Lincoln Access Rewards New Member Earning Program

To accelerate loyalty and deepen engagement, we launched a new earning category for freshly onboarded Lincoln Access Rewards members. The goal: activate behavioral KPIs early—by prompting users to complete profiles and preference settings—while affirming our customer-centric luxury brand narrative. This initiative guided the full spectrum of our experience design process: discovery, iteration, testing, and launch—optimizing both CX strategy and business performance across North America.

CHALLENGE

Lincoln tasked VML with designing a brand-new rewards-earning category tailored to new vehicle owners within their first year. Key constraints included development capacity, .com platform limitations, and defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The central question became:

How can we engage first-year members in a high-impact, brand-relevant way that reinforces loyalty and supports crucial KPIs?

Role: Associate Director, UX
Timeline: 3 sprints
Platform: Mobile + Desktop Adaptive
Team: Claudia Zacharias, Maggie Reynolds, Kelly Kinnear
Figma, Miro, Monday

MY ROLE

As Lead UX Designer, I was responsible for:

  • Establishing the strategic direction of the user experience

  • Leading discovery research and synthesis

  • Defining and iterating user flows

  • Collaborating on high-fidelity designs with a junior designer

  • Overseeing cross-functional stakeholder alignment

  • Designing and executing remote user testing

  • Presenting findings and guiding design iterations through launch

STRATEGIC APPROACH

  • Conducted competitive and comparative analysis across luxury and mainstream rewards programs

  • Identified “micro-engagement” trends—small, task-based challenges that reward users quickly

  • Led end-to-end user journey mapping focused on motivating task completion

  • Developed and iterated eight flow versions to meet technical, legal, and business constraints

  • Facilitated collaborative design reviews with dev, strategy, legal, and brand teams

  • Designed and tested mobile and desktop prototypes via unmoderated studies on UserZoom

  • Synthesized insights to inform final MVP scope and ensure alignment with KPIs

Process in Action

Discovery + Competitive Research
– Identified top-tier rewards ecosystems that prioritized instant gratification—“complete profile” and “set preferences” tasks yielded meaningful early engagement.

Iterative Flow Design
– Led eight distinct flow variations: presented, critiqued, and refined based on technical constraints, MVP boundaries, and regulatory considerations.

High-Fidelity Design Collaboration
– Delegated UI components to junior designers, while safeguarding overall design coherence, accessibility, and interaction strategy.
– Consciously aligned experience with Lincoln’s premium brand ethos.

Stakeholder Review & Integration
– Hosted multi-disciplinary design reviews—ensuring development feasibility, brand integrity, and compliance adherence.

User Testing & Validation
– Created and led an unmoderated study via UserZoom.
– Analyzed engagement around key goals: profile completion, preference setting, and early reward activation.
– Delivered actionable insights and refined micro‑interactions and copy.

Final Delivery & Support
– Compiled polished UI kits and design documentation.
– Provided design QA guidance during launch, ensuring fidelity across platforms.

User Flow

Engagement New Member User Flow

How might we create a compelling onboarding experience that incentivizes new members to complete their profiles and select preferences—thereby driving early loyalty, improving customer data quality, and supporting profitable dealer engagement?

EXPERIENCE DESIGN IN ACTION

The final design translates strategic intent into a refined, on-brand digital experience that seamlessly blends utility with luxury. The layout and interactions are intentionally structured to guide new members through lightweight but meaningful engagement steps, encouraging profile completion while reinforcing the premium Lincoln ownership experience.

KEY DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Modular, Milestone-Driven Interaction:
The UI breaks down profile completion into attainable micro-actions—each worth 1,000 points. This gamified structure creates early momentum and encourages participation without overwhelming the user. Each task (e.g., “Share Mailing Address,” “Add VIN”) is framed as both useful and rewarding.

Premium Visual Hierarchy:
Typography, whitespace, and restrained use of imagery reflect Lincoln’s luxury brand tone. The design avoids clutter, instead emphasizing clarity and intentionality in each interaction.

Personalized Onboarding Experience:
The “Tailored to You” section emphasizes relevance, setting the tone that this journey is unique to the user and their vehicle. This personalization reinforces user value and brand trust.

Action-Oriented CTA Flow:
Prominent and repeated calls-to-action (“Complete Profile,” “Get Started,” “Explore Rewards”) are placed in contextually supportive locations, encouraging engagement throughout the page.

Loyalty-Led Storytelling:
The bottom section reinforces the long-term vision of membership—pivoting from early tasks to aspirational outcomes: earning, redeeming, and deepening brand connection.

As the design lead, I ensured every pixel and interaction served both user needs and business KPIs. I collaborated closely with junior designers, content strategists, and developers to maintain consistency across devices and ensure that visual elegance did not come at the expense of usability or performance.

This phase exemplified how thoughtful UX design can transform strategic intent into a compelling, intuitive, and brand-right experience that builds both trust and behavior early in the customer journey.

CONCLUSION

The new member earning experience is now live across North America. The strategy positioned Lincoln to increase early program engagement, drive completion of key account information, and lay the groundwork for future personalization. Beyond launching a new experience, this work helped define a scalable model for introducing behavioral nudges within the loyalty platform—anchored in design leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and a test-and-learn mindset.

OUTCOMES + MY LEADERSHIP IMPACT

Strategic Vision & End‑to‑End Ownership: I spearheaded the project—from framing the CX vision to leading design delivery and guiding UX validation.

Iterative Expertise: Through an eight-step flow refinement, I steered the team to reconcile business needs with technical feasibility and user needs.

Collaborative Execution: I bridged design, product, legal and development teams to ensure a unified, compliant, and brand-rich implementation.

Research-Driven Results: My user testing plan influenced final design choices—optimizing for speed, clarity, and appeal in early member interactions.