My default image

How did it begin?

Have you ever played competitive online games? Have you ever "flamed" a teammate?

Research

Interviews


At the discovery phase of my project, I conducted user interviews in order to get a better understanding of the problem.


  • This method was chosen due to the need of having as much qualitative feedback than possible. A specific group of users was selected to conduct the interviews, focused on those that played online competitive games. The interview consisted in 7 questions that addressed the main pain points of gamers during their experience when queueing and playing games, 10 Gamers were interviewed.
  • The KEY points to understand where if gamers experienced issues whenever they wanted to find a duo partner or a team, and to understand what was important to them when choosing a partner.
  • Thanks to the wonderful feedback received it was clear to me that it is not easy to find colleagues to play, and that the most important aspect for gamers is the attitude towards the game, differentiating between try-hard modes and just for fun play. I was able to see that the most important aspect for gamers was to filter users regarding their attitudes as well as regarding to what they were searching for or their "needs", in terms of wanting to maybe get a better ranking or just playing to learn.
graphic
Fig. 1 "Do you struggle to find people to play with?"
graphics
Fig. 2 "What are your preferences when searching for a teammate?"
Survey Lean Canvas
Fig. 1 "Do you struggle to find people to play with?"

Surveys - Link Here!


Even if the qualitative feedback was useful, I was aware that this was not enough for me as I wanted to gather as much data as I could to validate or deny any belief that I could have during the design process.


  • Surveys were launched in Gaming Forums and League of Legends official discord server.
  • Around 30 people took part in this process.
  • Surveys helped me gather a better understanding in what users wanted, and the results were similar to what I had anticipated thanks to the interviews.
  • I decided to fully commit to a Multi Game App - my plan at first was only for League of Legends and Counter Strike - as well as to creating a system that would allow you to filter users based on their preferences, specially focusing in their attitudes towards the game and their level of skill, which was a mandatory thing for me to consider as playing with different level of skill players could end up being frustrating as per the feedback received.

Design

Wireframes


At the beginning of my design process I created wireframes for testing purposes.


  • My main Goal was to have a wire framed MVP so I could test it with my potential users.
  • I drew both Low Fidelity and Mid Fidelity Wireframes. I used the Low Fidelity to have a better understanding of which would be the better suited Site Map and how to organise the information architecture.
  • Sketch was the tool that I've used as it adapted to what I needed. Since there were no plans for me to animate the UI I discarded the use of apps like Flinto.
  • This wireframes were tested with 5 users.
  • The process went through several changes in terms of what was shown in screen and how it was shown, and at least 3 different designs were used and tested.
Wireframe
moodboard


UI Design


Once I tested out all usability mistakes, I started designing the final screens in Sketch.


  • During the UI Design process I used three different styles to see which one would be better received by my users. My main doubts revolved between using a more Pixel Art style or something more stylish and fresh, similar to what Riot Games did with their new game Valorant.
  • In the end, I opted for the more stylish, fresh and fast style of design, inspired by neon lights and dark backgrounds.
  • The App was designed only for Mobile, but next steps would be to design a Desktop Website as many gamers constantly use this in a daily basis.
  • I'm happy with the overall result, as well as I've done my best to introduce some UX Writing using sentences like "4 fun", for example.
  • Thanks to my user feedbacks I was able to find a design that tackled all of their concerns.
  • The design creates the need for the player to use it to be able to fully enjoy their competitive games. This can create a bond between the player and the App, as he would trust it and not rely in the default match making queues already available in this games.
  • My next step would be how to monetize the content, as well as to use all the data to understand better the habits of gamers and help companies improve how they create their match making systems.
Mockups Mockups Mockups

Final Notes

What did I learn?

Try my Prototype!

Bonus

This was my first design, focused in Pixel Art Style that I really enjoyed but that really didn't fit the project.

pixelart