Information Architecture

Product Strategy

Interaction Design

Visual Design

Design Systems

GM Rewards

Led the redesign of the GM rewards authenticated experience for a new program launch by unifying earning, redemption, and credit card management across all five brands.

    ROLE
    Product Design + Visual Design Lead
  
    SCOPE
    Full authenticated experience redesign
  
    TIMELINE
    Jan - May 2025

  GM
  Rewards
  is
  a
  cross-brand
  loyalty
  program
  spanning
  five
  GM
  brands.
  In
  early
  2025,
  GM
  launched
  a
  restructured
  loyalty
  program
  featuring
  the
  new
  GM
  Rewards
  Mastercard
  from
  Barclays
  on
  an
  accelerated,
  leadership-driven
  timeline.

    The
    goal
    was
    to
    design
    a
    centralized
    platform
    that
    simplifies
    how
    customers
    earn
    and
    redeem
    points
    while
    integrating
    credit
    card
    management
    within
    a
    fixed
    launch
    window.
  

    I
    led
    a
	      three
    person
    design
    team
    on
    an

    end-to-end
    redesign
    of
    the
    authenticated
    experience,
    from
    information
    architecture
    restructuring
    to
    UI
    design
    and
    system
    alignment,
    creating
    a
    more
    unified
    and
    intuitive
    rewards
    system.
  

[ Problem ]

The existing experience caused confusion, led to drop-off, and couldn't accommodate the new program structure.

/ 01

Unclear IA

Key information like point balance, earning, and redemption was hard to find. Inconsistent layouts forced users to relearn the experience across pages.

/ 02

Hidden redemption paths

Users didn't understand redemption options or how to use their points. Key actions weren't surfaced, causing friction and drop-off.

/ 03

Credit card + system complexity

The Barclays partnership introduced spend tracking, rewards multipliers, and required disclosures. Platform constraints limited how reward information could be presented.

Before

After

[ Discovery ]

Auditing the rewards experience to analyze user feedback, drop-off points, and stakeholder constraints

Account dashboard

Key actions weren't clearly surfaced

Rewards dashboard

Key actions like Earn and Redeem were buried behind tabs

Earn

Unclear and inconsistent ways to earn

Redeem

Users struggled to understand reward value and how to use points

Credit Card

System and legal constraints heavily shaped the UX

[ Information Architecture ]

From disconnected tabs and pages to a unified dashboard

The existing experience scattered earning and redemption across disconnected pages. I introduced a centralized dashboard model, allowing users to easily move between key actions.

        ✕
        Before — Tabs + Repeated Footer
      
Earn
Points
Redeem
Card

            Page content
          
Repeated on every page ↓
Settings
Transfer
Activity
History
FAQs

        ✓
        After — Centralized dashboard 
      
Dashboard
Earn
Redeem
Card
Activity
Transfer
Settings
Support
FAQs

[ User Types ]

Designing adaptive experiences that surface the right tools for each user

User research and credit card requirements revealed two distinct audiences. Members tracked standard earning and redemption. Cardmembers had higher point multipliers, benefits, and account management needs. The design communicated each group's unique value without adding complexity.

        Member
      
Needs
          Track progress toward redemption and see clear paths to earn more points
        
Benefits3x points on GM purchases
1x point per $5 on new vehicles

        Cardmember
      
Needs
          Pay card statements, view transactions, set up autopay, track bonus progress, and maximize points across all spending
        
BenefitsUp to 10x points on GM purchases
3x points on everything else
30k bonus points after $1,000 spend

Key design decisions

[ Visual design ]

Unifying the visual system across brands

A mid-project pivot required adopting a unified GM design system across all brands. I migrated the experience to shared tokens and components while maintaining the timeline.

Color

Copied

Primary

#00478C

Copied

GM Blue

#0072CE

Copied

Dark

#11365F

Copied

Accent

#C3D7EE

Copied

Black

#000000

Copied

Gray

#75787A

Copied

Light

#F2F3F5

Copied

White

#FFFFFF

Typography

Displays

Overpass, Bold
Overpass, Regular

Headlines

Overpass, Regular

Body

Overpass, Light

Links & Labels

Overpass, Bold

Spacing

12px

16px

24px

32px

40px

48px

Components

Radius

Icons

Final experience

/ 01

Dashboard

Replaced scattered tab navigation with a single hub surfacing points, activity, and primary actions, increasing engagement with top-level actions and reducing navigation friction.

/ 02

Earn

Made earning transparent with clear multipliers and earning categories. Users no longer had to decode hidden rules or search across pages to understand point value.

/ 03

Redeem

Surfaced redemption options previously buried three clicks deep and clarified point values across categories, increasing total redemption rate by 8%.

/ 04

Credit Card Management

Built credit card functionality (payments, transaction history, and autopay) within the rewards platform, navigating Barclays API constraints and compliance requirements.

After launching across all five GM brands, the redesigned experience showed strong early traction.

2.5M

Total visits in first 4 months

620K

Monthly active visitors

80%

Engagement rate with dashboard

Takeaways

      Designing for dual audiences requires clear prioritization
      Supporting both members and cardmembers meant defining what actions matter most for each and structuring the experience so neither feels secondary.
    
      Simplifying IA makes core actions visible
      Restructuring the experience around earning and redemption brought high-frequency actions to the forefront, reducing friction and improving clarity.
    
      Constraints create consistency
      Working within regulatory, platform, and multi-brand requirements forced clearer decisions and stronger alignment across product, legal, and engineering.
    
      Systems thinking enables scale
      Designing across multiple user groups required reusable patterns and flexible architecture that could adapt to different contexts without losing consistency.

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