Overview
Round Table is a passion project born out of love for Dungeons and Dragons and frustration at the current options available to find online games and people to play with. I designed Round Table as Meetup meets Bumble meets DND, in the hope that it could make the process of meeting other players more seamless.
Process
Discover
1. Competitor Analysis
There are three main online platform users currently use to find Dungeons and Dragons games to join or to meet like-minded player: Discord servers, dedicated subreddits, and Roll20.
My competitor analysis focused on all three platforms to determine their strengths, weaknesses, and to inform the design process later on.
Findings are as follow:
2. User Surveys
User surveys were posted on the r/dnd subreddit as well as Facebook groups and Discord servers, to reach as many players as possible. Some servers were dedicated to a certain demography of players (one women-only and one LGBT+ people only) to try and get as diversed opinions as possible.
People filling in the survey were asked about their age and gender, the roll they usually play (game master, player character, or both).
They were also asked to give a rank from 1 to 5 (1 being absolutely essential, 5 being not important at all) to the following criteria:
Timing of sessions
Frequency of sessions
Length of sessions
Platform used to play
Type of game played
Playable characters allowed
Number of players
Game master’s rules and expectations
LGBTQ+ friendliness
POC friendliness
Neurodivergence friendliness
Gender of the other players/the DM
Age of the other players/the DM
The survey also asked the following open-ended questions:
What are some difficulties you've encountered when trying to find a game to join?
What features would make it easier for you to find and join new games?
3. Takeaways
Based on the competitor analysis, as well as the survey, here are some of the takeaways:
The main priority for many users is to find a group that is inclusive (”where I know I am free to be myself”) and a good fit for them as a person (”feeling comfortable joining [the table]”).
Users want an easy way to filter games to their tastes and availability, with a way to filter out game masters they know not to be a good fit for them.
Users express the importance of scheduling and finding times where everyone in the group is available to play.
Users express both the desire to discover online groups to play with, and to schedule sessions with groups they already are a part of.
4. User Persona, Empathy Maps & User Journey Maps
Those informations informs me on the next steps of the design process, and allowed me to create two user persona that would fit the user base of Round Table: a player new to the game of Dungeons and Dragons wanted to find a group to join, and a more knowledgeable game master wanting a simple way to schedule game sessions with an already established group.
With this in mind, I crafted a user persona, empathy map and a user journey map for both:
Define
Problem Statements
A new player needs a welcoming and inclusive platform to easily find and join beginner-friendly Dungeons and Dragons groups in order to engage with the game without facing judgment or exclusion due to their identity.
A seasoned player needs a straightforward and effective scheduling tool to align their group's diverse availabilities in order to consistently organise and conduct Dungeons and Dragons sessions without interruptions.
Value Proposition
Our Round Table app allows Dungeons and Dragons players to effortlessly find and organise games with compatible groups and streamline scheduling, impacting players of all backgrounds by fostering inclusive gaming communities and ensuring that games occur without scheduling conflicts, enhancing the overall D&D experience.
Ideate & Prototype
1. Information Architecture
Once everything was defined and planned-out, I started working on the information architecture for the Table Table mobile application. As the scope of the application was quite large, it was challenging to make sense of everything and to sort the different components of the application in a logical manner.
I took inspiration from dating apps such as Bumble, as well as meeting website like Meetup to inform my choices and ensure a seamless experience for users.
2. Sketches
I started sketching on paper first, to get as many iterations as possible for each screen, to give myself options and decide which design would be best. During the process, I took inspiration from dating apps, such as Tinder or Bumble, for the onboarding and account creation, as they are good practice on how creating a profile with a lot of information and a filtering system without overwhelming the user.
I also looked at apps for local gyms and online workout to get inspiration for the scheduling part of Round Table, and looked at examples of filtering systems including iconography, as I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate in my design.
Sketches for different screens, with brainstorming of the information displayed on the game listing screen
3. Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Once I was happy with the sketches I had created, I switched to Figma to start wireframing each screen. This process helped me greatly to craft what would become the final design of Round Table, and to start working on the different components I would need, especially when it comes to text hierarchy.
As I was designing the Round Table app with Android guidelines in mind, I add bars at the top and bottom of each screen to visualise where the system bar and navigation area would be.
Low-Fidelity wireframes for account creation
Low-Fidelity wireframes for primary screens of the application
Evaluate
1. User tests
At this point in the process, test users were brought in to go through three different scenarios and give them feedback on the applications. The scenarios were as followed:
Create an account and set up your profile
Search for a game you are interested in and apply to join
Going through the process of answering an availability poll
2. Results and reiterations
User flow 1: Onboarding
Test users felt that too much input was requested of them from the get-go, and they express the need for an option to skin the longer text input. They want to be able to do so at a later time, and quickly create their account.
Test users also didn’t feel the need for a button leading to their profile at the end of the account creating process, as this was redondant with the process they had just gone through.
Reiteration of the screen to create an account
User flow 3: Availability poll
Test users expressed that they would like for the availability polls to be accessible directly from their group’s chat conversation, and not only through notifications.
They also wondered what would happen if none of the timings offered worked for them. Could they be able to add their own timings?
Finally, test users would like a confirmation screen after entering their availabilities.
Reiteration of the screen for the availability poll
Other comments
No issue as risen by test users for scenario 2 (searching and applying to join a game), but other comments were made that led to some reiterations in the overall structure of the application.
Test users were confused by the fact that most of the information they could find on the homepage was also on the events page. They found this redundant and commented on wether or not there was a difference between the two.
They also commented on the homepage not being welcoming and action driven enough.
Finally, comments were made about how the text on the notification was too long, which could be overwhelming, especially for users with ADHD.
I took all feedback into consideration to make further reiterations to Round Table. Comments from test users were more positive when reviewing the changes made on the different screens.
Prototypes
1. Components Library
I started this project with the logo design. The entire idea of the application came first with the logo, and grew and evolved from there. As I was building the different screens of the app, I was conscious of the different components that needed to exist to make Round Table look and feel seamless and coherent in its design, especially with the iconography and buttons.
2. High-Fidelity Screens
Next Steps
Although this is a passion project, and so only a conceptual project, here are a few things I would keep in mind after the launch of the application if it were to become real:
Key Performance Indicators: User engagement, growth, and conversion rates (from creating a profile to applying to games, for example, to give an idea of how the application is doing.
Additional Game Systems: The application is built with only Dungeons and Dragons 5e in mind, but many other versions of DND, and roleplaying game systems, are on the market. This could lead to the addition of as many systems as possible, to grow our user engagement rates.
Additional Filtering and Tagging System: From user feedback, the application could refine its filtering system, to ensure higher conversion rates and better user experience.