Cambridge Mobile Telematics
2024–2026
RoadClub
Evolving a weekly rewards experiment into a daily behavior-change system
Role
Product Designer / RoadClub Design Lead
Timeline
October 2024–June 2026
Team
Product, engineering, UX research, data science, QA, and support
Platform
iOS and Android
28% → 68%
Challenge opt-in
80%
Completed a Challenge
+37%
Trip-detail review
94%
Completed Reflect & Recover
THE PRODUCT
Evolving a weekly rewards experiment into a daily behavior-change system
RoadClub is a consumer mobile app that uses driving data, feedback, and rewards to encourage safer habits. It began as a simple weekly experiment: drive 30 miles, finish with a score of 90 or higher, and earn cash.
As RoadClub’s sole dedicated product designer, I led its evolution into a daily points experience with clearer trip-level feedback, personalized Challenges, and post-trip coaching. The work required translating user research, behavioral principles, business constraints, and complex telematics data into an experience people could understand and act on.
The Evolution
RoadClub evolved through three major stages. The first version tested whether a simple weekly cash reward could motivate safer driving. The second made weekly qualification and driving feedback easier to understand. The third replaced the weekly model with a daily points system designed around more immediate feedback, attainable goals, and repeated opportunities to improve.
THE WEEKLY MODEL
Making a weekly reward easier to understand and act on
The first version was intentionally lean and adapted from CMT’s existing insurance-app framework. Users earned a weekly reward by finishing with a score of 90 or higher and driving at least 30 miles.
The model gave the team something real to test, but users struggled to understand whether they were on track. Score, mileage, and time remaining felt disconnected, and one poor trip late in the week could erase several days of progress.
Design Response
I redesigned the Home screen around three progress rings for score, mileage, and time remaining. Dynamic cards explained recent changes, acknowledged progress, and directed users toward relevant trips or feedback.
I also expanded the experience with richer trip details and a weekly recap that explained where the score changed, surfaced behavioral patterns, and ended with practical suggestions. RoadClub began moving from passive reporting toward guidance users could apply on their next drive.
Together, these additions made RoadClub more transparent and gave users clearer ways to understand and improve their driving. But they were still layered onto a weekly, all-or-nothing reward system: one late mistake could undo an entire week, feedback remained delayed, and the reduced $2 payout weakened the incentive. The next step was to rethink the model itself.
REBUILDING AROUND DAILY POINTS
Replacing an all-or-nothing week with a fresh opportunity every day
The team decided to replace weekly cash rewards with a daily points system grounded in loss aversion. Users began each day with points and worked to preserve them by driving safely. After meeting the five-mile requirement, the remaining points were added to their balance.
The shift created more immediate feedback, reduced the impact of one poor day, and provided a foundation for Challenges, milestones, recovery opportunities, and other ways to earn.
Research Validation
Moving from dollars to points introduced two risks: users might consider points less transparent, and loss aversion could feel punitive. In pre-launch interviews with 10 RoadClub users, the proposed daily model received an average motivation rating of 7.75 out of 10, compared with 5.25 for the existing $2 weekly model. Nine of ten participants also considered the redesigned Home and My Driving experiences improvements.
Testing revealed that point loss needed stronger visual distinction, previous earnings needed clearer language, and no-driving days needed to look different from days where mileage was not met. Those findings directly informed the final interface.
Designing a Coherent Points Model
Product and data partners owned the underlying economic calculations. My responsibility was making the model coherent throughout the product.
Daily driving points remained attached to a specific day and its trips. Additional points from Challenges, Reflect & Recover, or other bonuses went directly into the account balance and appeared as separate transactions. Keeping those values distinct prevented historical results from changing unexpectedly and allowed users to reconcile their daily performance, points history, and rewards.
CHALLENGES 2.0
Personalized Challenges strengthened the daily behavior loop
Earlier research and the first shipped version had already established that users wanted Challenges. When they were temporarily removed during the transition to daily points, users repeatedly asked for them to return.
The opportunity was not to prove desirability again. It was to remove the friction of the weekly version and redesign Challenges around the daily points system.
Challenges 2.0 used recent driving behavior to offer a relevant goal, adjusted difficulty for different users, and rewarded progress incrementally. Users could track progress after each qualifying trip, earn partial rewards, receive points immediately, and request another Challenge after completing or ending one.
The redesigned experience increased opt-in from approximately 28% to 68%, and 80% of users who opted in completed at least one Challenge.
I designed the feature as a flexible system covering availability, acceptance, progress, partial completion, success, early failure, history, Home integration, and points attribution.
REFLECT & RECOVER
Helping users respond after a risky trip
Point deductions explained the consequence of a risky trip, but not necessarily why it happened or what someone could try next.
Starting from a broad product opportunity, I defined the entry points, name, flow, content, and relationship to trip details and points. Reflect & Recover asked users to identify the likely cause of an event, commit to one practical action for their next drive, and recover a small number of points.
The experience adapted to hard braking, distraction, and speeding, while accounting for eligibility, notifications, trip editing, completion states, and points-history reconciliation. During testing, it increased trip-detail review by 37%, and 94% of users who entered the flow completed it.
OUTCOMES AND LESSONS
How users were engaged mattered more than how much they were paid
RoadClub’s evolution showed that reward amount alone was not the strongest driver of engagement. Users responded more strongly to timely feedback, understandable progress, attainable goals, and opportunities to recover or try again.
The product moved from an abstract weekly score toward a system that connected individual trips with daily outcomes, practical actions, and personalized goals.
Clarity creates trust
Users needed to understand how trips, daily results, transactions, and rewards related.
Frequency and attainability matter
A fresh daily opportunity and incremental progress felt more motivating than one delayed weekly result.
Sensitive data needs to return personal value
Users expected RoadClub to transform their driving data into relevant explanations, guidance, and goals.
