UX Design Project: A Game Preview App for an Arcade
Project Overview
The product:
This app is designed to give customers insight into which video games are available at arcades in the New York City area, with information such as hours, location, food & drink menus, and information about the games offered.
Project duration: June 2022-September 2022
Project Overview
The problem:
Trying to research arcades can be time-consuming. Often people don’t know whether they are barcades or family-friendly, what kind of food and drinks they offer, and/or what games are available.
The goal: To streamline all the information spread out on the internet so people can comprehensively find the information they are interested in about arcades in the New York City metropolitan area.
Project Overview
My role: UX researcher and UX designer.
Responsibilities:
User research, creating empathy maps, building personas, conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
Understandingtheuser ● User research ● Personas ● Problem statements ● User journey maps
User Research: Summary
I talked to people who enjoy going to video game arcades about what kind of information they would like to see about games and game options. I discovered two main groups, one of which ecompasses, teens, kids, and families, and another of adults over age 21. Both would like to know if an arcade is a 21+ establishment or family-friendly.
Through research I also found different things people would be interested in for an arcade-related app, such as possibly reviewing games, saving favorites to a profile, and seeing which games are offered at individual arcades (multi-player vs. single, if there are consoles such as N64 available, etc).
User Research: Pain points
Pain point
Pain point
Pain point
Pain point
Spending too much time looking through photos on Google Maps to try to figure out which video games are available at an arcade.
Not knowing what kinds of food/drinks are offered at an arcade.
Not knowing enough information about the games at an arcade, such as multiplayergenre,gameoptions,etc.
Not knowing if an arcade is a 21+ arcade or a family-friendly one.
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Persona: Ryan Patel
Problem statement: Ryan is a video game artist and gamer who needs inspiration from arcade games and to know affordable game options because it helps him with both work as well as post-work fun with friends.
Persona: Kristin Campbell
Problem statement: Kristin is a gamer who wants to know about what types of games are available and that there is a wide variety choose from because she enjoys playing multiplayer games with friends.
User Journey Map
Helping the user to streamline the process of choosing an arcade
Competitive Audit
● Paper wireframes ● Digital wireframes ● Low-fidelity prototype ● Usability studies theStartingdesign
Paper Wireframes
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points. For the home screen, I prioritized an interactive map navigation feature to help users find arcades in an area of interest, as well as navigation buttons and a slider for trending arcades in the area.
Digital Wireframes
As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from the user research. This is the landing page for information about an individual arcade.
Here you can see games that are offered at this arcade.particular
Food swipeavailableareatdrinksandofferedthearcadealsohere,tothrough. arcade.aboutinformationFurtherthe information.arcadeimportantEasy-to-find
Digital Wireframes
The navigation icon exands for easy navigation to specific pages in the app.
All pages in the app have eachoptionsmoreexpandbedowntoclickedbeEachnavigationiconexpandingthemenuinthebar.ofthesecanindividuallyonthegothepageorthearrowcanpressedtoandseepagebelowcategory.
A button to easily exit the option and go back to the last screen.
Low-fidelity prototype
The primary user flow connects the arcade images to pages with information, as well as a game information page, an option to save favorites, and navigation options.
View the NYC Arcade low-fidelity prototype.
Usability study: findings
Write a short introduction to the usability studies conducted and your findings.
Round 1 findings
Users want to easily create a profile. would like a confirmation page adding to “favorites.” would like the option to navigate the home screen with the browse icon
Round 2 findings
Users would like to more contrast between clickable images and background would like to see more information on food menus.
Users would like to be able to translate the app into other languages.
you
1 User
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3
1 Users
after
2 3 Users
to
● Mockups ● High-fidelity prototype ● AccessibilitytheRefiningdesign
Mockups
Early designs overlooked this screen, but after the usability studies, I added additional an option to sign in or create an account on the profile page.
Before usability study
After usability study
Mockups
Early designs had less contrast of the images to the background. A drop shadow was added for more dimension and contrast.
Before usability study
After usability study
Mockups
prototypeHigh-fidelity The final high-fidelityViewuserelements,contrast,prototypehigh-fidelityhascolor,someanimatedandacompleteflow.theNYCArcadeprototype.
Accessibility considerations
Provided access to users who are vision throughimpairedaddingalttexttoimagesforscreenreaders.
Used icons to help navigationmakeeasier. Used a translation feature to translate to other languages. 2
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● Takeaways ● Next stepsGoing forward
Takeaways
Impact:
These app helped users to more easily find and research arcades they are interested in visiting in the New York City area.
What I learned: Usability studies are pertinent and valuable, and constructive feedback from other designers is also helpful, all of this feedback should influence each iteration of the app’s designs.
Next steps
Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points experiencedusershavebeeneffectivelyaddressed.
Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need, as well as if we are accessibilitymessingfeaturesthatcouldbebehelpfultousers.
Continue to add updates as well as morefeatures.accessibility
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Let’s connect!
Thank you for your time reviewing my work on the NYC Arcade app! If you’d like to see more or get in touch, my contact information is provided below.
Email: brittneyleighb@gmail.com