RPG Tavern
UX Case Study :: student work
This project was born from my years of experience in the tabletop role-playing community. My work began as an effort to make the genre more inclusive to all players. In that journey, I found that no matter a person's background, the biggest obstacle was simply finding an entry game to play in. This became a focal point for this project.
Concept & Goal
RPG Tavern is a responsive website for tabletop role-playing enthusiasts and hopes to makes it easier for players to find each other.
This would remove one of the biggest barriers to entry in this genre of gaming; finding like-minded people to play with. By using a matching system based on user playstyles as well as robust messaging, scheduling, and survey creation tools RPG Tavern aims to quickly and smoothly find your next adventuring party.
Problem & Hypothesis
I rolled a 15 on my Insight check, which lets me know that tabletop role-playing enthusiasts need a way to find compatible groups and players because knowing or finding enough people to play is an obstacle.
We believe that making it easier to find groups, for current or new players, will achieve a better playing experience. We will know this to be true when new players do not find it intimidating and are willing to try tabletop role-playing games.
Competitor Analysis
I began looking at six products that were related to what I was trying to do. In this exercise, I included fan-powered wiki sites, dating sites/apps, and of course current digital tabletop role-playing tools. I compared these beside one another based on a set of ten specific categories like ease of use, personalization, and chat/messaging functionality to name a few. I wanted to see who was excelling at the features I felt were important for RPG Tavern, but also the popular features of these products that I felt were out of scope for the project.
I was able to pare this down to the top three that I could see as competitors for this potential new product. After a full analysis, the standouts were Meetup, Bumble, and Dnd Beyond.
User Analysis
It's time to interview players? Ok, let's try a Perception check... I rolled a 13. Hmm, that seems like enough to gather five tabletop role-playing enthusiasts of different experience levels. I asked about their relationship to tabletop gaming, the kinds of obstacles they faced, and what keeps them coming back.
I created two personas; one for a new player looking to get started, and another for the more experienced player who wants to grow the community and help new players find something to love in tabletop role-playing.
User Flow
I rolled a 14 on my Intelligence check, which informs me that the site needs to be robust and impactful, yet easy for anyone to signup and begin using the tools intuitively. To champion this easy to use and understand information architecture, the User Profile will be the axis from which all actions can be accessed and taken.
Sketches and Wireframes
Time to put those Cartographer's Tools to good use! With a User Flow complete, I am able to begin plotting some pages. I start with simple monotone sketches then transition to early wireframes.
Final Prototype
Please go ahead and make a Constitution saving throw. You've made it to the end and now please use the link below to see some high fidelity screens!
Next Steps
-
Further Usability Testing
-
Users were curious about a survey creator feature but were not sure on its potential usefulness
-
-
Revisit language and terminology during onboarding and profile creation to ensure all users understand the required action
-
Begin a new round of research and data collection to find potential new features
-
Schedule some games!!
