Arcade Mania Wireframes + Essay
Design Process
First, I outlined the problem, proposed a solution, and decided on a way to measure my solution’s success. Then I created a persona as an example of an average user of the app. I followed that up with some competitor analysis before beginning my design work.
The Problem
Arcade Mania is a video game chain, where the games run on tokens. Purchasing tokens is a slow process, requiring giving a lot of information to employees, and waiting for them to enter the information and manually apply discounts. Arcade Mania would like to develop a solution to reduce the wait time and improve customer throughput.
The Solution
My solution is an app. Arcade Mania can use it to allow mobile users to sign up for their membership program, check the food court menus, schedule birthdays, and more. But most importantly, users can also use the app to order tokens to be picked up in-store. The app asks for all the information the employees used to have to manually input, and gives the users a QR code to take to the token counter. There, employees can simply scan the code to complete the order, and give users their tokens. This reduces the whole experience from something that could take 5-10 minutes, to something that takes 5 minutes at most.
Measuring Success
To measure success, I would look at the customer throughput time data Arcade Mania has. Token orders that were inputted manually should have a total time of 2-3 times longer from start to finish than app token orders, meaning that the app greatly speeds up the process. I would also expect the data for the number of token orders completed per hour to show more orders processed after the app has been implemented, showing that the app process increases the number of customers who can pickup tokens in an hour.
Persona
Megan is a married mother with two children. She likes to take them to Arcade Mania for birthdays, or just a fun weekend. When it’s just her and the kids, she usually plays the games with them. But when she’s with her husband or one of her friends, she prefers to stay behind in the food court. She used to find it frustrating how long it took to buy tokens with the old system, but now she looks forward to just giving her kids her phone to let them use the app on their own in the future.
Competitor Analysis
There are two gaming chains that I’ve gone to, that reminded me in some ways of Arcade Mania. These are Dave & Buster’s and Main Event. I downloaded their apps, taking notes of what I did and didn’t like between the two approaches, and what seemed to be common between the two. I combined that research with mobile ordering design patterns, UX best practices, and knowledge from experience with other apps to create my wireframes.
Screen Design
With this basic research and planning completed, I designed my screens in Balsamiq Wireframes.
Login Screens
This workflow follows a user who has an account, but who hasn’t made a mobile token order before. So they tap the login button, and it asks for their phone number, and then for a code that it texts to them. This is something the Dave & Buster’s app does, and it seems to make it easier for people to login on the go. This way they don’t have to remember a username and password.
Home Screen
The home screen provides a number of options, but the user taps on the Place Token Order screen.
Choose Your Location
Since the tokens have to be picked up in person, it’s important for users to be reminded of this from the very start and to pick the right Arcade Mania location. I also set a 24-hour timer on order pickups that automatically refunds if the QR code doesn’t get scanned. This way, no one pays for tokens that they don’t receive. This information has to be set for each token order, but you can set your favorite location in your account preferences.
Upload Your ID
This is based on a feature I saw in the IHOP mobile app, though IHOP uses it for credit cards. This step only has to be done once.
Payment Method
This is a pretty standard payment input form, with the ability to save the card to the account for later.
Who Will Be Picking Up the Tokens?
In the account preferences, users can add account members. This allows them to get birthday discounts (which would be sent to the Messages section of the app), allows Arcade Mania to ban specific members, and allows parents to turn on the parental controls to temporarily disable specific members from picking up tokens.
How Many Tokens Would You Like?
The system automatically applies the Arcade Mania membership discount to the order. Also, parents can set Parental Controls limits on orders over a certain price. Here, it looks like orders over $40 have been disabled for the whole account. This helps make it so parents can just give their phones to their kids without worrying about them racking up a huge charge in tokens.
Checkout
The checkout screen summaries all the steps before, and shows the user how much they’re saving with the membership discount.
Pickup Your Order
This is the QR code customers will bring to the token counter. As the app reminds them, if they close this screen, they can find their code again by going to the account in Account- Orders. The screen also reminds them of the 24-hour deadline for picking up their tickets. The order receipt button just shows a digital receipt of their order, for their order history logs.
In Conclusion
Overall, creating an Arcade Mania app with this token ordering feature would allow users to make orders very easily, and allow children to order tickets more easily without bugging their parents. And the app can include other features that would improve Arcade Mania’s business, like event booking, food court menus, and the ability to join their membership program on the go.
Essay Prompt #2
The primary reason I’m looking for a new position is because I am looking for more challenging UX problems to solve. And enterprise software is one of the most challenging and dynamic industries for a UX designer.
I see designing for enterprise software as a way to solve challenges related to logistics, data visualization, information processing, and the usual UX issues of user-centered design and accessibility. These UX solutions would be backed by extensive UX research, and validated by many rounds of user testing. The whole process would require collaborating and coordinating with many other teams, including marketing and IT, to create a final solution that fits the needs of all departments, and the user. This type of multidisciplinary collaboration, along with some opportunities to work independently, is exactly the kind of work environment I’m seeking.
For example, say that the Global Payments virtual card loyalty and reward program interface was going to be updated. I imagine this project beginning by interviewing users of the current interface, finding their major pain points with the current interface, and finding what they like about the current interface. This information could be used to develop personas, task flows, and user journeys to inform the redesign. Then the UX team could begin working on storyboards, sketches, and wireframes, collaborating with other teams to ensure their needs are also being included in the design, and that the design can actually be built by IT. Those low-fidelity designs would be tested with users, until the overall layout and functionality was verified, and then high-fidelity designs were developed in software like InVision or Figma. When the hi-fi clickable prototypes had been tested with users, and all issues resolved, I see the UX team as passing on the design specifications to the development team to build.
So overall, what draws me to enterprise software is the opportunity for more advanced problem-solving and opportunities for more cross-functional collaboration, all with the goal of helping to solve important problems for users.
