How we increased engagement by 2o% from just one game.
The brief
To design a game for hi!App to improve user engagement. UI needs to be scalable for thematic reskin.
Background
2 years after the Prepaid app launch, MAU had been stagnant. This prompted the team to explore using games to increase user engagement. As the design lead for Prepaid, I mentored 2 new designers to conceptualise the game for our target segment. Kudos to their amazing teamwork, we launched an engaging yet simple-to-play game for our Prepaid base, which garnered lots of positive feedback from our users (even years later).
Achievements
- Over 4 million game plays in 2 months
- +20% monthly active users in 3 months
- +26% daily active users
Project duration
2019, 6 weeks
My role
Design lead with 2 designers
Key skills
- Mentorship
- Workshop facilitation
- Research
- User experience
- Design system
- Audio direction
Landscape analysis
Gamification on the app was something new to my stakeholders. Hence, we were given an open brief except for the timeline and budget. We first started with desktop research to identify popular game mechanics for phone apps, filtering out ideas that could align with our project timeline. We further explored what we can incorporate to engage and resonate with our target audience – such as a leaderboard to incorporate a sense of community and competitiveness.
Pros and cons of each game mechanic
Facilitated a stakeholder alignment workshop
Before we committed to any game design, I facilitated a workshop intending to nail down clearer requirements and objectives of the game. Stakeholders from Product Marketing, Product Development and IT were invited as they played a pivotal role in this project.
Outcome: We established a shared understanding of the project objective, target audience, and decided on the development complexity based on our budget and timeline constraints. Callouts and debates were made early and settled before design, providing our team with a clearer sense of direction.
Conducted guerilla research
During conceptualisation, we realized that none of us knew what type of games our users liked to play. Despite the lack of budget and research resources, we hit the streets and conducted guerilla interviews with our Prepaid base, to find out what kind of games they would play.
Result: Our proposed concepts were not aligned with our users. The games they often played were much simpler than we thought we knew. Hence we further simplified our game mechanic to as simple as one button tap.
Run design critique sessions
Once we dive into wireframes and design, the primary method we used to gather feedback was “Rose, Thorn, Bud”. We would run 2 separate sessions for stakeholders and the design team to gather actionable feedback and insights that helped refine the design.
Results after launch
- The game was played over 4 million times in 2 months
- Increased app MAU by 20% in 3 months
- Increased app DAU by 26%
Post-launch: Festive themes
During festive seasons, we effectively utilized the thematic backend that was built to give our game a fresh look and feel through a reskin, making it more appealing to our players during this time of the year. In addition, we introduced seasonal prizes, which heightened excitement and engagement among our users.
Result: 10-18% rise in daily active users for the month.
Reflections
Fast-forward almost 2 years since this game was launched, I often still get feedback from enthusiast users during user interviews that they still enjoy playing the game as one of their favourite activities in the app. Such recognition helps to reassure me that we are on the right track to deliver a better experience.