Competitive Analysis

To gain further background information on the gaming industry I researched about the current contenders. It is revealed that there are little to few companies that are currently in direct competition with GreatReplays. The gaming education industry is relatively new which competitors greatly differ from one another in terms of services offered.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Users value personalization in training methods that are offered when learning about their games.

• Users generate more trust towards professional players advice and guidance.

User Interviews

In order to supplement my understanding of the gaming education industry, I began seeking more information through experienced players by interviews, both casual and competitive. This will give me further insight into what gamers and identify potential solutions from the perspective of the users.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Participants that are newer at the game actively search out tips and guides to help take their gameplay to the next level.

• Participants states that they mainly use desktop as their main platform for both gaming and seeking out form of gaming education.

• Participants look towards professional players as a basis for their learning experience towards their games.

UNDERSTANDING THE USERS

Persona

To align the user’s expectations with GreatReplay’s business goals I incorporated a persona into the design process. James Kingston would help guide the project through user-centered decisions when deciding whether a certain design element should be included.

IDENTIFYING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH USERS

Customer Journey

To ensure that we can transform our researched information into actionable design decisions, I proceeded to map out a customer journey. This would help with the project scope and allow me to look at business opportunities and concerns that could be resolved before creating GreatReplay’s design frames.

Problem Statement

The gaming industry has seen significant growth in the last decade that gave rise to a new kind of athlete, e-sport gamers. The Esports industry has doubled its revenue since 2018 from $800 million USD to $1.6 Billion.  GreatReplays is an inspired educational company that focuses on providing the gamers of the world with the best possible guidance to help fulfill all their gaming potential. 

 Supported Findings:

• Participants expressed that with the guidance of a professional coach, their in-game performance increased,

• Participants stated that they often seek content related to their game to extract tips and knowledge from.

• Participants stated that they often seek/trust professional players’ tips to better their gameplay.
  

Generating Solutions

The platform of GreatReplays would include various tools that would allow players to equip themselves with the proper help to enhance their in-game performance.  Of the many possible ideas, the suggestions of solutions including:

• Create a web-based platform that would easily allow individuals to seek help while playing the game.

• Enabling players to track their progression through tutorial courses as they follow professionals.

• Provide players/members the options to receive 1-on-1 help from professional coaches that are adept at their chosen game.

• Provide members with up-to-date video guides and application videos that would allow players to quickly transfer what they learn into their own gameplay.
  

User Flow

With potential opportunities identified in consideration of the users, I proposed a user flow that would reflect the MVP (minimum viable product). This would include the flow of navigation from the account creation process to enabling users to view their first training video.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

In order to start generating ideas and start visualizing GreatReplays in the early stages of design, I began to sketch out the main series of frames that needed to progress onto the minimum viable product.

Mood Board

To help instill characteristics of GreatReplays onto the design, a mood board was generated to communicate the direction in which design elements would be decided. Because bold designs are generally attracting in the gaming market I’ve chosen highly contrasted color images as reference for future designs.

UI Kit

As the mood board is presented to drive the directionality of the project, I created a UI Kit that would be used to create the high-fidelity designs of the prototype. This includes many necessary elements from the color palette to the way the content card is displayed.

UI Design

In progression with the frame’s design, I implemented the elements of the UI Kit onto the existing wireframes. The high-fidelity wireframes remains simple and elegant with focus on clarity to user navigation as the design move forward to prototyping.

Usability Testing

On completion of the prototype, I move towards the next phase of the design process, testing. Usability testing will help me test the product’s current functionality and identify any user pain points that arise during the interviews. The analyzed data would then be condensed into actionable revisions for the prototype which translates to a better user experience throughout the design.

High Priority Revisions

With the user’s pain points and necessary changes identified through the usability testing, iterations on the high-fidelity prototype include:

• Course Content: The previous version of the prototype placed the course content lower on the page which required users to scan/search the page longer in order to find the interaction.

• Video Completion: The close function of the course lesson video had been previously to click outside the box. However, this did not produce a responsive interaction for many of the testers. To alert users that they have completed the video I added a completion button that serves to close the video lesson.

Project Takeaways

During this end-to-end project of branding and design GreatReplays, a gaming education platform I learned to balance early business perspectives and incorporated them into elegant designs. While staying focused on user’s needs throughout my design processes I’ve shown how the included contents and business goals can be presented in order for the product to become profitable. With personalized training to be a highlight of GreatReplays the brand would attract many gamers in the current industry as there are only but a few that rivals as a gaming education platform.