Good Game Mobile App

There exists a plethora of gaming-related websites and applications on the market, yet a common concern of those playing video games today is that the collaborate experience is unpleasant. Many gamers, have regular and unpleasant encounters with those on opposing teams. The experience ranges from annoying to toxic to harassment, and often transforms what should be an enjoyable escape into a burdensome trial to be endured.

“Good Game” is an application designed to improve the experience of playing video games for people of all skill levels. It does so both by providing a centralized forum for game-related content and (more critically) by matching players for a cooperative experience.

User Interview

• Found insight about different practices, solution discovery, and social dynamics

Competitors Analysis

In completing a competitive analysis, our team’s goal twofold: first, to determine to what extent (if any) an existing website or application currently providing a learning platform for gamers and, second, to determine which features of websites and applications currently marketed to gamers would be worth adopting for Good Game.

We looked at seven different applications: Gamespot, Twitch, Bilibili, Coursera, NeoGaf, Steam, and YouTube. Although none of these sites do exactly what we wanted Good Game to do, they all execute certain elements of our vision well.

Quesitionnaire

The survey was then published online, and garnered around 50 responses within a period of 72 hours.

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Affinity Diagram

Our first step was to remove participant labels and reorganize the notes along what we already knew to be the two primary dimensions of our application – the ‘social’ side (dedicated to an improved interactive experience) and the ‘learning’ side (dedicated to an improved information search experience).  Next, we grouped our notes into categories based on the responses of the participants themselves.

The results of our interviews became much easier to process in this form.  As it gradually because clear that gamers were of mixed minds regarding the need for and ease of searching for gaming hints (a finding reinforced by our survey), it also unfolded that the responses on toxicity were fairly uniform.  In other words, no one reported to enjoy it, and everyone who mentioned it at all bemoaned how it has become a necessary evil of online gaming.

Persona

Based on the synthesis of the questionnaire and user interviews the team was able to create user personas that reflected the kinds of users that would be interested in using an application like GG. Personas were given backgrounds, video gaming habits, goals within the hobby, learning preferences, brand preferences, and pain points for video gaming.

User Journey Map

User Flow

Based on the personas, research, and task analysis the team created the finalized user flow. User would utilize the prototype’s navigation bar users move between the app’s main functions.

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Paper Prototype

To move the design from the conceptual phase into the prototyping phase, the team chose to break apart and individually sketch out some ideas for the design, flow, and functionality of the app.

Medium Fidelity Prototype

The ideas, design, flow, and layout were critiqued and altered within the team to create a 2nd iteration that fleshed out the interconnectivity of the various aspects of the application while also creating a higher degree of fidelity within the design. Certain screens and functionality from the 1st iteration were streamlined in order for the team to focus on the main functionality of creating dynamic teams and providing high quality learning content for gamers.

Round 1: In person testing

Round 2: Usertesting.com

Round 2 of the user tests was conducted entirely through the website www.usertesting.com. Of the 40 tasks (10 tasks x 4 users) there were only 3 task failures. Of these three, two were directly attributable to misleading text written into the the task itself.