Likes & Ratings Feature
Challenge
Oats Overnight had 45+ flavors and superfans were tracking preferences manually across spreadsheets, Facebook comments, handwritten charts, and notes. The business needed structured insights, and customers needed a fun tool to log what they liked.
Responsibilities
• Led the “Likes & Ratings” tool design end-to-end
• Research how users were currently tracking flavor preferences
• Define the architecture for rating, notes, and cross-category feedback
• Design the UI + interactions for rating, notes, and micro-animations
• Scale the experience across new product lines (Protein Coffee)
• Integrate the experience into the Loyalty system (earning points)
• Partner with engineering, data, and marketing to ship the feature
Research
We studied how superfans shared flavor feedback. Across Facebook groups, DMs, and community posts, we saw patterns:
Homemade rating sheets (stars, 1-10 scales, emojis)
Notes about prep techniques and tweaks
Brutally honest feedback. The kind you only write in your own notebook.
That behavior was gold: authentic, unfiltered insights that we could never get through a typical survey. But it was also fragmented. We needed to turn that natural behavior into a structured, rewarding digital experience that was fun for customers and useful for the business
After I mapped out how users were already rating flavors manually, I defined three design goals: expressive, rewarding, valuable.
Expressive: Make flavor feedback feel fun and personal.
Rewarding: Instant gratification + incentives to build a habit loop
Valuable: Turn raw notes into actionable product insights.
Rating UI
Fast, expressive rating flow designed to feel playful rather than survey-like.
Notes Field
Free-form notes help users track prep tweaks, mix-ins, and their personal preferences.
Incentivized Actions
Ratings now earn XP, badges, and points, turning feedback into a rewarding routine.
I designed and shipped the full MVP: a fast, playful 1–5 star flow with autosaving notes, celebratory micro-animations, and support for adding additional products as we grow.
2025 update: I have now also integrated the entire experience with our loyalty system so feedback automatically earns reward points, encouraging more & better feedback for R&D
Results
For customers:
• More fun, expressive way to give feedback on flavors
• No more handwritten loose paper notes or charts to manage
• Ownership and influence over product development
For the business:
• Rich, structured qualitative data replacing scattered feedback
• Increased feedback volume and quality
• Stronger loop between flavor R&D, marketing, and customer insights
Improvements:
High repeat engagement from “habitual raters” (80%+ of purchases rated)
Learnings
• Gamification works well when paired with real utility
• Feedback architecture must be built to scale across product lines
• Loyalty integration strongly transforms one-off gestures into habits
• Strongest features serve both user expression + business needs
Next steps: personalized flavor recommendations based on ratings, AI integration for deeper insights, and leaderboards for “super tasters.”
Fun Fact: I wanted to name this tool “Note-meal”