
Timeline
July 2022 - September 2022
My Role
Lead UX designer, UX researcher designing an app from conception to delivery.
Project Vision
Retro Rabbit is a game preview app for an arcade. We strive to provide quick, available and fun previews of classic and modern games for everyday use.
The Problem
The working adult needs an app preview that allows them to preview new game content at a quicker pace for their busy lifestyle.

The Goal
Design an app for Retro Rabbit that allows users to preview and access their favorite games anywhere, anytime. In this project, I took a goal-directed design approach that proved to be quite effective in the design efforts. I conducted interviews, created paper and digital wire-framing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs. I began by asking some initial key questions to help expand upon the results obtained from the qualitative and quantitative data research.
“What is the product and who is it for?”
“What challenges could I face moving forward?”
“Who are our biggest competitors?”
“What do our users need the most?”

I conducted online research and personal interviews to collect current data based on the average type of mobile gamer (internationally, and locally). The primary group of mobile gamers consisted of adult women who play games in their spare time. I then used an affinity diagram to separate the data into groups of tasks which were further categorized by high level goals for improvement in the apps navigation, accessibility, and page format. Recognizing the conflicts of interest from each audience allowed me to focus on shaping user goals and how those goals would in-turn also affect the app.

Age: 36 years old | Education: BA Business Degree
Primary Persona
User Story:
Jennifer is a full-time mom of an 8 year old son, as well as a part time Etsy shop owner. She is constantly helping her son with school work, and after school activities. The limited down time she has is spent working on her Etsy shop, creating custom t-shirt designs to achieve another form of income. She wishes to spend less time searching for the best games by researching, and instead trusting the reviews her app provides. Her eye site is not exactly the best, so assisted reading technology would be a plus using her gaming app, as well as quicker and more easily accessible preview to future games. She wants to be able to find her favorite types of games quicker, so she can spend more time playing her games than searching for them.
Jennifer's Goals
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To relieve stress from everyday challenges, and activities
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To easily access, quickly preview and save games for their free time later on
Jennifer's Frustrations
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“I wish arcade game previews were easier to view, and had reviews.”
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“I wish it was easier to find the types of games I like and save the games. I have limited free time and want to spend it playing games not searching for them.”
Secondary Persona
User Story:
Michael has a pretty fun and easy going lifestyle being a professional Vlogger. His goal is to find the best games out there and give his viewers his own review of each one. He wants to be able to easily access apps from anywhere in NY while he is working (dog walking) so he can save and review his games for later. He relies on easily downloadable, and accessible previews to comb through later for his Vlog. A customizable filter search for finding new games would be beneficial to his search. He wants to be able to find his favorite types of games quicker so he can spend more time reviewing them for his vlog.

Age: 30 years old | Education: Associates in L.A.
Michael's Goals
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Wants to be easily immersed into a new character or world through the instant preview
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To quickly save and review games to share on Youtube
Michael's Frustrations
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“I wish the platform was easier to share with others."
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“I wish there were better filters, and a profile I can save all the games I want to for later.”
User Journey

Design an app for Retro Rabbit that allows users to preview and access their favorite games anywhere, anytime. In this project, I took a goal-directed design approach that proved to be quite effective in the design efforts. Mapping Jennifer’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be to have multiple accessibility options for people with different types of disabilities.
Wire-framing & Flow

After sketching out some p&p wire-frames and thinking through the preliminary flow, we reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary , and what areas needed improvement. I poured a lot of time into this step to make sure I had the finishing touches on the underlying UX before moving onto the visuals.
Iteration
After creating the low-fidelity prototype from my wire-frames, I prepared a questionnaire for participants to fill out before I began conducting a usability test. I asked 5 - 8 different participants to run through different scenarios in the prototype in hopes of gathering enough feedback to use for the next set of design iterations.
3 Major Improvements To My Design

Challenge 1 | Visual Appearance
By adding proper animations, slideshows, and adjusted colors on the navigation bar at the top to display page; the user is able to navigate easier throughout the app.

Challenge 2 | Accessibility
Using detailed imagery with popular and modern games helps give users a better understanding and intention of the app. The use of a color palette that is better suited for users with visual impairments, or color blindness was also implicated.

Challenge 3 | Navigation
A more commonly recognizable icon scheme was developed to help make navigation easier. By simplifying the navigation at the top, it made maneuvering through the app easier.
The Style Guide

Takeaways
As someone who grew up playing video games and arcade games, Retro Rabbit is an idea that is near and dear to my heart. I wanted to communicate the importance of expressing oneself through different creative outlets. This was my first time using the goal-directed design process, and I can definitely see it being useful in future projects.


