McDonald's Monopoly

How do we introduce a digital ticket in place of a paper ticket to Mcdonald's Monopoly customers

McDonald's Monopoly is a promotional campaign held annually where customers have the opportunity to win prizes by collecting paper tickets that come with specific menu items. Traditionally customers would receive two tickets with large food items at McDonald's, but in 2023 McDonald's eliminated one of the paper tickets and replaced the second ticket with a digital ticket in the My Maccas app as the first step towards converting Monopoly into a purely digital experience.

This meant that in order to see if they'd won a prize through their second ticket, customers would have to go through the app rather than receiving that information immediately through the paper ticket as was done in previous years.

My job as the UX Designer working on this project was to create an app experience that would be easy to use and engaging so that customers would both understand the new ticket experience and want to use the app.

Rundown of Macca's Monopoly ticket types

In previous years, Mcdonald's Monopoly had three ticket types, and in 2023 we added in the digital ticket, which meant considering what it would actually be:

Chance cards

Users scan these 'chance card' tickets into the app and play mini games in to reveal their prizes. Prizes can be properties or instant wins

Instant wins

Users get instant prizes like food items and medium tier prizes

Properties

Users accumulate 3 properties to win a large prize

Digital

NEW

Users would be awarded this second digital ticket in the app on top of their paper ticket with large food items. But what type of ticket would this be? A chance card, an instant win, or a property? Perhaps a new type all together?

To help figure out this digital ticket and how we would incorporate it into the existing Maccas Monopoly flow, I started by defining the primary Maccas Monopoly persona so I could understand what some of their values and behaviours were. Drawing upon user research conducted to understand McDonald's Monopoly customers, I created the primary persona, Dale, who these app changes would need to accommodate to:

G'day, I'm Dale

About Dale

35 years old
Single dad
Physically demanding work in landscaping – starts work before the sun is up, finishes work early
Takes care of the kids for part of the week, like picking them up after school

Dale's Maccas habits

Dale is usually exhausted after work, so he and the kids have the quick and easy dinner of Maccas once or twice a week
Because of Dale's early start, he goes to Maccas before work for his morning coffee and a quick brekkie since nothing else is open

Dale's experience with Monopoly

Dale has won lots of free food items over the years so he really likes Maccas Monopoly
He's won a couple of bigger prizes like free parking and a free retail discount, but no large prizes like playstations or a car, despite eating lots of McDonald's
He feels peeling the ticket to see if he's won adds something exciting to his morning
He likes how quick and easy it is to peel the ticket and win – he doesn't want to work too hard to get his free McMuffin
Dale likes that the in app chance games keep the kids entertained after school

From analysing Dale, I gathered some important information about McDonald's Monopoly customers:

Most customers don't want to think too hard about Maccas Monopoly. This meant it was imperative that the app was very quick and clear in its communication that the second ticket would be digitally revealed, otherwise we risked users closing the app before realising there was another ticket to check

Many customers are used to and comfortable with paper tickets, so we had to make sure that the digital ticket process would be smooth, quick and easy so that users would actually be motivated to check their second ticket in the app

Customer enjoyed peeling the ticket, so we had to ensure we were creating an equally as satisfying or tactile experience when users are revealing their second digital ticket.

Some users enjoy playing the chance games, and others just want to reveal their prizes quickly. We needed to ensure these added digital tickets wouldn't force users to spend too much time in the app in order to reveal their prizes, while also accommodating to users who like to take their time to play games on the app

Baring in mind these customer considerations, I started to think about this digital ticket and fitting it into the pre-existing Maccas Monopoly ecosystem. I came up with a few 'how might we' questions to guide my initial brainstorming

How might we make it clear in the app that users have a second digital ticket to reveal?

How might we make using the app an enjoyable experience for users?

How might we consider the treatment of the digital ticket? i.e the ticket type and incorporating it into the app flow?

How might we reduce the time it takes users to scan and reveal their tickets in the app?

Defining the digital ticket

I mapped out the different ticket types and how they might fit into the flow, baring in mind the customer insights. I started wireframing and came up with the following 3 options:

Option 1 - Instant win ticket

The digital ticket is an instant win. This means the user will scan the first ticket, see their prize in app, and then see the prize from the digital ticket straight away after.

If users close their app before checking their second prize, they'll be able to see highlighted in their stash the prizes they recently won. The game mechanics would have to change so that instant win prizes could include large prizes so that users have the same odds of winning large prizes as they did in previous years.

First ticket dispalyed

Loading screen

Prize from second (digital) ticket revealed

Stash highlighting recently won prizes

Option 2 - Chance card

The digital ticket is a chance card. This means the user can store it away in their stash and play it later, reducing the time it takes to scan multiple tickets. Due to project constraints, the chance game would have to stay the same as previous years in that each chance card had to be played individually rather than playing them all at once, however users would have the option to skip the game and reveal the cards individually.

[2D] Physical (Chance) + digital card won.png

First ticket dispalyed

Loading screen

Chance card won - amount of chance cards user has is displayed

When playing minigame, user can quit at any point to reveal the prize

Option 3 - New ticket idea, loot box ticket

Unlike chance cards which once stored away, have to be played individually, the concept of 'loot box ticket' would allow users to accumulate their digital tickets which could then be revealed all at once in a loot box format. This would make it quicker to scan in all their tickets, as well as revealing all their prizes.

First ticket dispalyed

Loading screen

Loot box ticket shown - prompt to reveal

Loot box reveal animation

[TICKET SCAN] View scanned tickets (multiple tickets).png

Prizes from all tickets revealed

Defining the over all flow

With these 3 different options for the digital ticket and flow, I had covered the following considerations:

Accommodating to users who enjoy playing minigames, but still may want to skip the games at some point and just reveal the prize from their chance cards

Accommodating to users who prefer to skip games all together

Making the process of both scanning and revealing tickets a quick process

What I still was yet to define in the flow was:

A clear way for the app to inform users of their second digital ticket after scanning in their paper ticket

Giving users a tactile or equally as satisfying experience as peeling the paper ticket when revealing the digital ticket in app

After some experimentation, I came up with the following intro animation screen to visually communicate that the user would have two tickets to play:

[4] Physical (Chance) + digital card won.png

Ticket scanning screen

Double play animation

First ticket dispalyed

As soon as the user scans in their ticket, they are presented with a quick 2-3 second animation of Mr. Monopoly fanning out two tickets in his hand. This is a quick way to set the user's expectation that they are going to see two tickets.

Additionally, the choice to add in the only CTA as 'view second ticket' makes it less likely that users will navigate away from the screen before seeing their second ticket.

In regards to the digital experience replacing the paper ticket peel, I created a design where users would have to pull a lever with their finger and would receive haptic feedback, like ticking, as they pull. This aimed to provide users with a similarly satisfying and tactile experience when using the app.

[7] Physical (all properties collected) + digital card won.png

First ticket displayed - lever pull CTA

Loading animation

Prize from second (digital) ticket revealed

Project conclusions

To conclude my involvement in this project, I compiled a list of project recommendations as a handover to the next UX Designer working on this project. This list was the ideal project plan, understanding that it may be subject to change as the budget and time parametres were still yet to be updated.

1. Usability testing + user interview

Once a large food item packaging prototype has been created, conduct a round of usability testing or contextual enquiry with McDonald's Monopoly customers. This test should consist of the user interacting with the food packaging, as it leads the user to the app through the understanding that there is a digital ticket, and one of the lo-fi prototypes at the same time to gage how clear of an understanding they form about the digital ticket. There should be a round of testing conducted for each of the 3 digital prototypes, with 5 users per test.
Have each user speak their thoughts aloud throughout the process to note down any information
Take note of any moments of physical hesitation, confusion, ease and satisfaction
Follow up with interview questions that delve deeper into any moments of confusion/satisfaction you noted down. Ask questions designed to further understand their experience of interacting with the flow, and to determine their level of over all understanding about the mechanics of the digital ticket. Questions should also be included to understand their feelings about and current/past habits in relation to apps, digital games, haptic feedback.

2. Iterations

Based on these usability tests and interviews, make iterations to the designs to improve the usability and satisfaction for users.

3. Second round of usability testing

Conduct another round of testing in the same format as the first round with both the physical packaging prototype and the 3 digital prototypes.

4. Design selection and iterations

Select the most successful protoype to move forward with and create any final iterations
The most successful prototype will be determined by how well it manages to be both intuitive and engaging so users both understand what is required of them and enjoy their interactions with McDonald's Monopoly