UX Case Study: Analyzing the “The Wizard of OZ Magic Match Game”
The Story
Back in the summer of 2007, I completed reading one book. The title of the book was “The Wizard of Oz”.
The book is pretty intriguing as it made me visualize the fictional land in which the major characters pursued their journey and propelled various adventures.
Since then I have had the particular thought that if “The Wizard of Oz” were a game, how would it look in a real-life scenario?
Then I came across the “Wizard of OZ Magic Match” Game. The respective game has both good and bad aspects of User Experience Design.
In this case study I will highlight both the aspects, but the major emphasis will be on one major “aspect which could be improved in Wizard of OZ Magic Match game”
My Role
I led the Product Design-User Experience and User Interface Design of this project.
Tasks
● Defining the scope of the project
● Customer insights and ideation
● Enhancing user experience
Tools used
Overview
The Wizard of Oz Magic Match is an exciting puzzle game based on the popular book “The Wizard of OZ”. The game encourages you to solve puzzles and riddles and move to next levels to claim exciting rewards.
However, there are some aspects of the game, which can be improved for better user experience.
App Version
IOS Version 1.0.5505
The Challenge
- To conduct, and UX Audit of “Wizard of OZ Magic Match” Game, and identify the good and bad aspects of the game.
- To improve one of the major concerned areas in the game to enhance the user experience.
The Possible Solution
- Here are the possible screens which I have designed to solve one of the core problems that I have identified through the UX Audit.
The whole UX audit process is mentioned below:
Design Process
While making and improvising products, we need a subtle framework to produce appropriate products, which could serve the users at its best.
Here is the design process I followed to derive the possible solution
(I have used spotlight component to show the highlight process):
Stage 1 — Defining and Discovering
1. Planning the Research
Based on user reviews on the Google Play Store, I was able to jot down the common points that most of the users have highlighted about the “Wizard of OZ Magic Match” game.
The insights that I obtained are represented using an affinity diagram. The affinity diagram technique can help
us discover common patterns of thinking by sorting information into relationships.
The Strengths Area
The “Need to be work on” Areas
2. Qualitative research — In person interview
“To further understand what are the pain point of the users while they play Wizard of OZ Magic Match game”, I conducted two user interviews.
User Persona
Before presenting the user persona, here are the few Questions, which I asked the users and on the basis of which I interpreted the user persona:
● Did you feel confused at any point while you were playing?
● While playing, did you feel like you had all the information you needed? Did you know where to find it
● Do you feel like this game is ‘for you’? Is it aimed at you? If not, who is it aimed at?
Problems identified from the research and user persona in the Wizard of OZ Magic Match” game:
● Menu Button
The Menu Button shown in the game has one piece of information, other than that the whole element looks quite empty.
To emphasize with the users, few elements can be added in the Menu Button such as:
❖ Tutorials of the game
❖ Fun Facts about the movie
❖ Trivias
● Leaderboard Screen
One of the best ways to make a digital experience memorable is to pleasantly surprise the user. For which Attention to Details, plays a very crucial role in driving the engagement.
A leaderboard screen could be a great driving force. Introducing a leaderboard screen in the major screen, where users can see how he/she is competing with their friends could be a point we can consider.
● Theme of the game
As per the user interview I got to know that the users understood from the theme music that “is it a game where they have to find a treasure” because the words such as wizard, and icons such of coins, storms, brick road provide an assumption of a treasure hunting game.
● Shapes
As per the user interview, the users find it hard to resonate with the shapes in the game.
From the interviews I got an understanding that the shapes in the game don’t provide any personal touch.
Instead the figures or icons related “Wizards of OZ” could be used in the interface design.
● Character/Animation Duration
The characters shown in the game stay for a longer duration, even when tapping on the screen they don’t disappear.
This exactly designer UX Design Principle of “Doherty Threshold”
● Character Customization
As the major character shown in the game is a femalecharacter, Dorothy. To make the game more diverse, I would like to give options to the users to modify the lead characters as per their choice.
● Clear Affordances
The game somehow misses the UX implementation of affordances, which becomes tough for users to navigate on the screen.
For example the booster options can be provided on the main screen, which could entice the user to buy them.
Problem Chosen to Solve
The major problem in the case study I would like to solve through design are:
● Player customization process
Stage 2 — Ideate
At this stage, I have created User Flow, Information Architecture.
User Flow
● Here the user flow is primarily made to focus on “how players can customize their own character and could proceed to play the game further”.
Information Architecture
Information Architecture is created for documentation of the respective flows , design requirements, content, and other components that will be implemented on the wireframe.
Stage 3 — Development
Here are the UI Design Principles I have kept in consideration while designing the below mentioned low fidelity and high fidelity screens:
1. Seamless Integration
Providing seamless flow of process to the customers, so that they can Navigate through the interface easily.
2. Simple
Providing customers with guidance at each and every step of the user Journey process.
3. Polite
The design should be easy to understand and accessible to the respective customers.
Low Fidelity Wireframe
I have created lo-fi wireframes using Figma, based on the information architecture that I’ve created before.
Design System
High Fidelity Wireframe
● Customisation Screen:
❖ By providing a customisation screen here, I am trying to provide core emphasize on “personalisation and attention to detail” aspects of UX Design.
❖ The filter option provides flexibility to the gamers to change face, background and color as per their choice.
From the wide range of wizards available at the bottom, the gamers can do customization and play around with them.
Keeping the accessibility in mind this is how the screen would look like in the “dark mode”.
Conclusion/ The Possible Impact
After making the high fidelity wireframes, I would like to do usability testing in order to see how it would perform with a targeted group of gamers.
I would love to if small changes such as introducing character personalization feature, leaderboard could drive up engagement.
What did I learn from the project?
Working on the Wizard of OZ Magic Match project taught me the importance of conducting an UX audit and user interviews in an in-depth manner.
When I was having a conversation with users, I got to know the real time paint points and thinking process of the potential gamers.
From the results of user interviews I was able to figure out the flexibility the customers might want in the Wizard of OZ Magic Match Game.
What would be the next steps?
● Would prefer to make an in depth design system for Phase 1 of Wizard
of OZ Magic Match Game.
● Would prefer to make amendments after analyzing usability data.
