- Industry: Insurance
- Problem: My company wanted another way to support a corporate culture of giving back to the community
- Role: UX architect
- Information architecture
- User flows
- Wireframes
- Outcome: The rapid design and deployment of a progressive web app (PWA) available only to employees that allowed them to record ‘acts of good’
A well crafted company culture possesses the remarkable ability to captivate employees, instill passionate loyalty, and provide the necessary support for achieving personal and business success. But building and sustaining such a culture is a delicate endeavor, as it can be easily broken with just a few bad decisions. Nurturing your employees with care and ensuring ethical practices are followed can yield astonishing results for your organization’s bottom line.
I was the information architect and initial designer for a project named “100 for Good.” This work was a tribute to our company’s centennial celebration, manifested in the form of a progressive web app, accessible only to our employees, and was meant to be a component of our corporate culture. This innovative platform encouraged them to contribute “100 acts of good” within their communities. Defining an “act of good” was intentionally broad, recognizing the challenge of precisely delineating such a subjective concept. Some participants submitted more serious gestures like assisting a disabled neighbor with shopping, while others recorded seemingly simpler deeds like pulling a weed from their lawns.
The underlying objective was to further embed a culture of positive action within the State Farm employee community. The app used elements of gamification so that individuals earned points and “badges” as they progressed through various levels. To foster competition and camaraderie, we developed a dynamic leaderboard showcasing participants’ rankings. This really drove engagement. Streamlining the user experience, the process of recording an act of good was optimized into three quick steps, minimizing the need for extensive typing on a mobile app.
The success of the app surpassed our expectations, with its popularity skyrocketing from the very beginning. While we had planned for a specific set of points and levels to what we believed would be enough for six months of usage, we quickly realized that participants were reaching upper levels at a faster pace. Responding iteratively to this new demand, we quickly introduced additional levels and badges to maintain user engagement and momentum.
The impressive growth and engagement of this internal facing app were unparalleled in the company’s history, and accomplished in record time. What might have typically taken a year to achieve was, remarkably, completed in about five months. Such an outcome was a result of our exceptional team—talented, dedicated, and wholly aligned toward our common vision, and our leadership’s role in reducing bureaucratic and technical obstacles, which significantly contributed to the project’s success.
Fostering a thriving company culture and cultivating employee engagement can be a valuable journey that reaps substantial rewards. By treating your employees with care and respect, and by aligning their endeavors with meaningful purpose, the culture you build can help create a lasting and prosperous organization.