A UX Overhaul: Upgrading GamerTrainer

Background.

GamerTrainer is an online service that connects eager gamers to professional esports coaches for private lessons. The young founder, Stephen Gheysens, has an MVP product in BETA, but is otherwise having trouble getting his business off the ground.  

Role.

Javi Calderon: Research, visual (homepage and presentation) design.
Michael Asaro:  Research, onboarding clickable prototype. 

Methods. 

Interviews, competitor research, market research, feature analysis, personas, user flows, user stories, affinity mapping, mood board & style guide, user testing... 

Deliverables.

- Business analysis & suggestions

- Clickable onboarding prototype

- Homepage redesign

- Marketing & transactional email templates

- Keyword research

- Language for parents*

Current.

Redesign. 

Story. 

In our initial interview, Stephen mentioned several hangups that are preventing the growth of the business - specifically, the lack of... 

• A fleshed out on-boarding process
• Marketing
• Visibility
• An articulated business plan
• Resources

We started by conducting extensive competitor research to identify and assess key players in the space. This allowed us to perform a feature analysis to see how GamerTrainer stacked up in terms of functionality. 

After looking at the feature sets of the major competitors we could better assess GamerTrainer's current features and needs. 

This analysis showed us great opportunities, both in terms of homepage information and functionality for the platform. Features like video courses, blog content and an online community were identified as high impact features that could keep users on the platform longer, develop more consistent revenue, and help GamerTrainer become more of a resource within the industry.  

With a better understanding of the business needs, competition and opportunities, it was time to take a look at the users. After speaking with Stephen, his top coach and counselor (Eosin), and several serious gamers, we were able to gain insight into the industry and GamerTrainer's user needs. This allowed us to create user personas to make sure we were keeping their needs top of mind: 

Instead of focusing our solution on users who want to become pro gamers, our feedback from Eosin was that the vast majority (guestimate 80%) of players who are interested in coaching are not aiming to become pro players at all. They simply want to get better at their game. So we focused on our Phil persona, with our other personas providing additional context. 

We also built out personas for a 10-12 year old gamer, a parent of young gamers, and a female gamer. However, due to the challenge of convincing parents to financially invest in gaming, and the feedback we received from Eosin - who claimed that female gamers have been reluctant to invest in coaching - we chose to focus on financially independent male gamers. 

With our top personas in mind, we developed user stories to help us hone in on their key goals and tasks.
Armed with the many insights from our research, interviews, personas and user stories, we were able to implement affinity mapping in order to get a sense of the appropriate information architecture for our redesigned homepage. 

We were now ready to start thinking big picture about our solution. To start wrapping our heads around the design, I went through some mood board exercises. What was the mood, look and feel we wanted to convey with this product? We wanted to make sure that the experience was comfortable and attractive to big time gamers.  

This approach was focused on dark backgrounds that played on light for accent. Over the dark backgrounds we chose to accent with bright, semi-neon pink and green hues.  This design was inspired by apps like Netflix, Xbox Live, Apple TV, and competitor homepages.

With a strong visual direction in place, we were ready to design. 

The final homepage features bold imagery that evokes wonder, opportunity and solitude. The mix of astronomic imagery, powerful game scenes, and simple dark backgrounds creates an experience that begs users to continue exploring down the page. 

The information architecture is designed to allow users easy access to resources, while using the homepage as a marketing tool that provides prospective users with all the information they need in order to take the next step with the service.