What is Luckyland Slots?
An online social gaming service where you can play casino style games in the comfort of your home. Anyone over the age of 21 can enjoy playing slots and table games for free with the opportunity to win real cash prizes.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Duration
7 Months
Platforms
Mobile / Web
Discovery
The Problem
VGW wanted to update the design of Luckyland Slots as they felt the design was outdated. They also had some questions they wanted to be addressed such as why users are only playing 20% of our 100+ game catalogue, and why aren’t users utilizing all the features that were offered. We also needed to find a way to make sure players are being financially responsible when playing our games.
The Challenge
As there had never been a design team for Luckyland Slots, there was a huge lack of a UX foundation. Even though the game was live and successful, there weren’t any information architectures, no user flows, and no design systems. Every visual asset was scattered among various folders. Even though some user research had been done before my time here, there weren’t any organization of those questions and answers. Before I could even start, made it my mission to organize these in a way that we could utilize them in redesigning their entire product.
The next challenge was also how large the scope of this project was. It was only me and one other designer that would take charge of this.
What I Did
I recreated the information architecture and user flows in FigJam and presented this to the engineering, product, and management teams to show them where we’re at and point out where improvements needed to be made. I also went through every file and folder to catalogue our assets. With everything now being organized and inspected, I could now create a plan of action to move forward.
The Plan
Considering how large this project was, I opted into breaking it into multiple phases based on what the company’s priorities. At the time of this case study, we had launched Phase 2 and I had wrapped up and handed off Phase 3.
User Research
User Interviews
I interviewed 16 users. 8 high paying users and 8 free playing users from the ages of 30 to 70. Here were some key feedback we received.
“I didn’t know what the heart or favorites section did”
In previous research, users commented on how frustrated they were to have to scroll so many pages to reach their favorite games. At that time, the company added a favorites feature so users could save their games to make it easier to reach them. As this was abruptly added, many users did not know what it was and didn’t utilize this feature.
“Scrolling through the lobby is tedious”
Our lobby only displayed 3 games at a time and with a catalogue of 100+ games, users would get frustrated trying to scroll through each section. At the time we had both arrows and breadcrumbs, but players didn’t feel compelled to make the effort to see what was in each section so they’d average about 6-8 pages before they stopped browsing.
“I tap on things that I don’t mean to and struggle to tap on others”
The buttons in-game were arranged in a way that users would accidentally tap “Max Play” instead of “Spin” which would cause users to play the highest amount of coins. Users would be upset and request refunds which was the main issues that our customer support team dealt with. They would also struggle to tap on the “+” and “-” button to adjust their play amounts.
“Everything is so overwhelming to look at”
There were a lot of elements displayed in the lobby with a lack of visual hierarchy so users felt intimidated, leaving them to not want to interact with anything except the game posters.
Design
Constraints
Since all our games were locked into a landscape mode, I was asked to maintain this orientation for all designs. They also wanted to keep the advertisement banner in the lobby.
Wireframes V1
In our first iteration, I wanted to change our scroll to be vertical and showcase that there are many games to look at on a first glance in the lobby. I shrunk the posters and added different ways that users can view and sort them. For our in-game UI, I felt that most of the buttons were ok as they are but needed to be rearranged in a way that made better sense.
Wireframes V2
After receiving feedback on the previous design, I opted to incorporate the ad into the catalogue in order to increase the amount of posters we showcase. I also moved the side menu back to the left and made it function as a filter to compliment the sorting menu for more control over game discoverability.
Mockups
I took the designs and utilized Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator to create the assets.
Design System
Since there wasn’t a system in place when I was hired, I took this opportunity to build one after the mockups were approved.
User Research
User Testing
I created a prototype and tested the new design with 16 users. 8 high paying users and 8 free playing users from the ages of 30 to 70. Here were some key feedback we received.
1. Users were commenting about how amazed they were of how many games we offered. Some asked if the games we showed were new, to which they had actually been there for years.
2. Users commented on how exciting the lobby looked and felt. They said it felt like they were actually in a Vegas casino because of the gold accents and curtain designs. They liked how toned back it was compared to the older design since they can now focus in on the things they want. They also felt less intimidated in interacting with the lobby as a whole.
3. All users commented on the design and layout changes of the buttons being preferable than the previous version. As most of our user base is more elderly, they commented on how their hands are unstable and they struggle with pressing the right buttons. They appreciated the larger buttons and having the ones they didn’t want to press away from where they usually kept their hands. They also liked the usage of icons in addition to text on the buttons as it helped them understand what the buttons represented.
4. I noticed users were interacting with the sorting/filtering features, but only half our users interacted with the favorites button. When I asked how best to find the games they’d like to play often, they tended to use the sorting/filtering feature instead of adding the games to their favorites page.
Launch
Launching The First Phase
Upon wrapping up testing and addressing any feedback, we handed off the files and the mockups for the first phase.
You can find the current live designs here.
Impact
Feedback
Through surveys, more user interviews, and online sentiment we were able to determine a few things.
Over 80%
favorability
Overall Design
Many players commented on how easy it was to figure out how to navigate and interact with the product.
72%
increase
Game Discoverability
Many people made similar comments to our testers that they thought some of our old games were new since they had never seen them before.
43%
increase
Favorites Feature
Many people commented on being happy that they can just log in and start playing their games without having to sift through everything.
Over 30%
increase
Workflow Efficiency
With the new design system in place, engineers have been able to quickly pull and code assets instead of having to find and insert each individual item.