SUMMARY
A strategic redesign to increase game sessions, enhance social play and optimize user navigation.
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
Fragmented user experience leads to frustration and increased abandonment, lost opportunities, lower engagement and repeat visits.
Users encounter unclear navigation paths, and inconsistent interface elements. These obstacles not only diminish user satisfaction but also discourage repeat visits.
Users encounter overlapping value propositions, which complicate their decision-making process and dilute the clarity of our offerings. Additionally, the unintelligent game suggestion mechanisms fail to provide relevant recommendations, exacerbating user dissatisfaction and decreasing engagement.
THE SOLUTION
Enhance usability & increase game sessions
We must unify the navigation, present clear social actions, while implementing Intelligent, personalized suggestions.
HOW MIGHT WE
01.
Enhance In-Game Navigation Consistency to Minimize User Confusion and Maximize Engagement
To enhance user experience in gaming, we must address the prevalent issue of inconsistent navigation across various native devices and orientations, which often leads to user frustration and accidental quits. By implementing a standardized entry for accessing the Arcade screen, we can create a cohesive and intuitive interface that provides seamless navigation.
WHY THIS HAPPENED
The design issue stems from short-sighted solutions developed in isolation, resulting in numerous variations. This lack of a cohesive strategy has led to feature creep, undermining the overall user experience. Short term solutions led to long term user abandonment.
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.
02.
Surface Engaging Recommendations that Enhance User Retention and Boost Play Sessions
The Arcade feature will direct users to important features, including the ability to quit, social sharing options, and relevant game suggestions designed to increase game sessions and playtime spent.
To enhance usability and drive user satisfaction, we must streamline the experience by defining distinct user journeys, clarifying value propositions, and implementing intelligent, personalized suggestions that empower users to make informed choices.
SOLUTION
Lower choice overload by only showing relevant game suggestions based on the user’s history.
Surface the previously hidden social sharing actions at Arcade level
Designed a dynamic grid component that can work for tournaments, videos, and game promotions to engage with our various user personas.
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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