Duration
Sep – Dec 2021
My Role
Service / UX designer designing a responsive website for game rental serivce from conception to delivery.
Responsibilities
Market and competitor research, conducting interviews, wireframing, prototyping, usability studies, Accounting for accessibility, Iterating on designs.
Problems I intend to solve
Players want to try games that fit them
without spend too much time and money
Some games do not offer demos
It makes it hard for new players to decide if these games are for them.
It is hard to sell some games out
Some players only play games once so they buy the physical version and hope to sell it after playing. Nevertheless, it is a hassle to sell online and sometimes it gets even harder to sell if they are not mainstream games.
Players want to try more games without buying them
Gamers are always open to something new! However, their desire is sometimes restricted by finance.
Defining users’ needs based on interviews
From assumption to Research
The initial assumption is that the light gamers need a demo to know about the games they intend to play so they need the renting service – a view that was validated in the interviews. However, heavy gamers stated they also spend extra time or money to find the games they like, despite their inner needs being different from their counterparts. With this in mind, I started to design a service and website for those target users based in Taiwan.
Key information to find via user interviews
Personas and their needs
Personas play an important part in this research. I have looked into users’ gaming behaviours and preferences, the problems they face and what they find important in gaming life. Based on six interviews, starting with user personas, I created user stories and problem statements in order to understand two different user segments.
Persona 1
A Story-focused Light Gamer
Persona 2
A High-Skilled Connoisseur Gamer
Some key quotes from the users
“Price is the most important thing I consider about if I rent games on this site.”
“This service could replace second hand game shops. Sometimes we just want to try so we buy it, but it’s hard to sell the old games out…or we might have already missed the best time to sell it.”
“I hope to get a ”treasure hunt” experience on this site because it’s the key difference to general game shops. Like at manga or video rental shops in childhood, I’d expect a surprise.”
Market Opportunity
A great number of potential users
and gaming business opportunity
Market Size and facts
- According to Newzoo (2018), the Taiwan Games market size is around US $1.2B, which ranks 15thin the world for overall games revenue, despite its population,whichis ranked 56th in the world.
- 61% of the 20-40-year-old gamer segment play console games.
- The starting salary is around NTD$24,000 (£631) and the hourly rate is NTD$160 (£4.2). Therefore, the service aims to lend console games selling for over NTD$1500 (£40), which are of a higher cost for the target users.
Reliable and fast delivery service with convenience stores
One important factor of the game rental service is delivery. The site offers two delivery options – home delivery and collecting at convenience stores. The density of convenience stores in Taiwan is the highest in the world – one per every 2,000 residents.
Those 24-hour-opened convenience stores offer delivery / collecting services so the busy users can collect the games anytime when they are available and return the games at their nearest spot.
Competitor Analysis
Only a few sites provide similar service
but not the same solution
Some physical game shops provide such a service but customers would have to collect games in person. Some of them have built a website to showcase the products yet the search filter feature and checkout process are passively and have to be done manually. Thus, I decided to optimise these two parts in my design.
Low Fidelity
Wireframes
I laid down the main user flow regarding the possible structure and information architecture of the website. View prototypes on Figma:
Usability Study
A number of Issues addressed
during the study and the improvements
Users didn’t encounter too many troubles completing the main user flow. However, there is still room for improvement as shown in the picture. The reported issues are redesigned and presented in the High-Fidelity Prototype.
The Final Design
After completing the user research, I optimised the prototype and polished it with colours and images. This high-fidelity design shows the integrative representation, which is the closest resemblance to the final design. View Mockups on Figma:
The Design Details
What makes the design special?
Based on my user study and usability study, I realised that one of the most important features on this site is to help users find the games that fit them. Here are some design details that make it different.
Four Invaluable Takeaways
Finding Users’ Inner Desire
The first thing I learnt was that users might not really know what their desires are. For instance, when I interviewed a user, she told me she only plays games that take long hours, it is worth the money spent. However, in the following question, she mentioned she usually spends 5-10 hours on a game. Compared to the other interviewees who spend 100-150 hours on a game, this interviewee does not care about the time as much as she thinks, and this is what a great UX researcher should figure out.
pros and cons of the same group of participants
I invited the same group of users to participate in the primary research and usability testing. In the usability of the lo-fi prototype, their feedback heavily impacted the design. However, when I completed the hi-fi prototype and conducted the second round of usability research, the users only feedback on what they had suggested in the previous interview. Next time, when I conduct the second round of research, I would invite different participants. The same group of participants help to clarify if the problems are properly solved, but it could be left with a blind spot.
Learning from Others
In my first few UX projects (which are not on the website), I did not know much about UI design, therefore I spent lots of time struggling with visual design and design palette. This time, I visited plenty of similar websites and took notes about their pros and cons, their layouts, the colour schemes, and then applied it to my own work. It helped me find inspiration and saved a lot of time on something unworkable.
The Design Has to Fit the Business Purpose
My marketing and startup background led my thoughts towards more “business”. However, through the UX process, I realised that although business and UX are seemingly contrasting, they are actually the “best combo” for good design, especially when I want to design a service that can actually work. When I told my interviewees about my business goal, they gave me more valuable feedback, not only on the interface, but also on the business model and service. It helped me see the big picture as well as the finer details.