Reducing Urban Clutter with Behavioral Design — Lime Rewards

Shifted parking compliance from friction to engagement, modeling a 12.9× ROI through a reward-based system that turned city mandates into user motivation.

Mobile

Loyalty Reward System

Behavioral Design

PROBLEM /

Lime, a global micro-mobility company, faced growing city fines and operational inefficiency from untidy parking. Its enforcement-only system asked riders to comply, not motivated them to care, failing to turn behavior change into engagement.

MY ROLE & OUTCOME /

As Product Designer, I designed Lime Rewards — a points-based system in the end-ride flow that rewards tidy parking with free minutes and merch. It reframed compliance as motivation, aligning rider and business goals.

↓ Scroll to Final Solution

IMPACT /

I validated a reward-based model that improved parking behavior and achieved 100 % pilot adoption with a 12.9× ROI-return business model.

RESPONSIBILITIES /

User research, End-to-End Prototyping, Stakeholder Alignment, Usability Testing, Product Strategy Lead

PROJECT TYPE /

Corporate Sponsor

TIMELINE & OUTPUT /

4 months (Dec 2024 – Aug 2025) for a mobile Royalty Reward System.

TEAM /

1 Product Manager, Lime

1 Industrial Designer, Lime

1 UX Design Manager, Lime

3 UX Designers

SPONSOR COMPANY /

Lime

12.9x

Modeled ROI-return
(Tier 1 ROI: $45 revenue / $3.50 cost)

+5

Stakeholders Buy-in

100%

Adoption Usability (14 users)

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CONTEXT

PROBLEM

PROCESS

BUSINESS

FINAL DESIGN

IMPACT

JEY

Context

Lime Parking Behavior Issues in Seattle

What is Lime

Lime is a micromobility service that offers electric scooters and bikes.

Lime's Challenge

Untidy parking issue impacted Lime’s brand image cost, operational costs, and city compliance fees.

113%

YoY Rider Growth
in Seattle (since 2024)

~$240,000+

Annual Operations Cost/city to clean untidy Lime parking

~$6,400/year

Seattle City Fines from 8% mispark rate (2021)

Project Goal

How might we encourage tidy parking behavior in a free-floating market that supports intuitive and compliant parking behavior at scale?

Why Free-floating Parking Market

I chose Free-floating parking market because 70% of Lime’s markets include free-floating models and it has greater design opportunity for deeper behavior-driven insights.

🛴 Free-floating Parking

Users can park wherever they want.

🅿️ Mandatory Parking

Users have to park at a designated parking zone.

Defining Problem

Finding the Middle Ground: Aligning Business Goals with User Needs

GENERATIVE RESEARCH

To understand rider's parking behavior and why existing systems failed, I led a generative study using research methods of nan-on-the-street, interviews, field observation, and behavioral mapping.

Click to see the final Research Report

Research 01.

Man-on-the-Street interviews (27 riders)

Research 02.

Semi-Structured Interviews Users & Stakeholder (6 total)

Research 03.

Scenario Mapping Interview
(3 users)

The research led to the following key findings:

Finding 01.

Riders don’t park to be tidy. They park to be done

Finding 02.

Lime’s end-ride photo system fails to motivate action

Finding 03.

The ride ends, but the end-ride experience doesn’t stick

STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

Research and stakeholder discussions revealed a conflict:

Lime’s Business Goal: Tidy Compliant parking

Riders’ Goal: Convenient parking

The opportunity was to design a middle ground that satisfies both business and user needs and our core direction became the below:

Design Process

From Behavior Insights to Scalable Reward System

IDEATION - MAPPING THE RIDER JOURNEY

I created a user journey and facilitated a design workshop across three key moments: Pre-Ride, During-Ride, Post-Ride, to reveal misalignments between rider behavior and Lime’s business goals.

Ideating based on Key journey moments: Pre-Ride, During Ride, Post-Ride

DOWN-SELECTION

From 60+ ideas, I led internal voting based on research-grounded design principles, and faciliated stakeholder alignment to narrow directions to one high-ROI concept with minimal operational lift.

Down-selection 01.

Internal Down-Voting
(60+ ideas → 3 Key Directions)

Down-selection 02.

Stakeholder Alignment
(Finalized to One)

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Encourage tidy and compliant parking in free-floating environments.

Experience should be simple, low-effort, and fast.

Riders should feel confident about where and how to park.

End rides with a satisfying 'peak-end' moment (immediate and meaningful) to encourage repeating behaviour.

RESULT - The Reward System for Tidy Parking

Scoped the final concept to designing Lime Rewards from 0 to 1 — a reward system that motivates tidy parking through positive reinforcement.

WHY REWARD SYSTEM?

Scalable across vehicles and behaviors, requiring no new hardware

Fast rollout, high ROI, and low cost to operate

Backed by Lime leadership for future loyalty expansion

Business Alignment

Finding the Win-Win Reward Ratio that Balances Rider motivation with Lime’s ROI

STAKEHOLDER PUSHBACK

While the reward system aligned with Lime’s north star and user needs, stakeholders questioned its financial sustainability — would giving free-ride minutes reduce profit margins?

To move forward, I needed to prove that the reward ratio could benefit both riders and the business

WHAT I DID - USER SIDE

I conducted 5 user tests across 3 sprints to validate fairness perception of different reward tiers. Riders compared reward ratios for the first five minutes of free ride time, helping identify where motivation peaked without feeling “too easy.”

User-test Figjam Workshop: Asking users to rate their satisfaction on three different ratio-points

WHAT I DID - BUSINESS SIDE

I developed a reward-to-ride formula to optimize the incentive ratio over time.

This model enables A/B testing to calibrate ideal points-to-reward thresholds for maximum ROI.

Cost-Saving Formula to Fine-Tune ROI

RESULT - STAKEHOLDER PERSUADED

By combining user insights with financial modeling, I identified 75 points per reward as the optimal balance between user motivation and business ROI.

The data and tier-ratio model validated the reward system’s profitability, convincing stakeholders to move forward with confidence and clear business alignment.

75 points proven optimal through user testing and financial modeling

Created Reward Tier Model with the optimal ratio (75 points) to Convince Stakeholders

Final Design

Lime Reward System for Tidy Parking for Going Beyond Expected Effort

I focused on incentivizing above-and-beyond actions that meet the three criteria below, creating measurable value for both riders and Lime rather than rewarding baseline behavior.

Criteria 01.

Parking aligned and parallel to other Lime vehicles

Criteria 02.

Parking in bike racks

Criteria 03.

Picking up fallen Lime Vehicles

Journey Stage 01 - Onboarding

What is a Lime Reward System &
how do I earn points?

The onboarding flow educates and motivates riders by clearly showing how Lime Rewards works, how points are earned, and why tidy actions matter. It builds understanding and incentive before the ride even starts.

Reward Info Bottom Sheet

Pop-up: Reward Info

Scroll-Onboarding

Journey Stage 02 - End-of-Parking

Did my parking qualify as tidy to earn points?

Riders upload an end-ride photo that’s automatically checked for tidy criteria such as alignment and rack use.

If the parking meets standards, the rider earns points instantly and sees a positive animation to reinforce good behavior.

Criteria 2: Bike-rack

End-of-Ride Summary

Acknowledgement

(Confirmation Modal)

Recognition

(Confetti animation)

Points Awarded Banner

(Point of Entry to Rewards)

Journey Stage 03 - Redeeming Rewards

What rewards are available to redeem with my points?

The reward page displays users’ points and available options such as free-ride minutes and exclusive Lime merchandise.

User testing showed that diverse, tiered rewards strengthen motivation and build long-term brand loyalty.

Reward Tab: Free-ride mins

Reward Tab: Exclusive Merch

Redeeming Rewards with Points

Journey Stage 04 - Pick-Up Lime

Where can I find fallen Lime vehicles to earn points?

Riders can locate and pick up fallen scooters directly from the home map, either through notifications or active search.

Lime vehicle sensors verify the pick-up action and award points instantly, creating a quick, rewarding feedback loop.

Reward Tab: Free-ride mins

Reward Tab: Exclusive Merch

Successfully Getting Points

for picking-up Scooter

IMPACT

Turning Compliance into Collaboration

The Lime Reward System proved that positive reinforcement can drive both user motivation and operational ROI. Ultimately, this project became proof of concept for Lime’s long-considered Loyalty Program and strategy, validating the business case to scale rewards across future rider behavior.