Blint | Design of a mobile app game
My start in the startup
I joined Blint in May 2022 as a Senior UX/UI Designer. Due to my experience working in a dynamic startup environment and designing complex mobile applications like Chuttle, I was confident I could provide value to this project.
Chuttle's case study:
https://dribbble.com/shots/19769520-Chuttle-Design-of-a-social-mobile-app
As a full-stack designer, I had to go through the whole product design process, from user research to user testing.
Market analysis
Before I started working on the project, I had to analyse the situation in the game industry market, and according to research by Newzoo, The mobile gaming industry is on track to surpass $100 billion in revenue this year.
By April 2022, mobile gaming already covers 45% of the market share. The company I've been working for decided it was an excellent time to follow this trend and develop a new casual mobile PvP game.
Blockchain Games Trend
There are plenty of different mobile games on the market. Still, mobile games based on blockchain is a new trend. Our startup wanted to take place in this niche by developing a play-to-earn mobile game with an option of crypto betting and including NFT by selling avatar skins, boards, chips and other game assets as it's also a massive trend of the last couple of years.
User research
Due to my user research, I realised that our target audience isn't just gamers but primarily people that work with crypto, like gambling, take risks and mainly play games on their mobile phones.
Luckily, we had a couple of people within our startup who were related to the crypto industry, and they had connections with the target audience. I interviewed those two people within our team to find out their perspectives on games that are based on blockchain.
I also knew a couple of more people from the crypto world, and I interviewed them. Most people related to the crypto world and blockchain prefer to stay anonymous, so anonymous surveys and questionnaires are the best way to collect data from them.
Blockchain games trend
There are plenty of different mobile games on the market. Still, mobile games based on blockchain is a new trend. Our startup wanted to take place in this niche by developing a play-to-earn mobile game with an option of crypto betting and including NFT by selling avatar skins, boards, chips and other game assets, as it's also a massive trend of the last couple of years.
User Flow and User Journey
User flows are an essential aspect of UX design. Creating a User Flow Diagram helped me see the big picture and plan how the players navigate the gaming app. It also helped me to understand how I could best structure the whole application in terms of user experience to keep the users' flow.
Sketching
During our meetings, while brainstorming and discussing ideas regarding the product, I like to sketch rough interface ideas that come to my mind on a piece of paper. It allows me to try different UX ideas quickly.
Wireframing
After I've collected all the data I needed due to market analysis, user research and several sketches at my desk, I started the wireframing process. During the wireframing stage, I focused on the UX side of the project to make it user-centric, native and easy to understand. Based on the user flow diagram, I designed the wireframe layouts.
First UI idea
When I turned to the UI side of the product, I initially thought that Blint would have a poker game visual style due to the existence of a game board and chips within the gameplay.
I even designed the first concepts of design with the poker-style UI.
Second UI idea
Later I realised that due to the target audience, who are primarily young people linked to crypto, blockchain, technologies and video gaming, it would be a better idea to change the whole style and switch to something more futuristic. I got inspired by retro-futuristic hi-fi style. I concluded that this style would fit Blint perfectly.
The first design concept of the gaming chips
The second design concept of the gaming chips
I came up with the idea that it would be more engaging for the players to use chips as avatars with custom-designed characters of cyber warriors with an option to upgrade your character or get a new one by raising the game level or by buying them using cryptocurrency.
NFT avatars
NFT is a very trendy thing in 2022, and I suggested our whole team link the skins of avatars, chips and boards to NFT so that players could buy them through cryptocurrency.
Design Process
I designed the whole MVP version of the game using Figma, as it has been my number one design tool for the last 5 years. I've tried design techniques, such as shadows, glow, blurred backgrounds, and gradients, to achieve the desired UI.
Cooperation with developers and PM
During my time at Blint, I worked closely with the Project Manager, leading two developers during the process. I was responsible for providing relevant job tasks for them and giving them feedback based on the testing of their work for both operating systems: iOS and Android.
The MVP version of the product
I managed the development team, and due to our cooperation, we developed an MVP version of the product to show it to investors for the next round of investments into the startup. At this stage of development, you can only play against a rival bot.
You can download the MVP version of Blint and try it yourself on iPhone or Android:
For iPhone: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TGhZkpb2
For Android: https://appdistribution.firebase.dev/i/996c531e591e19d0
Pitch Deck design
After I helped the company to went through all the stages of the design and development process of the MVP version of Blint, I was asked to design a Pitch Deck to present the product to investors and receive a second round of investments.
The Pitch Deck designed by me:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hLcY9me95qF_q7dop7LpzrplH04fgN86/view
Want to Turn Your Ideas into Design?
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