Within the reimagination of the UI of Smeet the Slot Machines redesign was one of the mayor priorities.
Role
UX/UI Design
Genre
Social Game
Engine
In-House Engine
Tools
Photoshop, Flash, Figma, Miro
Team Size
1
Duration
Jan 2023 – Nov 2023
Platform
PC, Web Browser, Android,
macOS, iOS
The Social Game Smeet focuses on fostering connections through chat, collaborative challenges, and international events. It’s free to play, with additional features available through premium memberships.
The casino, a favorite feature among users, needed to be reimagined to maintain its appeal while elevating the overall playing experience.
Besides an overall modernization, the new design should heighten engagement and retention through an optimized flow and improvement for Cross-Platform Play.
In addition to addressing the technical aspects, the project also focused on enhancing the emotional design. This space needs to feel like a luxurious environment, reflecting the excitement and prestige of a high-end casino.
The project requires a careful balance of fun and responsibility. Due to the gambling aspect, it demands thoughtful and respectful handling to ensure the design promotes an enjoyable and safe user experience.
The older engine has technical limitations, requiring significant adjustments to integrate modern design elements and features without breaking existing functionality.
To gain a deeper understanding of our target audience, I developed user personas to inform and guide design decisions. I conducted a comprehensive evaluation of both competitor products and the current product to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. Additionally, I created a journey map for the existing slot machine, which helped pinpoint areas where the updated version required a fresh approach and revealed opportunities to address and eliminate pain points.
A strong understanding of user needs and close engagement with the user base allowed for an expedited wireframing phase. The initial low-fidelity prototype was quickly developed and subjected to A/B testing, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback. Over time, the prototype underwent several iterations, continuously refined based on user input and data insights. This phase provided an opportunity to experiment with various design variations, enabling me to identify the solutions that worked best for the users.
Based on the data analysis of the status quo from user feedback, game analytics, and usability testing data, some important alterations stood out. Users identified the slot machines as unfair, not visually compelling, and no feeling of luxury came up. A changed UI and balancing were able to fix the most significant issues.
I designed and maintained reusable components to streamline development, ensuring a consistent user experience while allowing for the easy replacement of key elements to implement seasonal themes. Determining the technical specifications for these components was essential to make theme updates seamless. Balancing adherence to the game’s design guidelines with the delivery of a stylized, high-fidelity aesthetic proved to be one of the more challenging aspects of the development process.
Even with the lower fidelity prototype, users were eager to invest, and user engagement increased up to 100% more.
Themed slot machines enhanced competitive mechanics, allowing users to support their team by choosing a corresponding machine (A-Team vs. B-Team).
