Celebration principles
Problem: There is widespread perception amongst customers, the public, and regulators that Robinhood gamifies investing, specifically through the use of confetti.
Hypothesis: By creating and operationalizing a set of principles through which we can evaluate when and how we celebrate, we can establish a new level of design and content consistency that looks a layer deeper, beyond confetti, and ties how we celebrate back to the Robinhood brand in a clear way.
Deliverables: Celebration principles, design framework, revisions to highly visible in-app moments, like first equities trade
Process: Because in-app celebrations build reinforcement into the product, it’s incumbent upon us to celebrate with an eye towards rewarding advisable behavior. With this in mind, we partnered with our behavioral research team to take inventory of our current confetti moments as well as the moments we want to acknowledge (but don’t yet). From there, we established a set of principles to help us bridge the gap.
Challenges:
Before this work, most of our celebratory moments could be perceived as achieving business objectives rather than customer milestones: If we want to help customers overcome behavioral barriers, how can we celebrate “boring” moments that lead to healthy investing habits?
There are true financial milestones for customers that also benefit Robinhood: How do we celebrate those appropriately, especially in moments where there is an obvious conflict of interest?
Solution:
Four principles rooted in “thematic actions” that map back to ideal emotions our designs should accentuate
A celebration spectrum (nod v. applaud) that provides a framework for consistent design application
*The resulting statements and rubrics for application (shown below) are purposefully vague, designed to serve as guardrails for evaluating when and how to celebrate without being too prescriptive.
Performance: Newly armed with our celebration principles, we evaluated all existing confetti moments and either removed or revised them. This exercise shed light on the shortcomings of our existing moments and paved the way for meaningful additions to customers’ financial journeys on Robinhood.
First Equities Trade
How does this revision map back to our principles? Data shows that the majority of Robinhood customers are first-time investors, so this moment is often the first time someone has ever placed a trade. A full-screen experience creates a moment of pause to applaud customers for taking this significant step. The content highlights the act of collective participation and creates the sense of empowerment laid out in our principles.
Upgrade to Gold
How does this revision map back to our principles? Customers gain access to new financial tools when upgrading to Gold, so we want them to leave this moment feeling empowered. At the same time, research shows that many customers adopt Gold with a trial mentality. The subtle animation and content nod at this sense of empowerment, but don’t over-celebrate a moment that might be more aligned with business goals.
