COLONIST

CHALLENGE

Colonist.io issued a challenge to redesign their landing page within 3 hours, optimising for all three of their identified user personas. Colonist specified they recognise three types of users; those who play Colonist regularly, those who have never played Colonist but have played the boardgame Settlers of Catan, and those who have never played either. Currently, their landing page accommodates only the first group of users. It is also not acting as a landing page at all, but more of a pre-lobby.

RESPONSE

I sat down, turned on my screen recorder, set a timer running, and began. First I evaluated the landing page, trying to understand whether there were vital elements of this page that needed to stay front and centre, rather than be moved inside the landing page/later in a user’s journey. I Googled ‘top online board game sites’ and performed a quick competitive analysis, noting their simplicity. I evaluated (hypothetically) the three persona’s goals and needs; there was no time to perform real user interviews or testing, so I made assumptions. After some quick low fidelity sketching, I created multiple high-fidelity versions in quick succession using Colonist’s own design assets. After setting up an A/B preference test and a 5-second test that I shared to the UX School on Facebook, and quickly making changes from feedback (n=3, n=6 respectively) it was time to evaluate the pros and cons of my final design! Final time: 3 hours and 15 minutes.

personas

With no time for real research, using logic I developed 3 personas to design for. I documented assumptions I made along the way.

competitive analysis

Taking speedy inspiration from successful online multiplayer games

low fidelity sketching

Sometimes nothing beats pen and paper for creativity and idea-vomiting

user testing and analysis

Where were people readily available during lockdown 2021? Facebook. I quickly conducted some 5-second tests to help choose a final design.