Creating an infrastructure platform for game developers
About The Project
Overview
My journey with WAZP started with a challenging project already moving full speed ahead, with a minimum viable product already developed and many other features in progress. The project had a two-year roadmap plan approved by management and aimed to create a platform to optimize game infrastructure creation for developers.
The challenge
The company's strategy with WAZP aimed to bring together small, talented game studios from around the globe to work inside our product, offering them an environment conducive to optimizing their game infrastructure using WAZP technology. The business goal was to have at least one game project created within the WAZP platform within three months of its launch. My goal was to provide an understanding of the entire platform across strategic design and build all the interfaces prioritizing user experience.
Discovery & Ideation
Desk research - discovering product vision across
When I joined the team, several ongoing products and different opinions about the potential solutions were causing confusion and doubts about the roadmap. To streamline the process, I decided to do desk research, gathering information from multiple documents and consolidating it into a single document outlining the product strategy and possible solutions.
After collecting and organizing all the gatherings into a clear document, I shared it with product directors to validate our approach. This process helped us to clarify any doubts and enabled us to move forward with greater focus and product maturity.
Journey Map - Understanding Users’ Needs
Once the roadmap was clearly defined and agreed upon with the team, I took the initiative to validate the user journeys and ensure that our Minimum Viable Project had a solid information architecture.
To achieve this, I conducted a dynamic session with five users to capture their complete journey and understand their needs regarding features, problems, insights, and feelings about the current flow.
Journey map - conclusion
The journey map helped us better understand the users’ needs and allowed us to make informed decisions
on which features to prioritize.
Removing the Game Phase Transition feature from the roadmap, as each User Journey may be
different from the others.Improving key decisions related to hierarchy features, sidebar menu, and navigation between projects
and companies.Prioritizing important features like Metagame Service, Configuration, and Experimentation.
Information architecture
Having gained a deeper understanding of the product and user needs, I moved on to developing the information architecture to improve the platform's functionality and user experience.
Prototype
Navigation enhancements
After gaining a comprehensive understanding of user needs and flows, we were finally able to start implementing the platform improvements.
Old navigation problems
In the old navigation, the links were separated by tabs, and it was difficult to get to the next hierarchy of subpages when necessary.
Projects were in the header, in the same hierarchy as a company, although they should be in a lower hierarchy.
Submenus needed to be open with a dropdown component, making it difficult to navigate as the product grows.
New navigation solutions
New main navigation links have been added to the menu, separating functions that make more sense for game developers.
Now the project is hierarchically under the companies, which makes more sense for navigation.
Now the submenu opens next to the menu without interfering with the main menu navigation.
Metagame server
Metagame Server was mapped by the users as an important feature to prioritize to enable the backend to provide rewards and feedback inside a game environment.
Experimentation platform
The Experimentation Platform was developed to address users' needs regarding A/B testing, allowing for the collection of valuable data on game usability and interaction.
Usability tests
Every time we finished a feature development we recruited at least 5 users to conduct
a usability test to validate the prototype.
Conclusion
Survey
After all the changes, we were able to check user satisfaction with a survey, and we had a pleasant conclusion:
76,5% of persons voted 10.
11,8% of persons voted 9.
11,8% of persons voted 8.
Access the Complete Survey Answers
Business goal and KPIs validation
After implementing the changes, we successfully met the business goal. Upon validating the KPIs, we arrived at a positive conclusion:
Objective: at least five games will be created until April 30
Result: 4 Studios created a project until April 30.Objective: at least two games using built-in analytics.
Result: 3 games were created using built-in analytics.Objective: all game infrastructure should be created in less than 1 hour.
Result: The average of a game creation was in 3 hours.
Objective
Ensure 50% of users complete onboarding within one week.
Result
Exceeded expectations, with 80% of students and parents completing the onboarding process within one week.