The design of Rookies is a special case. I designed it with two other designers for a design challenge held by Adobe XD, and the whole process is finished within 48 hours, so we had to skip some design process and work more on solving user pain points. And our final design - the Rookies app ranked top 50 among over 300 groups.
More and more young gamers are joining gamers' community nowadays. How can I make their experience as newbies in the gaming community more fun/engaging/safe? This is Rookies, a mobile app that is designed for young kids (7 - 14) to let them explore new games, share inspirations, and make new friends!
Project Duration: 2 days
Team: 3 designers
Role in the Team: Prototype design/visual motion design
Platform: iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro
Design Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe photoshop, Adobe XD
Skillset/tools: Problem-solving, sketching, wireframing, prototyping
Lucas is an 8-year-old boy who began to play sports video games recently. He wants to learn more about new games and the games that he loves. Lucas' parents are, however, worried about the gamers' community online because there is some content that is not suitable for kids so they do not allow Lucas to browse those websites/apps. Lucas is wondering if there could be a kid-friendly place for him to explore games.
On the one hand, how to onboard a new gamer and a kid without the assistance of others. On the other hand, since the kid may use parents' phones, it should also be clear that who is controlling the phone and the app. Also, the onboarding part is probably the most tedious part for the kid, so how can it be enjoyable as well?
The whole onboarding experienced kept as a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by using light-weight structure and desaturated bright colors. And the prompt works as a dialogue with the kid. And the app only ask for essential information to keep the experience precise.
Instead of using a traditional progress indicator, Rookies uses a pot of cactus to indicate the position of the user. This makes the process more fun so that kids won't get bored.
Rookies is a platform for new gamers at a very young age, so I have to pay attention to how to recommend games to the users based on their age, gaming experience, and genre preferences. So how to collect the information from the users, and use it smartly to recommend the correct content for them?
In the onboarding part, I embedded some questions that may relate to the backend data and select certain games for the user. For example, by selecting different appearances, the app can tell the user's gaming style preferences, whether it's casual, sports, western or eastern.
Rookies offers a dashboard page where the user can find recommended games as well as popular games, new games, and categorized games.
The users use Rookies because they also need the communication between peer gamers. But I have to consider the privacy and security issue when dealing with children's communication.
There is a built-in social media community in Rookies, where kids can post new game records, share game skills, and simply communicate with other young gamers. Since all user icons and names are not real, the kids' privacy is well protected.
If Rookies is only a vertical community and platform for information sharing, then how can I improve the user stickiness and keep them coming back using this app?
A level up system for gamers! Rookies has a bonus point system where user can get points by posting, sharing, and other activities. The points will be accumulated along a puzzle map in the user profile page - just like a game! And the points can be used to redeem their Steam, Apple store, or Google play currency.
• Target your audience: An app cannot serve anyone. If it's serving everyone, then it is serving no one. Out target audience is young kids of 7 - 14, so the style and tone are all designed to fit them.
• Focus on the onboarding process: The onboarding process and account setting up of Rookies are one of the most important steps because it determines whether the kid will continue the journey with us or not. I have use more visual language to engage the kids.
• Unify the UI: Rookies' UI is completely original, and my team did so in order to keep the experience consistent and make sure it is suitable for children.