The only finance app for gamers

Project overview:

Blast is a savings app targeted for gamers. Typically avid gamers waste hours playing games and don’t care to think about their financial wellness. Our solution was to create user engaging behaviors for gamers so they can put money in a savings account during their gameplay sessions. They can also earn a little money while doing so. The challenge was to make game linking simple and build some engagement features that gamers already cared about.

My role:

I played a critical role in designing these solutions with minimal supervision. My contribution primarily involved designing these critical experiences and gather feedback to dozens of user testers. Towards the mature stage of the app, I led the product design direction. Below are samples of product flows I championed.

Role:
Product Designer

Project duration:
Jul 2019 - Sep 2019

Credits:
Art Director: Andrew Gauer

product experience

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product experience 〰️

Linking a game

When signing up, users can link their favorite game. I incorporated a question of ‘gaming duration’, so we later recommended them an amount to save per week. Additionally, we built different missions for each game so there’s reasons to link more games.

Saving money while gaming

Gamers can keep track of their daily activity and how much money they save during their gaming sessions. I felt like adding a daily stats tracker was important to include as gamers love stats. This further gamified and incentivized users to come back and check on their Game-Based Savings.

Complete goals

Users are encouraged to achieve their personal goals and set specific goal amounts. Afterwards, they can view their progress and have ambitions towards using the app longer-term.

Video - Viewing Game Detail

My approach to the game detail was to keep relevant stats and history in their appropriate areas. That way it keeps the user focused on the key items which I prioritized in tabs: missions, actions, history. Users can earn a virtual currency (Plasma) by doing in-game events.

Video - Creating a goal

The user creates their personalized goal with a title, emoji and goal amount. However, we wanted to incentivize people to complete their goals. So as users earn their virtual currency (Plasma), this went towards their primary goal so they can complete it faster.

Video - Transferring funds

I implemented the usage of a floating action button within the entire savings section. That way users can easily make transfers to their goals or long-term savings. The relevant transfer activity is visible on each goal for clarity to user.

reflections

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reflections 〰️

Key takeaways

In conclusion:

During the time spent designing the app, there were many milestones that I achieved. I successfully brought Blast from beta build to a highly rated app amongst the gaming community. Several iterations were involved but the project seen above is what I’m most proud of and it was our company’s most crucial period for gaining growth. There were challenges that I overcame like: understanding of complex finance problems, Android vs IOS, multiple pivots and using product thinking frameworks.

My favorite part of the process:

I really enjoyed particularly when the app gets tested in dev builds before production. So much testing helped me understand the importance of dev implementation. In addition, whenever we had user interviews, I was always curious of what users pain points were. I figured out you can’t just accommodate for everyone’s wants. It was beneficial to understand the balance between user experience and company goals early in my career.