Spearheaded the creation of a social gaming platform, including crafting unified design documentation and brand
strategies.
Role
Product Design Lead
Team
CEO, CPO, Art Director, Product Design Lead, Multistack Developers, Back-end Developers, Design Contractors
Timeline
September 2019 – April 2021
Tools
Figma, Miro, User Testing, UX Research, Workshops
IN SHORT
✸
A completely overhauled desktop & mobile application was successfully launched
⚙︎
Streamelined features lead to higher user retention, returning users saw an
increase of ~15% MoM
✽
Updated visual & brand lead to an increase in CSAT of ~70%
EXISTING PROBLEMS
– No culture of collaborating with designers during product development had lead
to a design by committee & developer type approach
– Lack of defined target groups had created a bloated and disjointed experience
– No brand guidelines made every interaction with Wasder feel different
HYPOTHESIS
– Defining target groups would help in focusing down features and simplifying the product
– Creating a culture around working with design would lead to a stronger process when defining, iterating and testing features
– Strong brand guidelines would lead to brand familiarity
Understanding Wasder, in & out
The management wanted to keep the target audience as broad as possible, which lead to an unfocused product that looked, acted and felt different at every single touchpoint.
My initial undertaking was to break this down into as small groups as possible and create a prioritization. This ensured that we could be more focused and coherent in how we present ourselves as a brand and as a product.
Utilizing our dedicated user group
The gaming industry is filled with fans that can get very dedicated when they enjoy a product and its brand. Wasder was fortunate to have such a tight-knit community already and by allowing them to join in on feature testing we achieved several things:
- Stronger brand commitment from our users
- Gained quicker, more realistic insights which meant we could iterate faster
- Pivoting when needed could happen early on, saving us the time of redoing
Creating a design culture
By introducing ways of thinking and approaching about design alongside the numbers and visible impact it had on the users, I was able to help set up a strong design culture within the organization.
The results
In just a short term, I managed to completely change how the company worked with design and its brand. Introducing new ways of working, design first thinking and a quicker, iterative process made for a much more cohesive end product.
We also managed to take an immature platform that was built and visualized by developers into a fully fledged desktop service and powerful PWA that existed on mobile web, iOS and Android.