FIFA & Algorand
Role
Senior Product Designer at DEPT
Category
- Digital Collectibles
What I Did
- Product Design
- User Research
Digital collectibles for the world’s game.
FIFA+ Collect brings to life digital collectibles from memorable FIFA moments, allowing users to display, trade, and engage in challenges for rewards. Despite a successful launch ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, the platform initially faced challenges with user confusion.
The team was composed of two product designers (including myself), two project managers from the client side, and four developers.
Over eight months, I concentrated on redesigning the homepage and the My Collection section, introducing new features to the platform.
Impact
10% increase in homepage user sign-ups
PROBLEM #1
Focus group feedback revealed that unclear messaging and content on the homepage were causing user confusion and deterring sign-ups.
Homepage Challenges
Things To Consider
How do we get people excited about the actual product being sold? That was the main challenge given to me by the project managers. Visitors to the site needed to quickly understand what's going on and easily find something that interests them.
Survey Research
To address the NFT awareness gap, I conducted qualitative research to understand FIFA+ Collect’s target audiences. Initially, I used a questionnaire to explore their experiences, challenges, opportunities, and needs with digital collectibles.
The target audience included 18-50-year-olds with varying interests in fútbol and diverse experiences in collecting digital collectibles or NFTs.
Questionnaire Findings
A breakdown of people's experiences with football and digital collectibles
90.9
knew about digital collectibles
23.7
have purchased a digital collectible
66.7
of digital collectibles were trading cards
63.4
collected physical items
90.9
are football fans
59.1
have football related collectibles
Process for New Visitor Experience
To clarify what the collectibles are, I initially focused on using video and imagery to more clearly illustrate what FIFA+ Collect offers.
A major focus was on finding the ideal way to visualize several key aspects: that a single drop yields three highlights, the various rarity levels, how challenges function, and the ability to earn rewards by competing in challenges.
New Visitor Experience Outcome
Breaking down the main functionality of the site into individual modules proved to be a successful strategy. This approach not only clarified the platform's offerings, but also facilitated implementation by the development team because I based the designs on the established design system.
PROBLEM #2
Post-sign-up engagement was low, which I believed was because the returning visitor landing page mirrored the first-time experience.
My Hypotheses
User Testing
To test my hypotheses, I conducted user interviews, asking the target audience to describe their ideal signed-in experience. Then, I had them interact with the new design to gather their thoughts and initial reactions.
Process for Returning Visitor Experience
A major challenge in the signed-in experience was balancing the marketing team's needs with those of the users. Promoting new drops and sweepstakes was crucial from a marketing standpoint; however, it was equally important for users to be able to expand their collections with moments from their favorite teams.
During the exploration of the signed-in experience, I had to consider both perspectives, which initially complicated the design. Shifting the main focus from promoting drops to viewing collections made a significant difference, simplifying the experience and steering it in the right direction.
Returning Visitor Experience Outcome
The new experience for returning visitors received positive feedback from the participants I tested it with. The ability to select your favorite team particularly resonated with them, and there was great interest in receiving tailored pack recommendations.
Although the 'select a favorite team' feature was not implemented for the MVP, I developed a framework that allows for its future integration. Users can select their team and complete a short questionnaire, which helps the FIFA team gather insights about user preferences and interests.
PROBLEM #3
There was an immediate need for a simplified way to navigate through the growing collection.
My Collection Challenges
Things To Consider
The new direction for My Collection had three areas of focus: Men’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup, and Nostalgia (World Cups from long ago). The landing page needed to serve primarily as a portal, facilitating quick access to different parts of a user's collection.
Process for My Collection
When first designing a new entry page for My Collection, I experimented with an integrated, detailed breakdown of the collection instead of a traditional landing page. While this design provided a clear overview of your collection, it wouldn’t scale easily with growing category types and would be more difficult to navigate.
After my initial exploration, I opted for a simplified modular system on the landing page that allows viewers a sneak peek at what the collectibles look like. To address the need to boost collection incentives, I initially explored ways to show progress that included listing tangible rewards upon completion. Although the concept was well-received, it was not feasible for the minimum viable product (MVP) and was therefore modified to only show progress towards the completion of packs.
My Collection Outcome
The landing page for My Collection facilitated smoother navigation, improved user flow, and ensured that the integration of new features was both feasible and efficient, meeting the needs for a minimum viable product (MVP).
Although we couldn’t include experience-based rewards that leveraged FIFA’s extensive IP as part of the MVP, based on the user testing I conducted, it could be a great differentiator for FIFA.
Impact
10% Boost in Sign-Ups
The comprehensive redesign of the FIFA+ Collect homepage significantly enhanced user engagement and clarified the platform’s offerings. Looking ahead, significant opportunities exist for FIFA+ Collect to differentiate itself from competitors like Sorare and NBA Top Shot by further incorporating personalization and physical rewards into the platform.