8 months
Research, UX/UI Design
Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing, Surveys, User Flows & Sitemap, Competitor Analysis
Figma, OptimalSort, UsabilityHub
As part of my UX Design course at Careerfoundry, I am designing a social scavenger hunt web app called On the Hunt. The main goal for this project is to create a responsive web app that allows users to create and play social scavenger hunt games while they are on the go.
When someone moves to a new area it can be quite daunting to meet people especially if they are not accustomed to their new surroundings. They need a way to socialise with people who can also guide them through their local city and help them understand the new space that they are living in.
We will know this to be true when we see that they are actively engaging in their community and joining in on group activities around their neighbourhood.
On the Hunt aims to provide a unique social experience where people can learn and explore their local environments through social scavenger hunt games. Users can create games from a wide variety of missions or even find hunts where they can join teams with other locals
Utilising a user centred design process
GooseChase and Actionbound were the most notable apps in the social scavenger hunt game market. It is for this reason that I chose to analyse them and gather an overall understanding of their unique functionalities and design. Nevertheless, it was promising to see that there was an untapped market for a truly responsive web app that provided users the ability to create and play social scavenger hunts.
Surveys were distributed to the public, so that I could gather insights into the users' attitudes around social scavenger hunt games and how interested they were in participating in them. 13 responses were provided in which 61.5% were in the 26-35 age group and 38.5% were between 18-25 years old.
Discover user attitudes
Explore the users attitude towards making new friends and the new area they have recently moved into
Analyse Competitors
Discover the strengths and weaknesses users have experienced in playing other social scavenger hunt games
Find user interests
Uncover if users are interested in playing outdoor interactive games
To develop a greater understanding of the target market, one on one interviews with people who have recently moved into a new area were conducted. I wanted to identify the social barriers that they come across when moving to a new area and uncover any pain points or motivations they have surrounding existing products currently on the market.
It is clear that playing social scavenger hunt games is a niche market.
Friends are very influential in their decision making process.
Most are put off with the perceived high level of effort and commitment that social scavenger hunt games require.
Many responses indicated they would play scavenger hunt games if there was a reward
The findings from the user interviews were then collected and organised into an affinity map, based on the interesting themes present in most of the participants' responses.
Scavenger hunt games require time and physical and mental effort, which may not appeal to those who might just want to relax
Those who live closer to their friends have little desire to meet people. Whereas being further away from your friends leads to a greater desire to meet new people and socialise
Participants see the value in getting to know the new area they are living in and meeting its’ locals
Participants must feel safe when playing by themselves or with another person
COVID makes it hard for people to access certain locations
It has to create a fun and interactive way for them to learn about their new area
Based on the research, two distinct user personas were created to help paint a picture on who we are designing for. Let’s meet Yasmine and Sean!
A user journey map was then created for each persona to help visualise the processes the user would go through in order to accomplish their goals. This created a memorable narrative where I could focus on how to help the user reach these goals.
Before I start creating any mock ups, I mapped out the user flow for each persona so that I could understand the types of actions they must take in order to achieve their goals.After reviewing the user personas journey and flow, I created a sitemap outlining the primary pages of On the Hunt. The sitemap was later refined based on the results from an open card sorting study.
I have chosen to conduct an open card sorting to uncover how a user organises and distinguishes pieces of information from each other. This will help me to gain insight into the users mental models to create a better and more logical site structure for my web app. During this exercise participants will sort and group 25 cards into categories that make sense to them and label them accordingly.
After analysing the results from my open card sorting study, I have revised in the following areas:
Streamlined a lot the sections by removing duplicate pages and connected them
The “My games” section now houses the option for users to create new games and edit saved games, to minimise the need for extra pages
Revised the page names so users can distinguish between each section
“My Profile” is now a simple account and setting page
Based on the revised sitemap, I started sketching out several low fidelity designs and turned them into mid-fidelity prototypes using Figma. As I continued to review the features of On the Hunt, further reiterations were made during the mid-fidelity and high fidelity prototyping stage.
Moderated in-person usability tests were conducted on 6 participants to observe the level of learnability and efficiency participants had when trying to complete certain tasks on On the Hunt for the first time.
Find a social scavenger hunt game in your local area
Create a new game that you want to play with your friends
Join the game and select the team you want to play in
Enter in the game code to start playing the game
As each participant completed the same tasks on both small screens (mobile) and large screens (desktop), I took notes on their behaviours and any general feedback they had about the web app. The audio and screen recordings were then extracted and analysed to create an affinity map and later organised into a rainbow spreadsheet to help further clarify these observations.
After categorising the results into a rainbow spreadsheet, I prioritised the top 4 issues raised by participants during the usability tests. The impacted screens went through further revisions and later validated through a preference test.
Too many steps required to create a game: Implementing a progress bar will help users track how many steps they have left in creating a game
Didn't see ‘more info’ option on the search results: Create clickable tiles and direct users to a new page with the detailed information.
Unsure about how to go back to homepage: Rename the dashboard page to ‘My Games’ and revise the navigation bar to include a ‘Home’ link
‘Choose player mode’ option showing on multiple pages: Direct users to a new page instead of positioning the next step below the 'Choose player mode' option.
In this stage of the design process, I utilised visual principles and adhered to Material Design guidelines to improve visual design and further refine the web app for optimal user experience. The newly amended prototypes were then provided to peers to gather feedback and from there I revised prototypes accordingly based on their recommendations.
A style guide and design language system was built to establish clear guidelines on the visual and brand identity of On the Hunt.
At last, the final screens are created and updated to accessibility guidelines to ensure fairness and inclusivity for all types of users. Below is the final result! Check out the final prototypes for Mobile and Desktop here.
Learn how to create a new game in 3 easy steps. Users will get a more hands-on experience as they set up a test game themselves and see how truly seamless it is to create their own social scavenger hunt.
See what the neighbourhood has to offer and find local hunts nearby. Games can also be saved for later, so that users can play whenever it is convenient for them.
There are 6 different mission types for users to create games with, giving them the flexibility to design the ultimate social scavenger hunt.
For quick and easy access into private games, users can enter in the game code provided to them. They can also keep track of what they have submitted for each mission or even check who is in the lead.
Since this is a responsive web app users can also access On the hunt on their web browser on large and small screens.
Looking back, one of the things that I would do differently is to address accessibility guidelines in the early phases of wireframing as this would have saved me a lot of time and avoided errors that would disadvantage those with physical or cognitive impairments.
Secondly, I would like to improve my communication during the usability testing phases as I didn’t give clear or concise enough instructions and in turn confused several participants during testing. This is a skill that I believe will improve overtime as I get more exposure and practice.
There have been many amendments made to the prototype since the last usability testing phase, so I would like to do another round of testing and feedback to further validate my design decisions. From there, I would also like to develop and test the secondary features of On the Hunt such as:
• Profile
• Game invites
• Game chatroom
• Share to social media
