Thanks for checking out my portfolio.
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Thanks for checking out my portfolio.
I promise I’m fun to work with.
ROLE:
As the sole UI/UX designer for Ingress, I had to research our players’ expectations, needs, and pain points of the the game, as well as creating methods to achieve our own objectives. I also designed and created wireframes, UX flows, UI Art and Design, buttons, icons, dialogues, and layouts.
BACKGROUND:
Ingress has a cult following with an extremely passionate player base. The original game, Ingress, was replaced by Ingress:Prime as its successor. Most players transferred over from the original Ingress, and new players learned about the game via word of mouth. However, there was a lot of negative feedback about the UI/UX of Ingress:Prime that eventually drove away some players, and the game’s UI/UX has not been updated since the launch of Ingress:Prime. Although the game still has a large active player base, its performance has been gradually decreasing over time.
I joined the team when the game was in its 8th year during the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic and many parts of the world were in quarantine. It was a heavy blow to the team as the game heavily depends on social interaction and travel. We had to figure out different methods to keep players engaged and revenue steady with minimal travel and interaction. At the same time, the company developed a lot of interesting AR capabilities that had to be implemented into the game.
KEY OBJECTIVES:
Increase DAU, player retention, revenue, and new players. Also to introduce the players to new AR tech in the game and gather feedback.
PAIN POINTS:
Confusing UI/UX. Unless you have a seasoned player helping you learn, it is very difficult for new players to understand what each icon means. There is also a lot of hidden gestures with the touch interface that a vast majority of players don’t even know about.
Players have been playing for over 8 years and are generally afraid of change. There were incredible amounts of pushback from veteran players over every single change. However, this resulted in the game being gatekept from new players.
The AR tech was not 100% solid. Niantic wanted to test the tech in Ingress first before implementing it in Pokemon Go.
SOLUTIONS:
To increase revenue-
The team wanted to encourage players to visit more Portals and upload scans. We also decided that the game was due for a redesign of the Store to be more user friendly.
To increase DAU-
The team decided to encourage play by allowing the players to unlock rewards for specific actions. We also decided to implement changes that were “quality of life” improvements.
To increase New Users-
Introduce new tech and new features to the game. These need to be gradual changes so the player base won’t feel shocked.
FEATURE: Scan Upload Management System
A system that allows players to store their Portal Scans to upload later when they have WiFi connection
FEATURE: Adventure Sync - Weekly FitREP
A weekly pop up appears on launch that summarizes the player’s weekly total distance traveled and status of Kinetic Capsule
FEATURE: Portal Scan Meter
A progress meter that shows how many scans has been uploaded to a Portal, and what mods will be applied to the Portal once the meter is filled
FEATURE: Store Redesign
A redesign of the game’s store which address current issues, and also encourages more players to make more purchases
FEATURE: Quests System
A system that allows players to view upcoming quests, available quests, quest details, quest progress, and completed quests
