Houseparty

Connect and play games with friends in real-time

Overview

This is a passion project centered around the acquisition of Houseparty by Epic Games. Our team was challenged to redesign Houseparty to unite the gaming and social aspects to expand its market.

Role

UX/UI Designer

Duration

2 weeks

Team

Design

Current Experience

The current Houseparty experience has its unique designs and features. With functions like live video chat rooms, swipe-able navigation overlays, and a library of games to choose from, it would seem as though Houseparty gives the user a strong sense of control. 

Identifying market gaps with Competitive & Comparative Analysis

User Research

From the 1:1 interview results, 5 desktop gamers who we thought could be the potential primary personas said, “I appreciate Discord gives a virtual space to casually hang out and connect with friends while streaming, gaming, and other purposes”.

We had to pivot and conduct a second round of interviews with mobile gamers. Even though 100% of these interviewees stated that they would love a virtual hangout mobile application just like Houseparty but they would prefer using Facetime or Messenger instead because they feel less secure using Houseparty.

Personas

Jennie

She needs a multifunctional platform to hang out, stream, and play games with friends because she wants to keep up with friends in real-time.

Alex

He needs a way to easily check the status of an existing group where his friends are in because he wants to casually drop-in to socialize and stay connected with his friends.

How Might We

How might we create a private yet casual environment for users to easily drop-in, play games, and connect with friends on Houseparty in real-time?

Ideations

  • Defined user flows

  • Gathered inspiration

  • Held design workshop to ideate solutions

  • Turned sketches into lo-fi to mid-fi wireframes

User Testing Plan

Total Participants: 8

Moderated Test Plan:

  • Scenarios and intro (5 min)

  • Wireframe prototype tasks(10-15 min)

  • Key questions(10 min)

Usability Test Round 1

We conducted the first round of usability testing with mid-fidelity wireframes. Users were able to navigate smoothly and had a clear understanding of the tasks. However, the gift icon was not noticeable.

Design Iterations

  • Added gift promotion pop-up to increase awareness

  • Created an onboarding process to highlight key features

Usability Test Round 2

Testing on Hi-Fidelity wireframes. All users completed each task within 1 minute, 100% of the users loved further customizable features.

Design Iterations

  • Added default colors that passed WCAG(AAA) to ensure color contrast

  • Optimized the use of room card to show friends’ status and other action buttons

Deliverable

Take-aways

Design is often seen as merely visual or aesthetically pleasing, but sustainable and valuable design is rooted in understanding human interaction. This is the essence of human-centered design.