Big Fish Games App

Role

UX Researcher 

Duration

2 weeks

Tools

Sketch, InVision, Xtensio, Screen recorder, Audio recorder

Team:

I was the researcher on this project. I was responsible for user interviews, competitive and comparative analysis, and creating a user persona.  

Ashley Perrin - Was the interaction designer and project manager

Marilyn Vannarath - Information architect and visual designer.

The Project: Improving the Big Fish Games Mobile App

Mobile gaming is a multi billion dollar industry and growing. The user scale has officially tipped to their favor over console games. With so many games out there, so much money being tossed around, and things like casino games where actual money can be won and lost on the docket, trust, and functionality are crucial for establishing an incredibly valuable brand loyalty.  

Big Fish is one of the top 10 mobile game developers and publishers in the world.   

My team was challenged to improve the Big Fish Games app.

Discovering the problem through research

The very first step was discovering the demographics of mobile gaming. Who’s actually playing these games? The most recent study I found online defined 5 different types of gamers.

After learning about these top two types users (Passive and Playful), I started reaching out via Facebook to find them. I posted a simple “Any mobile gamers out there willing to answer a few questions about mobile gaming?”. The response was immediate and terrific! I followed up with the people that reached out with 8 questions that delved deeper into their gaming habits. What they played, how they found it, what they play it on, frustrations they run into, etc.. The testers characteristics and issues backed up what information I had found online.

These were mostly people between the ages of 35-45 that played puzzle games and played those games mostly because they had been recommended. Also most of the people who responded were Android users. This became the basis of my persona. 36 year old female who would qualify as a “Passive” user, who plays puzzle games on her commute to work on public transit.  

persona

The top user complaints I thought we would be able to help with most involved getting a complaint registered with customer service and guiding them to a gamers forum when they needed help with a particular game. I found that there’s a term called “bottlenecking” that is in regards to when a lot of people cannot get through a particular section of a game. If it takes too long and all hope seems lost, they eventually just give up. With so many games out there, who could blame them? The current way to get to the forum involved a lot of screens and very tiny text. The plan was to eliminate as much as these steps as possible.

In our context scenario I wanted to show getting to the forum and solving the issue of getting through a difficult section. I felt there was more of an immediate good result that could be displayed than if we were to show the ability of registering a complaint.  So that’s exactly what I did

The current way of getting information is very difficult. The Big Fish App only really serves as a catalog of their games without any real function. Clicking on things from the site only takes you to the google play store or their website. Once you get to the website you have to go through a whole different navigation to find what you're looking for. So we created shortcuts to better use the space of the app to get people to what they're looking for easier. 

Takeaways 

The mobile game industry is unbelievably huge and only growing. I believe a question the industry should start asking itself is are we outgrowing what we're capable of maintaining when it comes to customer needs? What is "manageable"? In a $50+ billion a year industry how loud can one customers issue be? How big does an issue have to become before it's addressed? What we can do in the meantime is better help the customer help themselves. Let them know that they're heard and valued. With such an influx of games coming out I believe checking in regularly with complaints and issues is a crucial step moving forward. So much information that is beneficial to the customers and beneficial to the company for the customers to know feels buried beneath the content. So additionally moving forward I believe the information architecture of the site needs to be addressed.