Gamers United Logo
Summary: A community-driven gaming website that gives gamers a platform to share content such as reviews, guides, surveys, and opinion columns.
Roles and Responsibilities: I worked on this project as a UX/UI Researcher, visual designer, and as a frontend developer for the prototype.
Tools used include: Figma, Notion, Google Slides, Google Forms, Zoom
Deliverables included: Wireframes, Empathy Map, Journey Map, Persona, Paper prototype, Clickable prototype, Survey
Problem: The gaming community does not have a platform where their contributions or their interactions with one another is a priority.
​
Audience: The audience is the gaming community who consumes news information and interacts with one another through gaming websites.
​
Solution: I created a gaming website where users are given primary control of the content produced and gamer interaction is encouraged through gamification and member forums.
Process
Discovery and research
This project started with a conversation I had with a relative over her frustrations as a gamer. Now in her thirties, she cited that the gaming websites she frequent have become too multi-faceted, diluting the game content with news stories about movies, television, comics, and technology, making it hard for her to keep up with gaming information. She also felt that there was a lack of focus on interactivity among fellow games.
I got in touch with gamers of various backgrounds – strangers and friends, to get their thoughts on various questions regarding gaming websites. I asked them a set of questions.
Extracted quotes
I also asked a few brief questions focused around the gaming community and interactions
Gamers prioritize interacting with other games
Gamer survey insights
From this research, I was able to formulate a Problem Statement: the gaming community does not have a platform where their contributions or their interactions with one another is a priority.
I dedicated myself to the vision of bringing to life a gaming website in which gamers
​
-
Control the content produced through being the sole source of articles produced such as guides, opinion columns, surveys, and reviews
-
Have a hub dedicated to interacting with one another through message boards and chatrooms
-
Interaction and quality content are both encouraged through gamification
​
I performed a competitive analysis of three popular gaming websites: IGN, Game Spot, and Niche Gamer.
Competitive Analysis: Strengths and Weaknesses
With this in mind I formed 3 Persona: Ryan Reid, Justine Johnson, and Carol Klein.
​
-
Ryan wants to share his opinion, be heard, and is a big fan of game guides. He’s frustrated by websites with information overload.
​
-
Justine wants a website focused exclusively on video games, loves taking surveys to gauge community opinion, and likes simple lay out. She gets bored quickly without interaction
​
-
Carol is a writer who enjoys producing her own content and taking in the content of others. Doesn’t feel quality writing is acknowledged/rewarded.
Persona: Ryan wants to share his opinions
Persona: Justine loves polls and surveys
Persona: Carol loves Twitch and YouTube
Information Architecture
I developed User Stories to define what priorities will be. The high priority stories I featured in this MVP are highlighted in bold.
​
-
As a gamer, I want a website focused exclusively on games, so I can easily retrieve the information I want.
​
-
As a gamer, I want to contribute to the community through sharing my thoughts
​
-
As a gamer, I want to interact with my community in a way that feels natural and positive.
​
-
As a gamer, I want to be able to read reviews, so I know whether I want to buy a game or not
​
-
As a gamer, I want to read guides, so that I can better enjoy my gaming time without getting overwhelmed or stuck.
​
-
As a gamer, I want to have console specified sections on a website, so I can focus on what I specifically want to see
​
-
As a gamer, I want social media to be integrated into my gaming website, so I can my interactivity across platforms is seamless.
From my research, I mapped out a user flow for how I’d want a few website activities to go.
Brainstorming the User Flow
I then began to produce wireframes. The main goal was to establish hierarchy and to ensure industry standard functions are in tact.
Wireframes were developed to establish structure
Brand Development
​
The main theme of the project is the gaming communities voice and sense of unity. With this in mind, I developed a mood board.
Moodboard: Community, Gaming, Unity
From there, I sketched out design, name, and logo ideas. I favored the name “Gamers United” as a representation of the project’s theme, and developed a logo.
​
The color palette of gray, blue, and black was chosen for these specific reasons
​
Gray = A tribute to the Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo primary colors, which many gamers I interviewed cited as their favorite childhood game consoles.
Blue = The symbol of “freedom” and “open space”, which Gamers United represents
Black = Legibility and solidness
​
Typography incorporated Montserrat for main body text and Roboto for headlines and titles.
Gamers United Logo
Sketching out logo ideas for Gamers United
Prototyping
Current iteration of the homepage ​​
The look of the Gamers United website prototype is inspired by the colors of the logo, what they represent, and a slight incorporation of the honeycomb, which represents the “bee hive” and unity.
​
Industry standard features such as the Reviews, Guides, and Games section blend with features such as “Submit”, which allows a user to post a story, and “Community”, which takes users to a section where there are member forums and a chatroom for them to interact with one another.
​
With a high-fidelity prototype in place, testing began.
Users testing Gamers United prototype
Initial testing went pretty well, but many users had similar critiques
​
-
No FAQ
-
No Search
-
No Profile
Below is picture of the initial build of the prototype followed by the updated version after user feedback.
First iteration without, Profile, FAQ, and Search buttons
Second iteration
Results with the second iteration were overwhelmingly positive. Highlights included:
​
-
Intuitive and easy to use interface
-
Users enjoyed the unique elements such as the “Level Up” Button
-
Liked the profile page layout.
-
Enjoyed the community page
​
I gave users a brief survey upon completion of testing.
Post-testing survey
Final Thoughts
​
This project was the most fulfilling I have done so far. While a gamer since I could walk, I never questioned what gamers want from gaming beyond what’s on their tv screens. Getting in touch with fellow gamers highlighted for me that connectivity not just with their controllers, but with each other, was hugely important, and that gamers ultimately are oftentimes creators just as much, if not more so, than they are consumers. They want to be heard, they want to be validated, and they want to be visible.
​
For next steps, I want to look into some of the lower priority stories, such as creating subsections that focus exclusive on specific consoles, and incorporating social media integration.