SUMMARY
Increasing game sessions with a post-play redesign
Facebook’s Arcade is a post-play surface that leverages a user’s “clicky” behavior to chain them to new game sessions and social play. Achieved by surfacing personalized game recommendations and top friends.
Role
Product Designer
Year
2024
Deliverables
UX · Visual · Prototype
THE PROBLEM
Divergent experiences and overlapping value proposition
Due to Apple’s restriction on store-like designs, the experience was inconsistent between apps. At the same time, the experience lacked cohesion, strategy, and overlapped with the Gaming tab, in terms of value proposition.
The confusing in-game navigation frustrated users resulting in shorter play sessions and reduced retention.
HOW MIGHT WE
01.
Create a richer post play experience that increases game sessions.
SOLUTION
I designed a dynamic grid layout that elevated personalized game content and better directed users to key actions.
REASON
Using UXR and testing insights I found that the endless scrolling lacked impact and users primarily interacted with the featured games section and nothing else. By showing less but more useful games, we can better chain users to their next game session.
EXPLORATIONS
02.
Remove user frustration due to inconsistent navigation and accidental quitting
SOLUTION
Created a single navigation for all devices to better direct users to the arcade and reduce force quitting the app. Removed the X icon and need to double tap to quit.
REASON
iOS navigation used a button labeled "X" to exit. This led to users mistakenly quitting the game since the game also has X icons. To solve this, we added a double-tap confirmation but isn’t a great user experience.
03.
Highlight social play actions to increase social play sessions
SOLUTION
I placed social actions at the top of the arcade so they are no longer buried and are always seen when a user quits.
REASON
Previous iterations had social play actions buried in a hamburger menu that was consistently ignored leading to poor metrics. By placing the actions in tiles at the top it would be seen every time a user quits while not competing with the games below. This will increase our social play sessions.
OUTCOMES
While the features are currently being built, to track success and impact, I would have monitored the following:
Game sessions, implying users are chaining into a new game from the arcade.
Game invites and shares, indicating the invite actions were placed well and easily accessible.
Reduced force quitting, suggesting the new navigation helped users enter the arcade to quit.
LEARNINGS
I drove innovation creating impact while using older components. Brought a new feeling to an established surface. Cleaning up the navigation reinforced the importance of XFN collaboration.
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