In this project, I worked as a UX researcher and designer, was involved in front-end activities with developers, and reported to the director.
The product: Go Gratiz is a combination of mobile game and mobile app. It offers an opportunity to the retailers to promote their products or services through free and discount coupons. Users enjoys the fun of gaming and avail free and discount coupons, whereas retailers can promote their brands effectively through engagement and foot falls.
Challenge: Promotion tools like news paper advertisement, leaflet distribution, banner advt., social media promotion etc are costly for retailers and only create brand visibility, none of these can guarantee foot falls
Solution: Go Gratiz promotion can assure the foot falls by launching most loved kite snatching game with giving users free and discount coupons.
Responsibilities: Making questionnaire, prioritizing them, conducting UX workshops, interviews, and surveys, aligning research to business and research objectives, timelines, and budgets, involving in paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
Tools Used: Figma, Analytics, Adobe Photoshop, SurveyMonkey, MS Excel, JamBoard
App Download Link : Android-Go Gratiz : https://goo.gl/xcoLVn
IOS-Go Gratiz : https://goo.gl/11ugrT
Research
Looking at the project goal, timeline, and the kind of research answers needed, I concluded by doing research on customers and retailers across the city using quantitative and qualitative methods respectively, to understand their needs, pain, competitors, and preferences.
RESEARCH GOALS
(For customers)
Who are the customers? What do they need out of this?
What kind of games do they like to play?
Why do users choose to play games?
Who are the users who enjoys playing games and their ways to get free coupons for their day to day needs?
What do people do to get their favourite items from the store?
Who can be the customers of vendors and retailers goegraphically?
USER RESEARCH SUMMERY
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I conducted interviews with retailers to understand their customers and marketing strategies and also surveys in people of the city to find out their preferred shopping are and persuit for getting free/discouted coupons. Research identified that vendors need assurity of footfall against the money they have invested for marketing and want their geographically nearer customers to reach out to them. On the other side, users will need a fun-filling interface to get free and discounted coupons.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
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As a UX Researcher, I used different and mixed research methodologies for vendors and customers to collect data in order to answer our research goals. Location: Ahmedabad, India
Location: India, on-field,remote
MARKET RESEARCH
For retailers: Interviews
Research interview questionnaires:
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What is the current footfall per month?
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How much fall do they expect every month additionally?
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What marketing strategies are they using currently?
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Average spending on the campaigns per month?
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ROI in terms of spending vs leads?
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How good are they for giving away free/ discount coupons?
PERSONAS AND UNDERSTANDING THE RETAILERS​
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Problem statement:
Romil Khatri, Gajanan Bakers is a bakery owner who needs to have a footfall on all of their 3 outlets across the cityon because marketing of all 3 oulets is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain in terms of return of investment.
Problem statement:
Nirmal is an owner of The Pancake Story in Ahmedabad
USER RESEARCH PAIN POINTS (For Retailers)​
Marketing of outlet is expensive and time consuming.
Spending on marketing doesn’t pay off in terms of ROI
Marketing agencies do not give support as needed.
Expensive marketing
Uncertainty and ROI
Support Issue
For customers: Surveys
Research survey questionnaires:
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Are you living in Ahmedabad?
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Are you at least 15 years old?
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Do you like to play games on mobile phones?
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What is your favourite online game?
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What is your favourite offline game?
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Would you like to earn free or discounted coupons from different shops across the city?
We had a successful survey done by 10 participants online on SurveyMonkey.
Survey Outcome (WHY KITE SNATCHING?)
People who love playing mobile games have unique interest of playing offline games like Chess 10.0% , Carrom 10.0% , Fastival Plays like holi, kites etc 50.0% , Marbles 20.0% , Hide and Seek and Street games. This shows people in the city likes playing festivals like kite and holi more than other games.
Looking at the data collected it was joint decision among the teams that game on kites will be the right choice.
In order to develop this particular product, I chose to use the Design Thinking approach to guide us through the process. By following the steps, we were able to research thoroughly about the kite snatching game and discount coupons available online before we proceeded to further analyse the problem and ultimately come up with a nearly right possible product solution.
Empathize
Because Design Thinking emphasizes the importance of human-centered design, the first step of the process is to empathize. This essentially gave us the opportunity to gain some insight into the thoughts, feelings, and needs of the users.
User Interviews
I conducted interviews with users who are familiar with playing games online and likes to earn coupons to use in local stores to identify their needs and pain points. Because a wide range of demographics loves local festivals and feels good when they earn coupons to get discount in regular stores, I interviewed a total of five participants between the ages of 18 and 50. Their professions varied from student, engineer, to homemaker.
The interview guide that was prepared in advanced is below:
Interview Guide for kite snatcher
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Research Goal
We want to know which game(Holi or Kites) and other features should be included in the application to ensure that customers can perform their tasks with ease and have a good user experience while playing the game and earning coupons of their favourite stores.
Research Objectives
1. Understand which game they would like to play holi or kite snatching?
2. Understand if they like to play their preferred game on mobile?
2. Determine which features users like to use while playing and earning coupons?
3. Learn about the needs, motivations, and current pain points that the users have when they play games or find discount coupons online.
4. Research about competitors to see what is working and what is not working for them
Recording & Data Privacy
We will need to record this session to get back to it in case we miss any points while taking notes. All recordings will be deleted once we are done with the research synthesis. In case we use quotes from today’s session, they will be anonymized too. Is that okay with you?
Brief Overview
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this interview. Before we begin, I would like to give you a brief overview of the research that I am conducting. I am currently interested in learning more about your experience with online game play and coupon collection from any app to get a better idea of the different features that are helpful and/or irritating when you do so. This interview should take maximum for 30 minutes and the interview session will be recorded for research purposes. Please be advised that it is confidential.
Demographics
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What is your name?
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What is your gender?
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How old are you?
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What is your current occupation?
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Where are you currently located?
Introduction Questions
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Do you like to play games on mobile phones?
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Which is your favourite online game?
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Which is your favourite offline game?
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Would you like to earn free or discounted coupons from different shops across the city?
Topic-Specific Questions
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Would you like to play a new concept which is local and most loved by the people across the state??
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Do you like to play holi or kite snatching online?
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Why do you like that option?
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What device do you usually use to play games - phone, tablet, laptop?
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Which app do you use to get coupons for local stores?
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Why do you use that app?
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What are some factors that you keep in mind when look for free coupons?
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What is something that you find irritating about playing games for coupons?
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Can you describe your happiness after playing a game and earning coupons from a favourite stores would be like?
Wrap Up Questions
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Is there anything that I missed that you would like to share?
Research Goal
We want to know what game should be included in the app to ensure that its users can perform their tasks with ease and have a good user experience while playing games and rewarded coupons.
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Participants
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5 participants in total: 2 male, 3 females
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Age: 18-50 years old
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Occupations: engineer, student, homemaker
Summary of findings from the user interviews:
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Three out of five participants discussed the need for more reliable source of getting coupons
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Three out of five participants expressed their frustration over the fact that the coupons they get are either fake or not profitable
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Four out of five participants explained that they would love to play kite snatching game online
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One out of five participants explained that they would love to play holi game online
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All of the participants preferred to use a mobile phones to play games.
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Four out of five participants likes to receive coupons of the local stores and retailers.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Define
The next step in the process is to define. With the research conducted thus far and the findings from the user interviews, We were able to figure out what will be created, for whom, and how.
​User Persona​
Empathy Map
In order to get further into behaviours, attitudes, and thoughts of the persona, we created an empathy map. This helped us bring the persona to life and examine the problems more carefully from the user’s perspective.
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Once we had user persona and empathy map ready, we took a step back to get a clear overview of both the business goals and the user goals. In addition to those goals, we wrote down the technical considerations as well.
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Project Goals
Ideation
USER STORY BOARD : According to the findings and surveys, I have created story boards : Big Picture and Close-up
Big Picture
Close-up Picture
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Design, Test, Iterate
PAPER WIREFRAMES: Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points.
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES: As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs.
LOW FIDELTY PROTOTYPES: Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype.
Screenshot of Lo-Fi Prototype
Working Lo-Fi Prototype:
LO-FI USER TESTING:
​Background summary: (Moderated User Testing on 7 users)
Research goals: We’d like to figure out what specific difficulties users encounter when they try to complete the core tasks of kite snatching game: Login, OTP submission, kite snatch, points check, pause the game, settings, share, like, achievements, cart etc.
Methodology:
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Facilitated in-lab usability testing with 7 users.
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Prepared consent from, questions to ask post testing.
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Each session took 5 mins to finish.
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Location was in- office, Ahmedabad
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Participants: Male/Female aged above 14.
01
How long does it take for a user to login?
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Are they able to play the game?
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Are users able to successfully reach to play page?
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Did they pause the game if required?
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Are users able to see their progress during the play in terms of time, points?
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Are there any parts of the process where users are getting stuck?
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Did they check for points and cart post play?
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Is this process easy for the customer?
Research Questions
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What can we learn from the user flow, or the steps that users take, to reach to final step, getting the coupons?
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Do users think the app is easy or difficult to use?
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Are there more features that users would like to see included in the app?
Key Performance Indicatiors (KPI)
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Time on task: how much time users spend in playing the game?
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User error rates: how often users get stuck trying to play and stop and find the coupons they won?
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Conversion rates: how many customers are reaching for coupons?
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System Usability Scale: A questionnaire to evaluate customer feedback
Participants will score the following ten statements by selecting one of five responses that range from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.”
Script
01
I think that I would play this game frequently.
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I need the support of a technical person to be able to use this app.
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I think the game is easy to use.
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I find the app easy to navigate.
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There is inconsistency within the app.
07
I feel confident using the app.
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I imagine that most people would learn to use this app quickly.
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I need to learn a lot of things before I can start using this app.
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I enjoyed using this app.
10
I would recommand my friends and family members to play the game and win the coupons.
​Note taking spreadsheet:
USABILITY STUDY : FINDINGS
Based on the excel sheet users need coupons mostly around the area of their choice so that they don’t have to travel a lot far away for using those coupons.
Supporting evidence from the usability study.
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It was observed that 4 out of 7 testers asked for coupons from the selected areas.
​Priority
Priority 0:
Based on the finding that area code needed to be ask to show up coupons for that particular area.
Priority 1:
NA
- Himal, Ahmedabad, India
"I would like to have a coupon mostly around the area where I live so that I don’t have to travel a lot for using those coupons in the stores."
- Amee, Ahmedabad, India
"I will want coupons nearer the area of my collage so that I can buy things after collage to home."
REFINING THE DESIGNS
MOCKUPS
Early designs allowed for some customization, but after the usability studies, I added additional pages to enter area code or location. I also revised the design so users see all the customization options when they first land on the screen.
Before usability study
After usability study
Information Architecture
UI Kit
HIGH- FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for submitting area code and get coupons within the radious of 5 kms of the area selected. It also met user needs for easy and fast step in to stores and happy gaming too.
Final Solution
