Portfolio · MMXXVI

Svetlana
Ghulunts

Product Designer · Behavioral Systems

Based in Yerevan, Armenia

I design gamification, loyalty and engagement systems for gambling, betting and AI-assisted products — where psychology, product strategy and execution meet.

Psychology

Background

Arena365

Current product

AI-assisted

Workflow

Scroll

GamificationLoyalty SystemsRetentionCasino & BettingBehavioral DesignAI WorkflowsConversionGamificationLoyalty SystemsRetentionCasino & BettingBehavioral DesignAI WorkflowsConversionGamificationLoyalty SystemsRetentionCasino & BettingBehavioral DesignAI WorkflowsConversion

Selected Work

Systems, not screens

Most of my work lives at the intersection of behavioral design, product strategy and execution — balancing user needs, business goals and long-term engagement.

Behavioral Design

A Psychology background shapes how I read motivation, friction and habit formation — products are systems of decisions, not collections of screens.

Product Strategy

Most of my work starts before the interface — comparing directions, weighing trade-offs, and helping teams identify the right problem before solving it.

Research & Mapping

Interviews, audits, journey and ecosystem mapping. Understanding complex systems end-to-end before proposing where to intervene.

User Testing

Moderated tests, prototype validation and concept comparison via Userbrain, PlaybookUX and UserInterviews — moving decisions from assumption to evidence.

AI-Assisted Workflows

Lovable, Anything, Cursor, UX Pilot and Make as part of how I prototype, validate and ship — AI for speed, not in place of judgment.

Flagship Case Study · 01

A casino lobby that thinks in behavior

Personalized
Casino Lobby

A re-architecture of the casino entry point — five product mechanics designed around why a GenZ player taps, not what's in the catalog. Built end-to-end: research, behavioral model, prototype, ship.

Role

Product Designer

Product

Arena365

Scope

Research · UX · UI · System

Year

2025 — 2026

Section AThe problem

The casino was a database with a skin on it.

162 games, alphabetical providers, banners for promotions, modals for rewards. Discovery was a filter problem dressed as a UI. The audience — players raised on TikTok, Spotify and Stories — was being handed a 2014 catalog and asked to do the recommendation work themselves.

Section BDesign principles

Before drawing a single screen, three commitments — the constitution every later decision had to pass through.

Principle 01

Behavior over volume

Stop ranking the catalog. Start reading the player — why they opened the app tonight, not what's in the database.

Principle 02

Context over filters

Every surface should make an argument. A provider logo isn't a filter — it's a recommendation with a live label attached.

Principle 03

Reward as state, not popup

Earned value belongs in the room, not in a modal. The lobby itself carries what the player has and what's about to expire.

Section CSystem anatomy — five mechanics

The lobby resolved into five mechanics. Each solved a specific behavioral problem, each reused in other surfaces (rewards, missions, notifications) once it proved out.

Mechanic IPre-game emotional framing

Tonight's Vibe

"Players don't open a casino for a game. They open it for a feeling."

The session begins with a mood, not a catalog. A swipeable Prime Time Now deck cycles six vibes (1/6 · Feeling Lucky, Quick Thrill, Big Risk…), each with a one-line gut-prompt, a live "889 playing" counter and a single ENTER action. A "Make default" toggle lets a returning player skip the picker and land straight in their vibe — ritual on first visit, shortcut after.

Mood-based entry
Live social proof
Make-default shortcut

Mechanic IIPersistent earned context

Reward as State

"Rewards aren't a popup — they're the room."

Earned Free Spins live as the first surface in the lobby, with a live expiry counter. The reward isn't a notification to dismiss; it's the floor the rest of the lobby sits on. One claim action, zero menu-diving.

Persistent state
Loss-aversion timing
One-tap claim

Mechanic IIIIntent over taxonomy

Behavioral Quick-Access

"Stop categorising by what. Start categorising by why."

Above the catalog sits a four-tile quick-access row — Free Spins, Favorites, Daily Drops, Hot Now — mapped to the reason a player opened the app, not the type of game. Heart-favorite on every tile feeds the same row back, turning the lobby into something each player slowly shapes.

Behavioral taxonomy
Favorites loop
Re-engagement

Mechanic IVContext, not logos

Provider Strip, Reframed

"A logo is a brand. A row should be a recommendation."

The provider strip (Evolution, First Person, Pragmatic…) survived as a familiar anchor — but stopped being the primary filter. Behavioral quick-access sits above it, intent badges sit below it on every tile. The brand row earns its place as a shortcut for the ~4% who actually use it, instead of asking everyone else to.

De-prioritised filter
Familiar anchor
Honest hierarchy

Intent Badges — real product screen — Mechanic V — live product

Mechanic VA reason on every tile

Intent Badges

"Every tile makes a small argument."

Hot · 120.8% RTP. Bonus · Free rounds. LIVE. Each of the 162 game tiles surfaces a reason to tap before the player has to think — borrowing the badge language of content feeds and applying it to a catalog that used to lean on alphabetical sorting.

RTP transparency
Feed-like scanning
Intent-first tiles

Section DOutcome

A lobby that reads behavior — and a system the team kept reusing.

Discuss a similar engagement

Reusable mechanics shipped

1:1

Lobby personalised per player

Promotional modals on entry

The mechanics — Vibe entry, Reward-as-state, Behavioral categories, Smart chips, Intent badges — became the shared vocabulary for the Rewards system, the Loyalty tier surface, and the notification model that followed. The lobby stopped being a page. It became the framework.

Case Study · 02

A loyalty landing that earns trust instead of asking for it

Arena365
Cashback Hub

A single-screen landing that replaces fake-bonus marketing with earned trust — a cycling tier ladder, live social proof, and a one-field signup engineered around the skepticism of a bonus-burnt audience.

Role

Product Designer

Product

Arena365 · India

Scope

Strategy · UX · UI · Copy

Year

2026

Cashback Hub landing — Pro tier — Live product · Pro tier state

Section AThe problem

The audience had been lied to by a thousand bonus pages.

Indian players land on cashback offers every day — most hide a 30× wagering trap, an opaque tier ceiling, or a withdraw-blocking KYC. Default marketing copy doesn't work on a burnt audience. The page had to argue the opposite of every page before it.

Section BDesign principles

Three commitments that turned a marketing page into a trust contract.

Principle 01

Trust beats incentive

Iframe-deep T&Cs and wagering traps trained players to distrust bonus copy. The page had to read as a contract, not as marketing.

Principle 02

Show the ladder, not the rung

Most cashback pages reveal only the entry rate. Players sign up, then discover the ceiling. We flip it — every tier is visible from first view.

Principle 03

One field, one decision

Acquisition lives or dies on the form. Email in, value out. Everything else moves to onboarding once intent is captured.

Section CSystem anatomy — four mechanics

Every element on the page is doing one of four jobs — revealing upside, validating trust, disarming skepticism, or capturing intent. Nothing decorative survived the cut.

Mechanic IPre-commit upside reveal

Cycling Tier Badge

"Don't ask players to imagine the ceiling. Show it to them."

The hero badge pulses through every tier in place — Entry 2.5% → Pro 10% → Diamond 20%. One element carries the entire reward ladder without forcing a scroll, a popover, or a comparison table.

Tier reveal
Pre-commit
Single hero

Mechanic IIReal-time validation

Live Social Proof

"Static counters lie. Live counters convert."

"8,445 players got cashback this month" ticks up in real time. Not a vanity stat — a public ledger that the program is paying out, right now, while the visitor is reading.

Live counter
Trust signal
Loss-aversion

Mechanic IIISkepticism disarmament

Trust-First Copy

"Every assumption a skeptical player makes — name it and disprove it."

"Real cashback · No wagering · Withdraw anytime" sits directly under the CTA. The three biggest objections of a bonus-burnt audience, answered before they're asked.

Objection map
Transparent terms
Micro-copy

Mechanic IVFrictionless intent capture

One-Field Activation

"Capture intent first. Onboard second."

Email in, signup confirmed. No app gate, no KYC dance, no multi-step funnel. The Join Now button is the lowest-commitment step that still hands the player to the loyalty system.

Single field
Conversion-first
Progressive onboarding

Section DOutcome

A landing that reads like a contract, not like marketing.

Discuss a similar landing

Screen, end-to-end signup

Tiers visible before commit

Bonus modals or hidden T&Cs

The tier-ladder pattern, live-counter trust signal and objection-mapped copy block became reusable across the Arena365 loyalty surfaces — the same mechanics now anchor the in-product cashback dashboard and the referral page that followed.

Expertise & Tools

What I bring to a team

Behavioral Design

Gamification

Loyalty & Retention

Product Strategy

User Research

Journey Mapping

Design Systems

AI-Assisted Product

Stack:FigmaFigJamPhotoshopLovableAnythingCursorUX PilotBananiStitchVisilyMakeRecraftOpenArtUserbrainPlaybookUX

Svetlana Ghulunts

Product Designer · Yerevan

2026

About

I design products at the intersection of psychology, behavior and business.

I'm a Product Designer based in Yerevan, Armenia. My background combines a Bachelor's in Psychology, years in affiliate marketing, and product design — which shapes how I read motivation, friction, retention and decision-making inside a product.

I currently design at Arena365, a new online gambling and sports betting platform by VanguardGame. My work spans casino and sports betting experiences, gamification, rewards, loyalty programs, Free Spins, wallet and profile, search, CRM concepts and AI-assisted product concepts.

I work fluently with modern AI tools — Lovable, Anything, Cursor, UX Pilot, Make — and design products specifically for AI-assisted implementation. The goal is the same as it has always been: better decisions, faster, with more evidence behind them.

Contact

Let's design products
people return to.

Open to conversations with founders, product teams and recruiters working on gamification, loyalty, engagement and AI-assisted products.

hello@svetlana.design Book an intro call

LinkedIn ↗Read.cv ↗Dribbble ↗Email ↗

Svetlana
Ghulunts

Recent product work

Personalized Casino Lobby

Arena365 Cashback Hub

Rewards System

Arena Picks

Ball-by-Ball Cricket

Notification Ecosystem