Overview
Gamr is a mobile application fully conceptualized and designed by myself as of currently. As a member of various gaming groups, the background of this design stemmed from the feedback of players mentioning they don't actually play with those they "met" from the groups. Gamr was created to serve as a central place for adult gamers to easily meet and connect with other individuals.
Once I discovered this initial problem, I was able to research other pain points surrounding getting connected with gamers. From there, I focused on these 3 main problems to solve:
Problems:
Expensive:
Some services charge a hefty fee in order to start getting connected.
No central application:
Users are using applications that have various uses.
Too hard to find other gamers:
Users have to research groups, forums, etc. first before getting connected.
Research
Once I defined some clear problems I sought to better understand what players are looking for when searching for other gamers, and began to research!
To start, I conducted 5 interviews with fellow gamers to better understand some online gaming preferences and to discover how players are currently getting connected to other individuals. Here are the main takeaways from that research:
80% of participants prefer to play with someone around their age.
All participants currently use social media to get connected with other gamers.
50% of participants usually stop playing online if they have no other friends to play with.
To even further understand player's needs for this sort of application, I took a look at a few competitors such as Reddit, Discord, and Plink which were listed as some of the main gaming communities for players. I was able to take a look at reviews, current features and offerings, and players insights on the different apps to analyze how well, and maybe even not so well, they work for gamers.
Reddit is a very well known website which is the home for various communities where registered members can interact with others who share the same interests. There are over 100,000 communities for members to participate, and some gamers utilize special communities geared towards gaming to get connected.
Discord is also very well known, meant for users who want to create or join a server of people where users can collab, chat and hang out with friends and other community members. Many gamers use discord to join or create gaming groups, where they can then chat and connect with other people.
Plink is a dedicated gaming application where users can pay to find teammates, track game stats and share in game highlights.
Some of the pain points I discovered through this analysis includes:
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Reddit and Discord aren’t solely dedicated to finding other gamers, so a bit of searching and research has to be done by users in order to get connected.
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Reddit and Discord are more geared at communities rather than connecting individuals.
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Reddit and Discord can be complex to some, so it may not be as easy to pick up and start connecting.
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Plink’s features are blocked off by a paywall after the initial trial, making Plink unusable for users who are unable to pay.
From here, to better empathize with gamers I created some personas to best depict the future user group.
Empathize
Using the two personas from below, I was able to take into consideration the needs, goals, and frustrations of users to come up with solutions to the initial discovered problems.
I then came up with the 3 solutions seen below, which led to me having a better idea of some of the features that would give users a good experience with Gamr:
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18+,
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A simple and quick sign up process,
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An easy swipe left/right mechanic,
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Free to use application,
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Available to any level of gamer and last but not least,
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All users results are based on their individual preferences.
Solutions:
Create an app that isn't costly to users.
Create an app that's main purpose is finding other gamers.
Create an app that is easy to use and that doesn't require much to get started.
Wireframes and Tests!
To best include the features mentioned I decided to move forward with a mobile application due to the ease and accessibility of a mobile device, plus the swipe left/ right mechanic is very known in mobile apps.
I made some of those solutions come to life by creating very low-fidelity sketches, more so to map out the flow of the application and get a feel for some of the ways the features can be organized. Starting here allowed me to see if the implementations made sense without being too focused on the visual outcome just yet.
Once I mapped out the basic flow of the app I booted up Figma to make some more detailed low-fidelity wireframes. Throughout this ideating process I made various design decisions and changes to ensure I was focused on solving for users' needs. These decisions were based off feedback received from various gamers I know. Here is the final set of wireframes used to move forward with creating the final design:
Final Design
With the prior wireframes tested and feedback implemented, I moved forward with creating high fidelity wireframes of Gamr, as well as an interactive prototype which can be viewed here.
Takeaways
Once I completed Gamr I felt accomplished! More importantly, I had a few key takeways that will be very useful for my next projects:
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The importance of research: The research done during this project made it easier for me to know what ideas to apply. No research will likely end in unhappy users, which I don’t see in the future for Gamr. This is a continuous project and I plan on doing further research to ensure I am keeping up with user needs and frustrations.
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The design thinking process: The process isn’t always linear. More times than not, the design process often entails going back to previous stages in the process to make adjustments based on user needs and feedback.
While nothing necessarily went "wrong", the next time around I do plan on revamping my research process. Throughout the process there were certain decisions that were made based on my preference. Although I may be one of the users, my preference may not reflect the larger part of the users that would use Gamr. Next time around, I will make sure that I hold on to the sentiment:
“I am not my user”.