1up Arcade
An app for finding your favourite retro-games
Case Study
Role
UX Designer
Responsibilities
User Research
Art Direction
UX Design
hey, do remember that one game ?
1up Arcade is an up and coming arcade bar located in downtown Toronto. With over 100 different arcade games and 300 console titles available, they offer a good time for anyone who enjoys retro-gaming.
The Problem
Many people enjoy arcade games but may be unfamiliar with what 1up arcade has to offer; or may be overwhelmed by the large volume of available titles.
The Goal
Design an app for 1up Arcade that allows users to easily browse the catalogue of arcade games.
Research Focus
Using interviews and empathy maps I was able to determine that many users enjoy playing arcade games and are often drawn to the nostalgia of retro video-games, but because of the sheer volume they often have a hard time finding something they enjoy.
Many of the users identified in the interview are working adults who enjoy the down-time of playing games with friends in a casual setting. They had little to no extra knowledge beyond the names of the games and found the variety of games overwhelming as any information about the games.
User Pain Points
Voume
The variety of games made it difficult for users to find a game they enjoyed.
Time
Users found they had a limited down-time to try new games.
Convenience
Researching games was is too inconvenient, users wanted a one-stop shop for game information.
Challenges
User's find the sheer volume of game titles overwhelming. The main user-base (young adults) often have limited time to learn or look up these games which makes it difficult to enjoy the experience. Finding a way to make the game catalogue easy to navigate and simple to understand will be priority number one.
Opportunities
This type of app lends itself well to people who already enjoy the product. Building on that idea there is opportunity to create a community within this app. While cateloguing information and searching are the main goals, there is an opportunity to add user options like ratings, comments and a like button on game preview pages that promote community and bring a social aspect to the app.
The Process
Creating paper mock-ups quickly allowed for easy iteration and development of key features. Creating a fixed menu proved to be the most intuitive way to navigate users through the application. From that point I developed a low-fidelity prototype for testing. The primary user flow connected searching, selecting, rating and previewing games.
Based on findings in the research searching, exploring and understanding game titles were top of mind. I included features such as a game preivew which would allow users to watch the game being played as opposed to just reading text. Users wanted to interact with the content in the app, adding a comment and rating section addressed these pain points and helped other users make informed decisions.
View the low-fidelity prototype here
Usability Study Findings
Search easy
All users indicated they wanted options in searching for games; search function, tags and explore pages.
Rate and share
User's wanted a way to rate and add reviews to games they enjoyed. They wanted to let other users know their thoughts about the game.
Accessibility
User's felt that some pages were hard to see and adjusting the contrast of the main background would improve usability.
Refining the Design
Initital digital-wireframes used a fixed main-menu and simplistic icons to traverse the app and create uniformity as users move from screen to screen.
The addition of colour help to solidify designs and improve users experience. Maintaining a standard user-flow akin to other browsing apps as well as clear titles and icons made the navigation more intuitive for users.
Accessibilty in mind
Further expanding on the mockups I included the feedback from the usability study to address the layout of the game preview page as well as the accesibility of the app in general.
I re-formated and simplified the buttons on the game preview page to better resemble buttons with similar functions in popular apps. Furthermore I adjusted the colour to increase the contrast of the text and assist those with visual impairments when reading.
View the high-fidelity prototype here
Above, left to right: mockups of home-screen, search screen, example game info. page and example of profile page
Impact with purpose
Upon it's completion, this app helps users organize and understand information easily and intuitively. The purpose is to aid users in finding the information they are looking for quickly and easily as well as creating a forum for other users to exchange infromation about the product as well as build a sense of community.
One quote from peer feedback:
“The app is really intuitive and easy to understand. I like that I can catalogue and chat with others about my favourite games.”
Takeaways
I learned that the app making process is about constantly re-iterating on the previous version. There are many directions to take UX design and it’s important to consider feedback from all sources as they often have something new and exciting to add to your design.
I learned that users often rely on already established paths or patterns within apps and the user experience. Leaning on and iterating on these established paths instead of trying to create something entirely new helps your design become more readable.