Fooya

A team of 3 students and I were assigned to a client, FriendsLearn, who is developing a gaming app called “Fooya!” that encourages healthier eating habits for children under 9.

While the client’s product was already public, the client approached us with two main problems:

  1. Certain features being underused.
  2. User engagement drops over prolonged use.

While I cannot share details due to NDA, I tried my best to summarize our work.

Goals

  • Identify the factors that drive user engagement.
  • Explore game mechanics that contribute to or detract from usability.
  • Align navigation and control with user mental models to remedy existing control errors.

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My Role

I was the Lead UX Researcher and Lead Designer for the control scheme. Here, I took the lead in competitive analysis, affinity mapping, persona development, as well as designing new game play controls.

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Methodology

  • Understanding
    • Heuristic analysis
    • Competitive Analysis
    • User interviews + Affinity map
    • Persona
  • Ideation
    • Interface Re-Design (wireframe, lofi prototype,  hifi prototype)
    • Controls Scheme Overhaul(wireframe, lofi prototype, midfi prototype)
  • Validation
    • User Testing
    • Design Revision

Photos have been blurred due to NDA.

After a series of user interviews, we made affinity maps to understand who are users are, their habits, goals, and challenges.

Using the interview data, a persona was created to re-evaluate user groups and their current paint points.

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Takeaways

Without sharing any confidential information, we worked with our client closely to deliver implementable designs that would vastly improve upon their product. Here are some takeaways:

  • I had never worked with a real client prior to this project, and learned that communicating research and design process is a real responsibility.
  • Our team had never designed for a game product before, and learned that much of what we know about UX theories can be adapted for gaming as well. I used this heavily during my control scheme design process.
  • Because the target user base is not typical (PreK to Elementary), the user interview process took extra effort. It was still a charming experience nonetheless!