Since its beginnings, Brili has had two main reward types:
- Earned free time to be enjoyed when a routine is finished before its scheduled end time
- Star rewards earned with each activity completed
Until now though, there hasn't been too much to do with the stars except for parents to decide with their kids what, say, 200 stars are worth, and then when that star count was achieved, parents had to remember to redeem the 200 stars for what was agreed on. Perhaps a sticky note on the fridge recorded the agreement and reminded kids of what they were working towards.
We are happy to say rewards have been significantly improved.
Over the next few days, we are releasing Brili v1.6, which now does much, much more with star rewards. In a nutshell, here's how it works:
- Parent/caregiver defines available rewards in Parent Mode
- Kids choose one of the available rewards in Kid Mode
- As kids complete routines, they receive progress prompts to remind them of how close they are to earning the reward.
- Kids earn the reward by accumulating the number of stars that it's worth.
- The parent redeems the reward in Parent Mode, which automatically deducts the correct star value.
- Parents can now manually adjust star balances up or down.
Cool, right? Here are the details.
1. PARENT/CAREGIVER DEFINES AVAILABLE REWARDS IN PARENT MODE
We have added an area for parents, teachers and caregivers to define and store the rewards they're offering to kids in exchange for stars. This Rewards screen lets parents add the rewards that kids will be able to choose from. You can add as many as you'd like.
Each reward can have a custom image, name and star value. The minimum star value allowed on rewards is 25 because stars are intended to be a longer-term reward to encourage regular daily use of Brili. (The earned free time is the immediate, daily reward.)
We encourage you to set reward values (and task values) in a manner that will encourage your child to keep using Brili beyond the initial novelty phase until a reliable habit is formed. Every child is different, so try small rewards earnable every 3 days or so and then progress to larger, longer-term rewards.
IMPORTANT: your child now has to choose a reward you added before they can earn it! This confirms their buy-in and helps them take ownership over the process. This happens in Kid mode as explained below.
2. KIDS CHOOSE ONE OF THE AVAILABLE REWARDS IN KID MODE
When there isn't a routine actively running – we didn't want to create distractions! – kids can access an area in Kid Mode that lets them see their current star count and decide which of the rewards that were created in Parent Mode will become their active goal.
Kids get to choose from all the rewards that have been created in the Parent Mode rewards area. If you have more than one child using Brili, you'll notice they all see the same selection to choose from.
Once a reward is selected, kids can see a progress bar showing how far they've come towards earning the reward.
3. NEW PROGRESS PROMPTS
At the beginning of each new routine, kids will see their current progress towards the reward. They'll see any stars they already have earned applied towards the reward. Then, at 25%, 50% and 75% of stars required, they'll receive achievement prompts during the routine.
4. EARNING REWARDS
When they've earned 100% of the stars required for the reward, Brili will let them know at the end of the routine (who wants kids running over to you asking for rewards in the middle of getting dressed?)
Kids will receive a prompt and get an opportunity to choose a new reward at this time. If they do nothing, Brili assumes they're working towards another instance of the same reward going forward (e.g. another chocolate bar, another trip to the museum, etc.). In cases where you want the reward to be a one-time deal, the reward must be deleted from Parent Mode before the child earns it an additional time.
We had to plan for a few subtleties when we designed this, so the following is worth knowing:
- Earning a reward just means that a parent can now "redeem" it in Parent Mode. The stars aren't deducted until that happens. We want parents to be in control of this process so they don't forget to fulfill on the promise.
- Only one reward can be earned per routine completion. So if a child picks a reward worth 200 stars and they've already got 600 stars accumulated, he'll need to complete at least 3 routines before each reward becomes "earned" and therefore redeemable in Parent Mode
- An earned reward cannot be substituted. So in our scenario where a child has 600 stars and enough to earn a 200-star reward 3 times over, there is time to choose a different reward (if the parent has defined others) before the routines are completed. If a first routine is completed, locking in one of the 200-point rewards, there are 400 points left that can be applied to a different reward.
5. REDEEMING REWARDS
The child profile screen in Parent Mode now lets you access each child's progress towards rewards, as well as view and redeem earned rewards.
When you tap "Redeem" on an earned reward, it will be cleared from the list and the correct star value will be deducted from your child's total star balance.
6. ADJUSTING STAR BALANCE
Everybody makes mistakes. Maybe your child skipped an activity, or you "redeemed" a reward without fulfilling it and you want to restore the points. Now you can tap the + or - symbol next to your child's current star balance to add or subtract a certain amount of points to the current total. For example, if your child has 100 stars and you tap add, then type in 10 stars, your child's new balance will be 110.
