Amazon Quest
A gamified campaign that transformed passive customers into active buyers
Product Designer — Sebastien Chery
Problem
How can gamification increase digital content purchases among passive Japanese Kindle users?
Research showed that 1.5 million Japanese customers made zero or one purchase, indicating much lower engagement than global averages.
Solution
A gamified purchase quest that rewards customers with Amazon points for buying specific books. The campaign turns passive browsing into active buying by offering clear progression, rewards, and a sense of achievement aligned with Japanese gaming culture.
Team
Cross-functional collaboration with engineering, global teams, and product managers.
Role — Onboarded to lead UX strategy, align stakeholders, and guide localization.
Deliverable — Complete end-to-end widget ready for launch.
KPIs — Activation rate, completion rate, and drop-off analysis.
Design Process
Generative Research — I researched gaming mechanics and loyalty programs to design progression and reward systems that matched local Japanese preferences.
Stakeholder Alignment — I facilitated sessions with stakeholders and translators to ensure my cultural understanding.
UI Exploration — Using the generative research, I mocked two gamification concepts: progress tracking, and stacking inspired by Japanese “pile up” culture. I collaborated with PM and engineering to evaluate both concepts, and we selected progress tracking based on technical feasibility. Shown below:
Post-Purchase Placement — To secure placement on Amazon’s global Thank You page, I created a user flow of the progress tracking UX, mapping the technical and business requirements of the global team. It addressed concerns about targeting accuracy and performance impact, showing how the quest campaign would enhance the post-purchase experience without disruption. The user flow served as a bridge between the global team’s requirements and the manga team’s goal. Shown below:
Business Constraints — The manga team wanted to stretch their paid unit for different cohorts using Amazon's Bullseye, so I designed distinct user flows for the two business-defined cohorts, showing different quest lengths and reward values.
Wireframe — This flow of the progress tracking UX is for the first cohort, and it covers eligibility, localized progression tracking, and reward completion. Shown below:
Engineering Handoff — I structured Amazon AUI and custom components in Figma Dev Mode using Auto Layout with consistent 4px spacing and clear annotations for local and global engineering teams.
Results
Engaged Users Performance — Among engaged users who completed the quest, purchase behavior increased significantly during the campaign period, with a +2279% increase for Cohort 1 and a +662% for Cohort 2.
User Journey Funnel — Strong initial engagement with 91% of visitors enrolling, but only 16% completed the quest. Highlights strong top-of-funnel conversion, but signals the need for better mid-journey retention.
What I'd Do Differently
The cohort segmentation wasn't informed by user research. It was a business hypothesis that happened to succeed. In future projects, I would advocate for user interviews to understand how different cohorts perceive the quest's difficulty and rewards, rather than relying solely on behavioral data to design the experience. Research could have addressed the mid-journey retention issues that led to the 16% completion rate.