Rewarding actions

UX & Digital · Social Media · Spain

Social rewards are built into the architecture of every major platform - but what happens when you give users more control over how they give and receive them? A global social media platform wanted to find out. The feature in question went beyond the standard like, allowing users to choose the weight and type of recognition they gave to posts within groups and communities.

We tested the concept with Spanish Gen Z users through a combination of in-depth interviews and usability testing — exploring both the intuitive appeal of the feature and the deeper attitudes sitting underneath it.

What emerged was unexpected in its clarity: this generation is acutely aware of the psychological damage that social validation mechanics can cause. Popularity as currency, the anxiety of the unreturned like, the performative distortion that reward systems introduce into online communities. The research revealed a fundamental tension between the appeal of more expressive recognition tools and a growing wariness of reward systems altogether.

Respondents: Gen Z users · Spain

Methods: in-depth interviews · usability testing

Market: Spain