Ranger Buddies
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KFC
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.
Client
KFC
Year
Oct 2026 - Oct 2027
The image above provides an overview of the end-to-end customer experience journey, highlighting the key design and development workstreams currently in progress across each stage.
As Product Design Lead, I oversee a team of junior UX and visual designers, alongside a 3D/AR designer and animator, while collaborating closely with the Product Manager, Business Development Executive, Tech Lead, and development team to deliver the product vision.
The collaboration was driven by complementary objectives shared by both brands:
KFC launched the Lil’ Bucket Meal for children in October 2025 and sought to partner with a children’s IP that could bring meaningful educational value to the experience.
Ranger Buddies aimed to partner with a major F&B brand with the scale and reach to increase awareness and engage a broader, largely untapped audience within the Singapore market.
After multiple rounds of internal and external discussions, feedback, and iteration, the monthly mission themes were finalised.
Establishing these concepts early was essential, as they provided the foundation for the user experience, educational content, and gameplay design across all upcoming monthly missions.
Once the missions were finalised, a campaign timeline was developed to align missions with marketing, social media, events, and collectible cards. In parallel, high-level journey maps evolved into detailed end-to-end user flows.
Tech leads were then engaged to assess feasibility, leading to prioritisation adjustments that balanced technical constraints, timelines, and experience quality.
Collectable Cards
These collectible cards represent the first three months of the Ranger Buddies × KFC partnership, with each month's card series aligned to a unique mission theme and educational outcome.
October (in blue) – Halloween: Creatures of the Deep
Children are introduced to fascinating deep-sea creatures through a Halloween-inspired adventure. While many of these animals may appear frightening, the mission teaches that every species plays an important role in maintaining a healthy and balanced ocean ecosystem.
November (in green) – Bring Harmony Back with Sally
Set in Singapore, this mission explores the diverse wildlife that shares our urban environment. Children learn the importance of respecting nature, understanding local wildlife, and living in harmony with the animals that coexist alongside us.
December (in red) – Get Ready for Christmas with Arlo
In this festive adventure, children journey to the sub-Antarctic home of Arlo the King Penguin. Through a Christmas-themed mission, they discover how healthy food chains support penguins and other wildlife, and why protecting these ecosystems is essential for their survival.
Design Iterations & How Research Shaped the Final Design
Following the quantitative survey, a second round of qualitative user research was conducted to validate the visual direction of the November collectible card set.
Two design options were developed and tested with children to better understand their preferences, motivations, and reactions before finalising the artwork.
Research Parameters
Research method: In-person interviews
Location: KidzWorld, Singapore Zoo
Participants: 20 children aged 6–12
Research Objectives
Determine whether children preferred Option 1 or Option 2.
Understand the reasons behind their preference and which design elements appealed to them.
Identify the types of information and facts that children found the most interesting and engaging.
Explore what motivates children to collect the cards and complete the full set.
The findings from this study provided deeper behavioural insights that complemented the earlier quantitative research, enabling the team to refine the final card design based on direct feedback from the target audience.
The card development process began by defining the 12 monthly mission themes and identifying the animal species that best supported each month's narrative and learning objectives.
Once the animal lineup was finalised, the team conducted extensive research using reputable sources, including National Geographic and Mandai Wildlife Reserve, to ensure all educational content was engaging, accurate, and age-appropriate.
An initial set of sample cards was then designed and shared with internal stakeholders and the KFC team to gather early feedback on the overall creative direction.
The first round of user research was subsequently conducted with children and parents to validate the card design. The sessions explored key questions such as:
Should the cards feature real animal photography or illustrated artwork?
How much information is appropriate for children to read?
Which types of facts are the most engaging and memorable?
What content and design elements make children want to collect more cards?
The insights gathered from this research informed the next iteration of the card designs, ensuring they were both educational and highly engaging for the target audience.
Round one of collectable cards research:
Following the initial concept development, a first round of quantitative user study was conducted to validate the card design and content before moving into production.
Research Parameters
Research platform: Typeform
Participants: 42 parents of children aged 6–12
Research objectives:
Understand whether children prefer realistic animal imagery or illustrated artwork.
Determine the ideal amount of information presented on each card.
Identify additional content children would like to see.
Assess the desirability and collectability of the cards.
Evaluate whether children notice and value the inclusion of rare cards within the collection.
Research Insights
The research revealed a clear preference among children aged 6–10 for realistic-looking animal imagery over heavily stylised cartoon or AI-generated illustrations.
Children cited interesting animals, vibrant colours, and fun animal facts as the strongest reasons for wanting to collect the cards. When asked about the amount of educational content, 50% preferred cards with more information, indicating that they enjoyed learning about the animals and were curious to discover new facts.
In terms of collection size, children felt that a set of 40–60 cards struck the right balance—large enough to feel rewarding to complete without becoming overwhelming.
When asked what would most motivate them to complete the full collection, the responses ranked as follows:
Unlocking rewards
Completing the full set
Collecting rare cards
Discovering interesting animals
Attractive visual design
Educational content
Parents demonstrated a different set of priorities. Approximately 60% indicated that it was very important for the cards to provide educational value.
One of the most valuable insights from the study was the contrast between children's and parents' motivations. Children were primarily driven by visual appeal, and collectability while parents placed greater importance on educational value and opportunities for family bonding through learning together. These findings reinforced the need for the final card design to balance engaging, collectible experiences with meaningful educational content, ensuring the product appeals to both audiences.
Research Insights
The qualitative study showed a clear preference for Option 2, with 14 out of 20 children (70%) selecting it as their favourite design.
Children consistently cited the brighter colour palette and the larger, more prominent animal illustrations as the primary reasons for their preference, noting that the cards felt more eye-catching and exciting to collect.
When evaluating the educational content, fun facts emerged as the most valued information on the cards, followed by details about the animal's habitat. This suggests that children are most engaged by short, memorable facts that spark curiosity while providing just enough context about where the animals live.
When asked what would motivate them to collect the complete 60-card series, children ranked their reasons in the following order:
Completing the full collection
Attractive and visually appealing card designs
Collecting rare cards
Discovering interesting animals
These findings reinforced several key design decisions for the final card set: prioritising bold, vibrant visuals with prominent animal imagery, featuring concise and engaging fun facts, and incorporating strong collectability mechanics—including complete sets and rare cards—to encourage continued engagement over the 12-month campaign.
October 2026:
Key visual & card set
Packaging Design
For the first three months of the campaign, the packaging was designed to align closely with each month's key visual and mission theme, creating a cohesive experience across the collectible cards, digital missions, and in-store marketing materials. Each design reinforces the unique narrative of the month while maintaining a consistent Ranger Buddies × KFC brand identity.
November 2026:
Key visual & card set
November 2026:
Key visual & card set
December 2026:
Key visual & card set
Project prioritization:
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.
