an account. This research highlighted the need for a more dynamic and rewarding user experience, leading to the exploration of gamification strategies that could enhance motivation, such as incorporating the Gisou Loyalty Program Credits as a reward system.
Enhancing the Course’s Impact through Gamification:
Building on the insights from user feedback, the second crucial part of my research focused on integrating game design elements into the course to improve user engagement. I explored various gamification techniques, such as leader boards, streaks, rewards, and interactive challenges, to make the learning experience more engaging and enjoyable. The goal was to create a course that not only educated users about bees but also motivated them to complete it by offering tangible rewards and a sense of achievement. I looked at other brands and games that have done this succesfully, Duolingo and My Tamagotchi Forever came to mind.