Turning everyday movement into a reward-driven experience

Overview

As Design Director, I led the design of a behavior-driven experience within the Qantas Wellbeing ecosystem—transforming everyday movement into a motivating, reward-based journey. Partnering closely with product and engineering, I defined the experience strategy while contributing hands-on to key interaction patterns and flows. The result was a simple, engaging system that encourages users to build healthy habits while earning meaningful rewards.

The Opportunity

Qantas set out to deepen engagement within its wellbeing platform by encouraging users to build healthier daily habits through simple, trackable activities like walking.

While the foundation existed, the experience lacked:

• A clear and motivating feedback loop

• Intuitive goal-setting and progress tracking

• A strong connection between activity and rewards

There was an opportunity to transform step tracking from a passive utility into an active, habit-forming experience—one that aligns with Qantas’ broader rewards ecosystem.

The underlying concept was strong: users could earn points by completing daily step challenges and other activities, reinforcing behavior through tangible rewards.

My Role

I led design direction for the experience, aligning stakeholders around a clear vision for a more engaging and intuitive product.

My role spanned both strategy and execution:

• Defined core experience principles centered on motivation, simplicity, and reward

• Partnered with product and engineering to shape the roadmap

• Contributed hands-on to interaction design, flows, and key UI patterns

• Ensured the experience balanced clarity, engagement, and scalability

This dual role allowed me to shape the system at a strategic level while ensuring the details supported real user behavior.

Approach

Designing a Behavior Loop, Not Just a Feature.

I focused on creating a reinforcing cycle of action and reward:

• Set clear daily goals tied to achievable outcomes

• Provided immediate feedback on progress

• Reinforced completion with tangible rewards (Qantas Points)

This transformed step tracking into a motivational loop, rather than a passive metric.

This dual role allowed me to both set the vision and help bring it to life, ensuring that what shipped reflected a high level of design quality while staying grounded in real user behavior and product constraints.

The result is an experience that transforms a simple daily activity into a compelling, reward-driven habit—helping users stay engaged while strengthening their connection to the Qantas ecosystem.

Simplifying Goal Setting and Progress

Clarity was critical to engagement.

• Reduced friction in setting and adjusting goals

• Made progress highly visible and easy to understand

• Designed for quick, at-a-glance interaction

The goal was to make participation feel effortless and intuitive.

Connecting Activity to Meaningful Rewards

The experience needed to clearly communicate why users should engage.

• Strengthened the link between movement and rewards

• Highlighted milestones and achievements

• Reinforced the broader value within the Qantas ecosystem

This aligned everyday behavior with long-term value.

Designing for Consistency Across Data Sources

Because activity data could come from multiple devices and platforms:

• Ensured seamless syncing across wearables and mobile devices

• Designed for flexibility in how activity is tracked

• Maintained consistency regardless of input source

This created a reliable and cohesive experience across contexts.

Outcome

The redesigned experience transformed a simple tracking feature into a more engaging, habit-forming system:

• Increased user engagement through a clear reward-driven loop

• Encouraged consistent daily activity and goal completion

• Strengthened the connection between wellbeing and the Qantas rewards ecosystem

• Delivered a more intuitive and motivating user experience

Beyond the feature itself, this work demonstrated how thoughtful design can turn everyday behavior into a meaningful and sustained engagement model.

This project highlights how design can go beyond usability—shaping behavior, reinforcing habits, and connecting everyday actions to meaningful outcomes at scale.

Credits

Design Director: Jimmy Walker
Sr. Product Designer: Julie Eckert
Director of Technology: Nathan Holloway
Engineering support: BCGDV Sydney