Word Whirl
Creating a better approach to bounce rates
For this project, I was tasked with our thorniest problem: how do we get users to spend more time on the app? Users would often play the game but then leave. How could we get them to engage in our community and become regular players? To solve this problem, I gathered more findings from existing gaming apps that highlight opportunities or issues that will help shape the development of our product. I later decided to create profile and statistic pages that encouraged the user to spend more time on the app by learning about their stats and how to improve them.
RESPONSIBILITIES
UI / UX
Design
TEAM
CEO
Software Engineers
TIMELINE
4 Months
DISCOVERY
Research + Analysis
The main purpose of this research was to understand the experience of gamers. This helps determine what new features could be implemented into a better experience with how they would stay on the app for longer. Below are frameworks of the research synthesis and user story map that I have summarized from the findings I have made through participants that I have gathered.
LO-FIDELITY DESIGN
Concept + Sketching
The initial concept of this app was to create exciting statistics. Throughout the process of sketching mockups, I added many statistics because the users that I interviewed all noted that they enjoyed understanding how to get better.
MID-FIDELITY DESIGN
Wireframing
Taking the research gathered from the low-fidelity mock-ups, I created mid-fidelity wireframes to get a better idea of the app layout. I took a look at current mobile gaming apps that I personally use, as well as what my colleagues use, as a baseline of what works and what doesn't work on gaming apps.
HI-FIDELITY DESIGN
Style Guide + Prototyping
When I first created the coloring system I used hues of blue and green. Turns out not everyone can differentiate a variation of blue and greens due to tritanopia. Blue didn’t make sense for an app based on speed with quick games. After listening to our users responses we switched to orange and purple as they all gave off the appeal of gaming and a fast speed game according to our users. The colors were also farther apart on the color wheel that people with tritanopia, deuteranopia and protanopia we easily able to distinguish the 2x from the 3x (critical for understanding and winning this game). After doing more in depth one-on-one research interveiws we decided we wanted a font that was trustworthy and offical. Out of all the fonts we sent in a survey 100% agreed that the GT America font was trustworthy and 92% agreed it looked offical.
TESTING
Validation, Usability, Feedback, + Iterations
Key Finding: “All users like receiving statistics to help them improve their score.”
I conducted an unmoderated research session with 36 participants using the prototype I created above. I sent out a survey with vague instructions to determine if they were able to figure out how to navigate the app. Below are the results of the research. Throughout the testing phase, I have repeatedly noted that all participants enjoy looking at their statistics, validating the statement of my key finding above.
With the data I have gathered, I made iterations to improve accessibility and key performance indicators (KPI).
ACCESSIBILITY ITERATION TO COMPLY WITH WCAG
KPI iteration based on data to optimize for conversion. The hypothesis gathered from the research was that 54% of users did not click on the dropdown to view score change over time, so I needed to make the CTA clearer. Improving the call-to-action will increase the conversion rate.
KPI ITERATION
SOLUTION
Impact Overview
After making these changes we have seen a drastic increase in site time from 2 minutes to an average of 10.5 minutes. We can see that the new users spend an average of 1 minute on the stats page and profile page. Established accounts spend an average of 3 minutes per visit on these pages. Our bounce rate (which was the purpose of this project) went from 65% to 55% due to these pages being added.
Where to find Word Whirl?
To learn more about Word Whirl, download the iOS app or go to the online version. My work for this project is primarily on the app.
