Overcoming Backlogs
Research
UX/UI
Prototyping
Usability Testing
This project proposes new features to help PlayStation App users overcome their feelings of anxiety associated with incomplete tasks and establish a healthier organized approach to tackle their backlog. The new features include making game progress information more readily available, being able to create custom game albums, the restructuring of the game library (to easily identify played and unplayed games), introducing game progress info on game cards, and highlight reels to help users remember where they left off in games.
My Role
UX Researcher and UX/UI Designer
Timeline
July 2024 - August 2024
(4 weeks)
*Working at a part-time schedule
Tools
Figma, Miro, Procreate, Lyssna, Illustrator, Photoshop
A way to conquer the toughest boss; The Backlog
Problem
Most Play Station gamers tend to buy games as they get released and a common issue is amassing a backlog that can feel never ending. Getting through the backlog can become daunting and difficult, especially when the player has limited time to play and does not know which one they want to prioritize. In its current state, the Play Station App does not offer any tools for gamers to catalogue games or to organize their game libraries. There is an opportunity to help Play Station App users tackle and organize their game backlogs because with increasing life responsibilities, getting through backlogs of uncompleted and unplayed games can be can be stressful and unfulfilling.
01. Discovery
Background
PlayStation App is a software application available for iOS and Android devices. It is a companion app for PlayStation video game consoles. The product provides access to PlayStation Network community features and remote control. Additionally, the product allows you to buy and download games into the console, chat with friends, keep up with latest releases and news, and save screen captures from your games.
This project started by talking with PlayStation App users about their gaming experience and getting through their backlogs
Research
In the research stage of this project, I wanted to understand the experiences of Playstation gamers with large backlogs of unplayed games, and identify features that could help them manage their backlogs in a stress-free and enjoyable manner. Another important aspect of this project was studying the PlayStation app. Because it is an existing product, I needed to analyze its design system so that the new features could seamlessly integrate and support its brand and UX/UI design.
During interviews, I learned that many users play games as a way of destress and escape from daily responsibilities. However, they often feel overwhelmed by the amount of games in their libraries that they have not been able complete or start yet. I also discovered users feel like they PS App game library is not very helpful with keeping track of games because they are not able to see their progress like they can on the console. The competitive analysis helped me understand the make up of the competition and any gaps in the market.
Studying the Play Station App
To start the research, it was important to understand the PS App and the features it offers for game tracking and organizing. I took many screenshots and lined them up in a sequence to analyze how the app was designed and flowed. Once I determined the key screens where my intervention would take place in, I built those screens as a starting point to dive deeper into its UI design and deciphering its structure.
The existing Play page, showcases most recently played games and a glimpse of the progress in the form of hours played and trophies collected. The existing Game Library has a subsection for played games and purchased. The user is also able to sort their games by purchase date and alphabetical order.
Identifying Gaps and Opportunities in the Market
After getting a better understanding of the app, I looked into existing products that offered game backlog tracking features and into other gaming console applications. This secondary research helped me see what features competitors offer their users, how their users are reviewing their features, and their overall UX/UI design. This would help me identify opportunities for the new features to help the PlayStation App stand out.
Direct Competitors
Xbox App:
The Xbox App is one of the biggest competitors for PlayStation App since it also acts as a companion of a popular gaming console. This app highlights the social aspect of gaming through different features to connect with other players. Users say it is visually pleasing and well designed. However, it does not provide any sophisticated game sorting tools beyond alphabetically, dated added and last played. The app does not have a backlog managing feature and it does not allow the viewer to see their game completion progress.
Backloggd, Grouvee, Infinite Backlog and GG:
These four online platforms were the most popular for keeping track of game backlogs. They all had similar organizational structures and overlapping features. Three of the platforms' design seemed in line with gaming console aesthetics and relatively modern, while one of them seemed quite outdated. Some of the most helpful features for users for managing backlogs were the ability to create custom backlog lists and tagging systems to catalog games. Nonetheless, users said the cataloguing systems were too intricate and used symbols that were not easily recognizable.
While some of these products provide tools for organizing game libraries and cataloguing games, users find the cataloguing systems not very useful because the symbols are not intuitive and do not distinguish between games in progress and not started. Users also said that because these products are not tied to a console, they are unable to see the game progress and need to manually mark games as completed.
Opportunities
Through this research I was able to identify gaps in the market for a cleaner way to visually catalogue games, organize game libraries and explore ways to show game progress, all within the PS App.
User Interviews
I spoke with five young adults in their late 20s with 10 to 30 games in their backlogs. Four participants actively used the PlayStation app to keep track of their games or buy new games, one participant used the Xbox app. Four of the interviews were conducted through video calls and the other one was done in person.
The interviews helped me identify patterns in their motivation to play games, how they feel about their backlog, what causes their backlogs to grow, their game selection process, backlog organization, pain points with the PlayStation App, and the impact of social interaction on their gaming experience.
Key Insights from affinity mapping
What motivates me to play games?
Most players play games as a pastime or as a way escape to everyday life and a way to immerse themselves in other worlds. Others said they viewed them as fun challenge where they can “accomplish something in a fictional world.” Some said they enjoyed being able to play with friends and family.
How do I feel about my backlog?
Some said they did not feel a pressing need to complete it, but they would like to because they felt sad they had many games they wish they had completed. Others said they felt overwhelmed and stressed because they own a lot of games they have not played, yet they keep buying more new games.
Keeping track of backlogs
Participants said they create mental lists of games that they need to finish first.Some organize their physical game cases in the order they want to play. Some said they looked at their library in both the app and console but that it could get confusing at times because all the games appear even if they have been deleted.
Game Selection Process
Participants said they usually pick games by what genre they are feeling, by what is popular at the moment, by friend recommendations, or if they saw a clip of it on youtube/social media. Some also said that they will consider what to play based on the last time they played that game or how far along they are in the game.
Forgetting Game Progress
Sometimes participants played multiple games at once, switching between games, but they found it took away from the experience because of the lack of continuity. They also said that when they stop playing a game for a while, they forget about their progress and end up playing something else.
Opinions on the PlayStation App
People like that you can purchase games through it and download to the console. Some use the app to look at their trophies and view what games they have. Most like the UI design and think it is easy to use/navigate.
What features would you like to see?
Users would like to be able to make collections of backlog games. They would also like “Featured section” in the homepage that shows last games played and a preview of where they left off as a way to remind gamers what they did last in the game. They'd also like to see game progress.
User Personas
Based on my learnings so far, I developed two user personas: Jordan, an avid video game player who purchases games as they come out and is struggling to keep up with his ever growing backlog. There's also Maya, a young professional who has trouble with with completing the games in her backlog because she often forgets where she left off after not playing for a while.
User Journey Maps
Once I had developed the two personas, I delved deeper into understanding their struggles by creating user journey maps to identify at what stages their pain points occur. I discovered that Jordan's biggest problem is how his game library feels disorganized to him since all games, despite being at different levels of completion and genres, are stored in the same list. For Maya, she had not played games in a few months so when she came back to pick of where she left off, she didn't remember so she decided to start a new one and put already started game son her backlog.
02. Define
How might we provide tools to manage and motivate PlayStation users to complete their game backlogs so that they can get through all their in-progress and unplayed games, and overcome feelings of stress and unfulfillment?
Site Map
I started materializing ideas by creating an initial site map outlining the structure of the app and defining where the new features would fit.
User Flow
With a clear understanding of what the PS App is structured and where the new features could fit into, I delved deeper into outlining a user flow for one of the product’s main new features.
03. Ideate
Sketching Design Ideas
After designing the architecture of the site and identifying an important user flow, I finally started to draw what these screens would look like for the main pages and user flow; creating a new game album. I also drew ideas of how to add game progress information into the game cards at the Play page, and how bringing game profiles from the console into the app would look like with additional details.
Mid-Fi Wireframes
After sketching the main screens, I moved onto digitalizing them, refining them and making any additional needed screens.
Mid-Fi Usability Testing
The goal was to test how smooth or difficult, and how long participants take to complete a task. I also wanted to know how they felt about the UI design. The test results were used to further develop the task flows and prototype.
The usability tests were conducted asynchronously with 5 participants.
1
Create an Album
2
Find backlog
3
Open game profile to see progress
In general, users said the tasks were straightforward and easy to use.They thought the new additions to the PS App make it feel more like a companion to the console than without the proposed features. Users found the new features to be useful for managing their backlogs and game libraries.
Suggestions
Task 1:
To have a task where they are able to add and remove games from an album, and to make the central image in the first screen of the create an album task clickable.
Task 2:
To reduce the tabs in the game library to avoid confusion between "in progress" and "my backlog."
Task 3:
To make the highlight reels downloadable because they could be useful for content creators.
All this feedback was used to build the high fidelity prototype for a second round of testing.
04. UI
UI Library
Since the PlayStation App is an existing product with an established brand, it was important to create new elements that seamlessly incorporated into the existing. To do this, I utilized the components I had built during the research stage and added to or modified them to support the new features. This process was fun because I had to go back to the console UI and bring in icons and elements into the app that were not there before and incorporate them in different ways.
Create New Album Screen Image
05. Prototype
Hi-Fi Wireframes and Prototype
After synthesizing the mid-fi usability test results and creating UI components for the new features, it was time to create refined versions of the wireframes.
Once I had designed all the necessary screens, I proceeded to create a prototype of the product with five task flows that would be tested.
A Closer Look at the New Play Page and
Game Library
06. Validate
Hi-Fi Usability Testing
In this second round of testing, the goal was to retest the previous flows with completed screen designs and to test two new ones. The feedback received from the first round of testing was incorporated.
The usability tests were conducted asynchronously with 5 participants.
1
Find your backlog
2
Create a new game album
3
Find your new album
4
Adding and removing games from a game album
5
View highlight reel for a game
Overall, participants were pleased with the features and where they had been located within the app and thought they were easy to navigate.
Suggestions
Participants had suggestions to better improve the tested flows.
I consider this round of testing to be successful because users said they would like to see the new features implemented in the PlayStation App. They also said they liked the new icons that helped identify game progression and install status of digital games in their library.
Learnings and Next Steps
There are many opportunities to continue developing the new features. Since the current design is an MVP, there were some additional functions that I was not able to design for. Some of those functions would be for users being able to pin games to the top of their game library and albums, adding a search bar to the game library, and adding smart notifications to remind users about games they have not played in a while.
