Board Game Arena

Mobile App Design

Board Game Arena is the largest board game platform in the world. But it only has a web browser version. This causes loads of problems because most users are board game lovers who play board games frequently. Web browser limits the time and place where board game lovers could enjoy their time. I interviewed many users on the BGA platform, they all want a mobile app version of the BGA platform. Therefore, I decided to design a mobile app version of Board Game Arena.

Interview Summaries

I interviewed 5 users in the BGA communities. They are from different regions of the world. Most of the BGA users are young, and therefore the 5 users I interviewed are from 16 years old to 35 years old. They are all board game lovers. And most of them use the BGA platform at least 7 days a time.

Visual Design

All 5 interviewees feel most unhappy about the UI design of the original BGA platform. They think the visual elements are too old school and not aesthetically pleasing. The interaction design could function but they look awkward.

Lack of Mobile App

4 of the interviewees feel they really need the mobile app version of BGA. The other 1 interviewee is OK with the lack of an App version, but will also be happier if there’s one. The reasons behind this are from different perspectives. 4 of the interviewees mentioned that web browser limits the time and space of their gaming time. If there’s a mobile app version, it could offer them a convenient way to enjoy board games while they only have a small fraction of time, or when they do not have their laptops around them. And another important reason is that mobile apps could attract more users to the platform. Although the BGA communities are already very large, considering the number of games it provides, it’s very hard to wait for enough players to start a game table for some not-so-popular games. The Mobile App version of the BGA platform could attract way more game lovers to join because mobile phones are much more accessible than laptops.

Community Function is Not Emphasized and Not User-Friendly

3 of the interviewees are unsatisfied with the current BGA website’s community function. They explained to me that communities are very important for game lovers because people would always want to play with their friends or meet new friends when playing games. However, the current community/friends function in BGA is not user-friendly. It’s hard to pull up the friend list or add a friend. And all 3 of them feel like BGA does not pay enough attention to the “group” function. But my interviewees told me that the “group” function is very important because it’s always the same group of users who like to play a certain game. Emphasizing the group function more could make it easier for the users to gather enough people to start games, or meet new friends.

Hard to Find Saved Games

2 of my interviewees complained that “Favorite Games” is not emphasized. It’s not a very big problem compared to the other issues, but it’s still annoying because usually board game lovers play their “favorite” games most frequently.