Exploring how to optimized and improve the UX and design of Metagods to enhance player engagement and to create seamless and immersive gaming experience.

Overview: Metagods, a new NFT based game, offers an exciting and real time battles that are not commonly found on todays’ NFT and crypto games. However, the industry NFT and crypto are still not widely accepted by many. Therefore, for this project I had to really dig deep and tap on the gamer mindset of the target audience.

Role: Sole Sole UI/UX designer and Web designer

Industry: Cryptocurrency, Game

Tools: Figma, Adobe XD, FigJam, Slack

Duration: Q2-Q3 2022

UX Research

Product background

MetaGods is a next generation of play-to-earn action Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. Players can earn epic NFT loot by exploring dungeons and slaying mythical monsters. They can also level up their collection of characters and explore the worlds with harder difficulty but with higher rewards. The in-game currency they got in-game are tradeable to actual money in real life while the items and equipment's that players get in-game are tradeable to other players in exchange of the in-game currency.

Project Thoughts

To expand and scale the game maximizing it’s profitability that in return will provide new ways for the players to earn more by playing more. However, the crypto industry is still not widely accepted by a lot of people making it hard to these type of games to fully flourish. Therefore, the main goal of the business is to provide a fully immersive game that it’s player base will enjoy without really thinking of it’s profitability aspect.

Methodologies

  • Competitive Analysis

  • User Interviews

User Interview

The user interview in this project is quite specific, I was assigned to design Metagods’ homepage, features and error page that was later on made as the basis of the overall design and theme of the website. However, the target audience for this task is the same as for the other pages are, ideally those that knows the benefit and consequences of engaging or using any NFT/Crypto currency based game. The brand also wanted to tap on those that are just starting out in the crypto/nft industry.

UX Design

Project Goals

User goals and business goals may different from one another where the business goals are focused on the business aspect such as profit and total users. On the other hand, project goals are the specific tasks or objectives users need to accomplish to fulfill their needs within the app. The findings below provide a deeper analysis that bridges both sets of goals, offering solutions that benefit both the business and its users.

Information Architecture

The information architecture for my part is basically the section flow of the pages that I am in charge of. These will obviously be used as a basis for other pages that the brand will use in terms of components, typography, image types and overall vibe of the design.

Unexpected Issue

Due to the tight deadlines and limited budget, the client pushed the development early, skipped 1 or 2 steps in the design process including wireframing

Initially I was caught off guard simply because wireframing and other steps are necessary in a complete UX process to determine how users will react to the product. However, my personal opinion with wireframing is that this can only be beneficial to a design if:

  • you’re designing or involve in the creation of the overall user flow structure to determine how users interact with a product.

  • the team have enough time so that all designers working for their tasked pages are all aligned.

  • the product is mobile app. Don’t get me wrong, wireframing is helpful on all types of UIUX design project but I think this is a lot more beneficial for mobile applications.

UX Design IDeas

Idea 1: Be playful with the grid of the page and provide a unique journey experience for the players to enjoy.

Pro:

  • The game’s goal is to provide an enjoyable immersive game experience that players can enjoy. Therefore, I believe the website should also convey this goal by giving them a “journey” experience while navigating the website.

Con:

  • Developing this specific section could be hard versus the usual grid. However, making it symmetrical is also a go to. Remember that the goal is provide a playful journey experience not just in the game itself but on the website as well.

Idea 2: Create a carousel roadmap to support the idea of adding the adventure experience element on the website as well.

Pro:

  • Roadmap is one of the most important sections for a crypto/nft based brand. Therefore, making this a carousel wheel style should catch the attention of the users and make the whole experience memorable.

Con:

  • Development could potentially harder. But this is not brand new and is used by other brands. Furthermore, there are code templates our there that can be used as a basis and is available for anyone to use.

*Character images used are just referenced from the internet and was only used to represent the design goal.

Idea 3: Create a smooth transition from one section to another in a form of dungeon floors.

Pro:

  • With the design and game goal in mind, I designed that the transition from one section to another mimics a dungeon floor. I believe this should add towards the goal of the project.

Con:

  • The interaction could be somewhat too much for some. However, I believe this should be able to make the whole website experience memorable.

*Character images used are just referenced from the internet and was only used to represent the design goal.

The Proposed Design

Outcome

The proposed design for the pages that I’m in charged with, consists of several hours of research and collecting/creating of various assets that later one was used as a basis of the overall design of the website. There are still pages that are in need of design improvement during my time with them, but they used what I made to create the other pages.

Key Takeaways

Challenge

  • Creation and collecting of assets took a lot of time as the client had specific goals. But I somehow made it happen with the help of my team.

  • This is fairly a new industry for me, so it takes a lot of research for me to really understand how users feel with these kind of games.

  • Researching the competitors also need a lot of know-hows as they have their own target audience and their own way of doing things.

Lesson Learned

  • Be ready on any changes. I’m confident with my adapting skills on any scenario, however I believe I can be better at it as the industry is constantly improving and changing.

  • Crypto and NFT is a completely different monster to tame. The competition is not that fierce I would say, however there are a lot of grounds to cover to really grasp it’s essence.

Next Project

UI/UX design and Web Design | Figma, Adobe XD, FigJam, Slack