Retention Mechanics · Design System · 2025

Reshape

Reshape was losing users before healthy habits had time to form. The app did not just need more features. It needed stronger reasons for people to come back tomorrow.

I redesigned the reward and streak experience through celebration mechanics, Streak Freeze, and reusable system components that made progress more visible and worth protecting.

At a Glance

~15%

30-Day Churn Reduction (Estimated)

Through streak protection and celebration features that helped users protect momentum and feel rewarded for progress

20+

Reusable UI Components Built

Saving designers and developers 10-15 hours per sprint across the reward system

TL;DR

Reshape struggled to retain users long enough for habits to form. I redesigned its reward system through celebrations, badges, and Streak Freeze to make progress more visible, reduce early churn, and support more consistent daily use.

Project Info

Project

Summer Internship at Reshape

Role

Product Designer

Team

2 Product Designers, 2 UX/UI Designers, 1 Project Manager

Timeline

06/02/2025 – 08/08/2025

Description

Led the design of Reshape's reward system from concept through handoff, including celebrations, badges, Streak Freeze, and reusable UI components.

View Prototype

Product Preview

Context

Reshape is an AI-powered fitness and nutrition app focused on habit-building through personalized workouts, meal logging, and daily progress tracking.

At the time of the project, the team was trying to improve retention in a crowded market where users often dropped off before habits had time to form.

The Real Problem

What it looked like

Reshape needed stronger retention features.

What made it urgent

Only 10.97% of users were retained by Day 7, and key feature usage dropped by 97%. Users were not sticking around long enough for habits to form.

What I actually had to solve

The deeper issue was not feature count. Users needed small wins, visible progress, and a feeling that missing a day had a real cost. Otherwise habits never had time to stick.

Retention After Onboarding and Individual Feature Activation charts

App screenshots showing the current experience before redesign

Takeaway

If I had stopped at the surface level, I would have added more engagement features. The real work was designing motivation, momentum, and consistency into the product experience.

Constraints

What shaped the work before a single screen was designed

Live product constraint

The work had to fit within an existing product and design system, not start from scratch.

Retention pressure

The solution needed to improve short-term engagement quickly enough to affect early churn.

Motivation vs. noise

Rewards had to feel meaningful without turning the product into a gimmicky badge system.

Cross-team implementation

The reward system needed reusable components that designers and developers could scale across the app.

Research

Understanding why users drop off early

I combined quantitative product data with user interviews and a survey to understand what was actually driving early churn.

51 Survey Responses7 User InterviewsCompetitive Analysis

Survey data and user quotes on motivation factors

Users quit due to lack of motivation, not features

The data showed that feature gaps were not the main driver of drop-off. Users left because they stopped feeling progress.

Beginners needed small wins, guidance, and visible progress

New users needed clear feedback and early achievements to build confidence and stay engaged before habits formed.

Engagement and tracking needed to work together

Motivation features and tracking needed to reinforce each other, not exist as separate parts of the app.

Research synthesis showing patterns across user interviews and survey responses.

Decisions

Four decisions that shaped the work

Each decision came from a specific tension in the research. Here is what I chose and why.

Decision 01

Celebrate progress early and often

Problem

Beginners were not getting enough visible reinforcement to feel progress early.

Considered

Keeping progress mostly informational versus adding milestone badges and celebration pop-ups.

Why this

I introduced celebrations and badges to create small wins that made progress feel visible and motivating before habits were fully formed.

Next time

Test which milestones felt truly rewarding versus arbitrary.

Celebration pop-up

Illustrations shown are temporary assets. Final badge and celebration visuals will be developed by Reshape's graphic design team for brand consistency.

Decision 02

Protect momentum with Streak Freeze

Problem

Users could lose motivation quickly after missing a day.

Considered

Traditional streaks alone versus a forgiveness mechanic that let users preserve momentum.

Why this

Streak Freeze gave users flexibility without fully breaking the habit loop, making consistency feel more achievable.

Next time

Test how many freezes users should earn and when that mechanic starts weakening accountability.

Streak Freeze

Decision 03

Integrate achievements into existing progress surfaces

Problem

Motivation features felt disconnected when treated as separate destinations.

Considered

A standalone achievements area versus embedding achievements into places users already checked, like the profile and progress view.

Why this

I placed achievements within existing progress surfaces so motivation stayed tied to the broader fitness journey instead of becoming an isolated feature.

Next time

Measure whether users discovered and revisited achievements more often when embedded versus separated.

Achievements section

Celebrations page

Decision 04

Build the reward system as a reusable component set

Problem

Retention features would become inconsistent and expensive to scale if built as one-off screens.

Considered

Designing feature-by-feature versus creating a shared component system for celebrations, badges, streaks, Streak Freeze, and progress states.

Why this

A reusable system improved consistency and saved design and engineering time across the reward experience.

Next time

Validate which components were used most often and where abstraction could be simplified.

Component system

Reusable components designed to scale celebrations, badges, streaks, and progress states across the product.

Solution

The reward system, end to end

Four core surfaces working together to make progress visible, momentum worth protecting, and the system scalable across the product.

Celebration pop-up

This exists to turn small milestones into visible wins that encourage users to keep going.

Achievements section

This exists to make progress feel cumulative and tied to the user's larger fitness journey.

Streak Freeze

This exists to protect momentum on imperfect days without breaking the habit loop entirely.

Component system

This exists to scale reward mechanics consistently across the product while speeding implementation.

Outcome

What shipped and what it was designed to do

My designs were approved for implementation and scheduled to launch. The strongest projected signal was an estimated 15% reduction in 30-day churn by helping users protect momentum and feel rewarded for progress. I also built 20+ reusable components, saving designers and developers an estimated 10 to 15 hours per sprint across the reward system.

If I were measuring this next, I would track repeat engagement after missed days, interaction rates with celebrations and badges, and whether Streak Freeze improved week-over-week habit consistency.

🔄

~15%

30-Day Churn Reduction (Estimated)

Streak Freeze and celebration features were designed to reduce churn by helping users stay consistent and feel rewarded for progress.

🧩

20+ Components

Reusable UI Components Built

Saved designers and developers an estimated 10 to 15 hours per sprint across the reward system.

Reflection

What I would do differently

I initially thought the problem was that Reshape needed more engagement features. The deeper challenge was helping users feel enough momentum, progress, and emotional payoff to come back before habits had fully formed.

With more time, I would test which rewards actually strengthened consistency versus which ones only created short-term novelty.

This project taught me that retention design is not about adding more mechanics. It is about making progress feel visible, meaningful, and worth protecting.

🗣️ Stay close to the product team

Designing within a live product meant every decision needed to align with the existing system. Close collaboration kept things consistent and handoff smoother.

🤝 Talk to the founder early and often

Weekly check-ins helped validate direction before investing time in detailed iterations. It prevented misalignment and kept priorities clear.

⚖️ Know what to ship now versus later

In a fast-moving environment, identifying the most critical paths and deferring the rest is a skill. Launching and learning beats waiting for perfect.

Client Feedback

“

I worked with Emily during a 10-week CoCreate program, where she contributed as a UX Design Intern. From the outset, Emily demonstrated professionalism, diligence, and a remarkable attention to detail. She consistently delivered thorough, well-documented work and communicated her ideas with clarity and confidence. Emily was proactive in her approach, readily engaging in team discussions and taking initiative to ensure tasks were completed to the highest standard. She is also very humble and patiently puts effort in understanding the context. Her enthusiasm, collaborative spirit, and reliability made her an asset to the team. I am confident that Emily will excel in her career and will be a great addition to any team.

Amol Kankane

CEO, Reshape

Reshape

TL;DR

Four decisions that shaped the work

Celebrate progress early and often

Protect momentum with Streak Freeze

Integrate achievements into existing progress surfaces

Build the reward system as a reusable component set

The reward system, end to end

What shipped and what it was designed to do

What I would do differently

Ikigai (Delta)

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