Jiaqi Wu | UI/UX Designer
Zynga · Wizard of Oz · Pet Feature
Build Emotional Connection with Users
UX Vision
Create an emotional bond with players, invigorate otherwise monotonous tasks in game, and increase long term retention.
Why?
A cute face to look forward to
As WoZ grew to be an old game, many of our users find themselves having a very rigid routine in the game. They've maxed out their levels and there's very little new to look forward to when opening the game.
How?
Emotional Tie · RPG Element
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Introduce a beloved character from the IP
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Build interaction around the character
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Translate mundane actions in game into growth process of the character
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Character boosts player's game and acts as an emotional proxy
About Emotional Design
According to Don Norman's book, there are 3 levels of emotional design:
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Visceral: the first impressions
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Behavioral: when players interact with the product
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Reflective: the after thoughts
Desire
According to pre-production survey, more than 90% of the players were very receptive to the idea of seeing a virtual pet in the game.
Users
2 Personas
I conducted 12 phone interviews with our VIP players, due to time and resource constraints we only created 2 personas for this project: the explorer who like to wonder around in the game and the Eyes on the Prize who values more what they can get from the feature.
The Explorer
She likes to explore around the game when money's running low. Tries to eliminates all the red dots to pick up additional money to extend the play and see what the game has to offer.
Eyes on the Prize
She plays the game for the thrill of winning. When comes across new contents, she evaluates it through the lens of profitability. If it doesn't make her more money, she's not interested.
The overview
User flow map for the feature
Meet your new pet!
Strike a good impression
First impression matters! In the visceral part of the emotional design, we hope to strike a strong and positive impression to get players intrigued and emotionally invested. The feature opens with an interactive dialogue with your pet, and ends with you giving your new pet a name.
3 Iterations
Interact with your pet
We spent the most time on the main dialogue of this feature which determines how players interact with their pet. Here are the main points we tried to cover on this screen:
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Feed the pet to activate perks that can help you in the game
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Level up the pet to unlock and upgrade perks
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Get free treats on the screen
Iteration 1
Missing the focus: in this iteration, we were focusing on presenting the information clearly, all the different perks, what levels are they on, what's currently active, etc. However, upon examing it we felt it focuses too much on the perks info. The giant color-coded bar takes all the focus on the screen and players might lose sight of the adorable pet who's supposed to be the main character and the main CTA button.
Iteration 2
Missing the demographic: in this iteration, we give the pet a much more prominent spot and kept the CTA in the spot that's easiest to reach. But upon sharing this with internal play testers, we found that this version might be too complicated for our casual demographic - it resembles something you might see in a mid-core game.
Iteration 3
The winning version: we simplied the design to have clearer grouping of information and focus. The pet doesn't feel like it's being confined in a box anymore and there's no multiple bars players need to pay attention to.
Your virtual companion
While playing the game
When playing the game, your new pet will be there with you, cheer for you and celebrate your wins with you! We did several iterations on this screen as well and ultimately settled on a version that only shows the most important information - the hunger level, and let the cuteness of the pet do its own work.
Showcase
What's in game
Result
The Pet feature brought really positive lift on retention and player engagement to the game :)
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