Understanding the issue through player research

In order to understand the issues with the upgrade system, I conducted a usability test with the upgrade systems with existing and new players.

My team also conducted a diary study with another group of players to get their feedback on the experience for the first 10 days of playing the game.

CURRENT EXPERIENCE

RESEARCH FINDINGS

1. Participants found this experience to be too confusing because there’s a lot to absorb with many elements on the screen.
2. A clear relationship to the parts of the weapon being upgraded and the value of the result was not apparent to users.
3. Players didn’t like the progress bars being in a subview and they felt it was important information.
4. The process of upgrading involved repetitive actions, including having to go through many gameplay loops to gather items needed to complete the upgrade process.
5. Players didn’t know where to earn resources to complete upgrades.
6. If players wanted to use real money to buy those items, they had to navigate to the game’s store to purchase them.

Defining player needs & a hypothesis

Taking the data and findings from the research study, I defined our player needs and formulated a hypothesis to guide the design.

PLAYER NEEDS

1. Reduce the cognitive load in the experience so players can clearly understand the information.
2. Clearly illustrate the value and the effect of an upgrade, allowing players to know the benefit of their decision.
3. Allow players, who want to spend real money, to automatically purchase resources within the upgrade experience, so they do not have to leave it, making the process less repetitive and time consuming for players.
4. If players cannot spend money, show them where they can earn the resources by playing the game, making it easier for them to know where to search as opposed to spending time wondering.

HYPOTHESIS

By reducing the cognitive load and making design adjustments to the upgrade process of the original design developed and created for an existing Chinese audience, we can improve the performance and the player experience of the U.S. version for a new and developing western audience.

Reduced cognitive load by removing superfluous elements and organized all the weapon attributes into a single screen

Added progress bars to clearly communicate the current levels

The selected attribute and the effect of the upgrade is clearly shown in green with the progress bar and numeric value.

Paying players can immediately pay for missing resources within the upgrade experience, by selecting “Buy missing components.”

If players want to earn the resources and not spend money, tapping “Earn components” opens a modal, showing what parts of the game they could win them.

This modal shows where players can earn specific resources in the game to complete their upgrade.

Conclusions

User testing on the redesigned upgrade system yielded positive feedback, driving higher adoption and boosting overall revenue during our subsequent release. Still, the project offered a vital lesson for Glu. Success in China did not translate to the US market, proving that reskinning a game is not enough. Adapting a product for a new audience requires reevaluating and tailoring its core mechanics to match local player expectations.