First-person shooter Free-to-play mobile game
Also known as Contract Killer: Sniper, Glu’s fifth installment in the Contract Killer franchise. As a franchise that has already established their audience and gameplay, this game attempts to bring new content for returning gamers and bring in a new wave of players.
SECTIONS
feature UPDATE: VIP EVENT
Tools
Photoshop
Roles
Julie Mok UI/UX Designer
Lisa Boleyn Game Designer
Daniel Tyrrell Executive Producer
Timeline
One Month
PROBLEM
The VIP Event was one of the biggest revenue generating features in the game. Every several weeks, the spending players had the opportunity to earn additional rewards depending on how much real money was spent throughout the duration of the event. However, the feature was starting to lose traction and I started to look for ways to breathe new life into the event again.
“How might we revitalize a declining feature to regenerate interest and entice new players?”
RESEARCH
To start, we had to figure out why the interest in this event was being dropped off. We used several methods and these were the most effective ones:
Use analytics to see where the player had dropped off during the expected user flow
Finding 1: Following where the players went every step of the way, we found many of them might not have even noticed the event existed. While we don’t expect most of our players to be spenders, we had an expectation of players to at least be interested in looking into the rewards that were being given out. This was simply not the case.
Ask the community what they desire from this event
Finding 2: We were particularly lucky with this method, as there was already a following. The members in the forums are very helpful and vocal about their opinions. Community feedback often gets overlooked because it can take some time to sift through the irrelevant comments but taking the time to do so can truly display the gems within. We learned the prizes might not have been enticing enough and the event was not visually outstanding enough.
SOLUTION
Using the key findings above, the team established goals for improving this feature. These are not in detail but to show the overall changes we want to accomplish.
Revive interest in existing spenders
Attract more players to convert into spenders
improving the User flow
I wanted to give the more opportunities to notice the VIP event, In the previous version, there was no direct call-to-action to visit the event except for the HUD timer on the bottom of the screen. In the new flow, there are multiple ways to get to the event menu and even take a look at the potential reward while browsing in the store.
wireframes
I quickly got to work with the proposed user flow. Not only did we want to improve on the flow, we also wanted to make it more visually appealing to draw more attention to the event overall. Let’s take a look at some of the updates!
Improved content
• Player can see how much they spent but would have to compare numbers to see how close they are to the next reward.
Improvements:
• Player can clearly see how much they have spent and visually see how close they are to the next reward on the bar graph
• Player can see the exact amount they have to spend to get the next reward
• Player can clearly see an end goal amount to spend
• Player had a hard time striving for the prizes because there was no way to learn more about them
• Player cannot tell if one prize is better than another at a glance
Improvements:
• Player can identify the more valuable reward by looking at the yellow primary color compared with the secondary blue color for the less valuable reward
• Player can tap on the new "Details" button to see more information about each reward
• Player can see more value in a weapon that is clear labeled as "VIP exclusive"
• Player has a positive association with green and therefore draws a lot of attention to the completed levels of VIP but there is no call-to-action once it is completed so the attention should be put elsewhere
Improvements:
• Player can now focus on the rewards they can still obtain that are in yellow and blue; Collected rewards are not desaturated to remove attention
• Players no longer have to see the VIP representation using "level"; Instead, it will just use the amount spent to avoid another layer of information
• Player cannot tell their current progress on the main HUD of the game
Improvements:
• Player can now always see how close they are to the next reward
New content
As mentioned in the improved user flow, I’d like to add more awareness to the VIP event when it is active. The information in the pop up should give the player an idea of rewards they can only exclusively get from the event but not over-telling so they will have an interest in going into the event page to find out more. This pop-up uses the same yellow and blue call-to-action colors as the ones listing the rewards in the event page so the player can easily draw association for each reward.
Additional attention can be brought to the VIP event when the player is browsing through the store. Weapons that are VIP exclusive will be marked with a “VIP” flag on the top right of their thumbnail along with a “VIP EXCLUSIVE” tag in the detailed view. Detailed views of these weapons have a button to enter the VIP event page directly.
takeaways
LEARN FROM RESULTS
Having more experience now in my expertise, I should have taken the time to ask about the effects of the changes.
How did the event perform when compared with the old design? Did it make a positive impact? If not, what else can we explore?
Without attempting to learn about the outcome means it is a missed opportunity to let this become a learning experience, whether it was a success or not.
DESIGN WITH INTENTION
It’s important to always design with the player in mind.
Many of the improvements made to the VIP event design did just that. We added new ways for the player to explore their way into the VIP menu. These opportunities were sprinkled throughout the game so the player can make the choice of when they want to be engaged with the feature. Think of each solution carefully and pick which ones would work best with one another.
Make an impact
Improving designs doesn’t always have to be a major overhaul. In this case, the “VIP” and “VIP EXCLUSIVE” tags within the store and event page made the most impact. Almost immediately, the value brought in from perceived exclusivity was expressed to the players. Big changes are not always necessary, just the ones that will truly make a difference.