The collaboration between Ranger Buddies and KFC began in December 2025, with the project set to launch in October 2026. The campaign will run for one year across more than 70 KFC outlets in Singapore.
The image above provides an overview of the customer experience journey, highlighting the various design and development workstreams currently in progress.
As the Product Design Lead, I have been overseeing junior designers(UX and visual) and a 3D AR designer/animator, while collaborating closely with the Product Manager, Business Development Executive, Tech Lead, and a team of developers.
The collaboration was driven by complementary objectives shared by both brands:
KFC launched the Lil’ Bucket Meal(seen above) for children in October 2025 and is seeking to collaborate with a children’s IP that also delivers meaningful educational value.
Ranger Buddies aims to partner with a major F&B brand with the scale and reach to engage a broader segment of the untapped local Singapore market.
After multiple rounds of internal and external discussions, iterations, and feedback, the monthly mission themes were finalised.
Establishing these concepts early was essential before commencing any user experience or design work, as they would shape the educational and gameplay content developed for all upcoming monthly missions.
Once the missions were finalised, a comprehensive timeline was developed to align the mission schedule alongside marketing, social media, events, and collectible cards (more on this later). This created a coordinated cadence across the various campaign touchpoints and ensured alignment between all teams involved.
In parallel, experience journey maps were created, beginning with high-level overviews before evolving into the more detailed end-to-end user flows shown earlier on this page.
At this stage, tech leads were brought into the discussions to assess feasibility and identify any potential concerns surrounding the proposed features and updates to the existing builds. Following these discussions, several prioritisation shifts were made to balance technical constraints and delivery timelines, while maintaining the overall quality and value of the experience.
When the overall experience is broken down from a user journey perspective, it can be divided into the following key segments:
1️⃣ Ranger Buddies Home: to be built to introduce users to the characters, house existing quizzes and animation videos, get signs ups before the first mission launches in October.
2️⃣ Physical animal collectable cards pack: that come with every purchase of the Lil Bucket and compliments monthly missions. 5-7 cards per pack, with following breakdown - 1 hero card(fixed) + 3 friends cards(random) + 1 instruction/start mission QR card + 1 rare animal card (optional, 25% chance) + 1 “golden ticket” a.k.a free tickets to the zoo (optional, 5% chance)
3️⃣ Sign up and/or log in process: with inputing children’s information such as name, age, etc. Maximum 4 child profiles are allowed per account.
4️⃣ AR/digital mission activities: 5 activities for every mission, with some activities being recycled and some being created from scratch.
5️⃣ Spin the wheel / rewards screens: users are rewarded 1 spin for completing the mission per child profile, where there is an 80% chance of winning something from KFC - and the codes can be redeemed at KFC kiosks and counters.
However, from a product development perspective, the priorities were structured differently based on urgency, technical complexity, and development timelines:
5️⃣ Spin the wheel / rewards screens: this feature requiresa completely new build and extensive backend integration with KFC’s rewards database. Following technical scoping with the team, it was identified as a high-effort component that would require significant development time and resources.
Urgency: ✅✅✅✅☑️ Effort: ✅✅✅✅☑️
2️⃣ Physical animal collectable cards: needs internal alignment on the direction and design / printing takes time.
Urgency: ✅✅✅✅☑️ Effort: ✅✅✅☑️☑️
1️⃣ Ranger Buddies Home: tight timeline but pretty straightforward to build.
Urgency: ✅✅✅✅✅ Effort: ✅☑️☑️☑️☑️
4️⃣ AR/digital mission activities: new activities need to be built.
Urgency: ✅✅☑️☑️☑️ Effort: ✅✅✅✅☑️
3️⃣ Sign up and/or log in process: minor updates to the existing build.
Urgency: ✅☑️☑️☑️☑️ Effort: ✅☑️☑️☑️☑️
Spin the Wheel & Rewards Feature
Considerations for Designing the Spin-the-Wheel & Rewards Experience:
Reward Redemption Expectations
Users have just completed a digital mission and are primarily looking to redeem their KFC rewards quickly and seamlessly.Creating a Gamified Reward Moment
The spin-the-wheel mechanic was designed to deliver an engaging, dopamine-driven experience that adds excitement and instant gratification to the reward flow.Spin Visibility & Usage Clarity
The experience needs to clearly communicate the number of available spins to users. If multiple spins are available, users are required to use them within the same session.Clear Reward Outcome & Redemption Flow
Upon completing their spins, users are directed to the rewards screen where they can view the rewards they have won, along with any associated redemption codes.