Case Study - GoodGame

GoodGame is an arcade and redemption-game tracking app that lets users record and share their gaming highlights. GoodGame organizes these achievements and fosters a social community so users can track and share their offline gaming experiences online.

Role: UX/UI Designer
Date: Jan 2024 - March 2024
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Figma
Responsibilities: User Research, Wireframe, Prototype, Design

Defining the Problem

The arcade gaming community has no dedicated virtual environment to congregate.

Arcade gaming takes place in a physical space in a world dominated by digital connections 📱.
There are currently no modernized or accessible spaces online where users can interact, share memories, and/or catalog achievements and data.

So how can we translate an existing physical space into a digital space?

Insights from Research

Although there are a few competitors, they provide a very poor user experience; they are hard to navigate and are outdated - both visually and informatively.

Up-to-date data are key for user engagement as well as for the growth of the community.
People seek spaces to share their winnings 🏆.
- They end up using undedicated spaces (i.e. 3rd party forums) that tend to be hard to navigate and are unorganized.

I’ve drafted a competitive audit to help me extrapolate insights needed to form a unique solution for GoodGame.

"zenius-i-vanishers.com - Overwhelming interface, hard to navigate for first time users. Has a community, and is very active and updated frequently! Systematic approach to data retrieval, making it organized for database style web app. Has a global presence, ideal for a universal tracking. UI is sometimes difficult to use."

"arcadelocations.net - Specific to classic arcade games only (pre 1990) still updated. Only provides locations of games. No score keeping, but database is organized. No social or community features. UI is old and outdated. Not updated frequently."

"aurcade.com - Has score tracking features, organized by game. UX leaves more to be desired. Hard to navigate at first glance. Website is outdated and difficult to use. Lack of support for social and community features. Still active!"

" D&B Rewards - App is visually inaccessible. (Colors and design are overwhelming) Provides plenty of information for Dave & Busters patrons ONLY. No high score tracking or sharing features. 4.7 stars on app store!"

"Round1 app - User experience overall is good, providing an accessible environment to navigate information about the Round1 arcade. Only limited to Round1 franchise. Lacks a community aspect of sharing. 2 star rating on app store

Pain Points

Although there are platforms made for the arcading community, no platform has it all.
- Users seek a well-established tracking app or seek third party websites to share with others and find information 🔎.
The general UX experience is outdated and/or difficult to use in community built platforms.
Bigger more established apps only cater to their own franchises, making them inaccessible to the general public 🔒.

After research, I better understood the pain points presented by other products in the market. I gathered enough information to find themes and insights, and I was able to craft a solution that could meet the needs of potential users.

Ideation and Iteration

My initial focus for GoodGame was to ensure that users had a platform to share and organize their pictures and scores. Those features were prioritized. As development continued, I continued to adjust for the secondary goal; to create and maintain a community.

about 50 sketches of hand drawn wireframes

The Solution

To accommodate user needs, I’ve created a mobile product that gives users a modern space to find others with similar interests and foster a community to enrich the arcade gaming experience.

big picture storyboard

**Services in the product should include:**

Creating a friendly yet competitive environment between users.
Sharing achievements (i.e. prizes 🥇 and high scores 💯) with posts and photos.
Creating a database that allows information to be readily accessible; not limited by specific establishments or companies.

small picture storyboard

These problems are resolved by:

Creating a feed for sharing and growing a community with a feedback system (likes ❤, saves 💾, reviews 💬)
- A feedback system will help keep users engaged with the product (external motivation for posting and using the app).
- A data input system.

After prototyping and initial user testing, 3 major changes were made to improve the user experience.

Made interactions (i.e. likes, favorites, saves, bookmarks) more consistent by removing redundant wording.

Switched from multiple side-scrolling feeds to one main vertical feed that is easier to scroll through.
- Prioritized the idea of chronological organization.

Moved certain details in feeds to streamline the user flow; refocusing the goal of the app (visually based record-keeping)

Made interactions (i.e. likes, favorites, saves, bookmarks) more consistent by removing redundant wording.

Switched from multiple side-scrolling feeds to one main vertical feed that is easier to scroll through.
- Prioritized the idea of chronological organization.

Moved certain details in feeds to streamline the user flow; refocusing the goal of the app (visually based record-keeping)

Conclusions

💭 Ending Thoughts and Reflections:

This was my first project - making every step of this UI/UX project a learning experience filled with trial and error. Coming from an artistic background, I had to keep in mind how to integrate my visual designs with a functional and purposeful design. I changed designs constantly to prioritize functions and actions for users.

I relied on a combination of intuition and brute force 💪 . I learned the most about my designs from going through a working functional prototype rather than creating user flows and personas.

I am proud of how far I was able to come, however, my decision-making was inconsistent and time-consuming due to a lack of clear direction. As one of my old art teachers has said, for every hour of work there's another two hours of frustration. Planning could help cut down on that.

💫 For the future and lessons learned:

Make sure to clarify and clearly define the end product goals with SPECIFICS, IN DETAIL. My initial goals were not specific enough, making it difficult for me to make design choices. In the end, it lengthened my design process because of my indecisiveness.
Hone in on breaking down the problem systematically. Having a clear understanding of how I could tackle problems would have helped me make better solutions faster and more efficiently. I found the best way to figure out a problem was to have a consistent and methodical thought process.