🚀 Project Overview
The OMEN Gaming Hub (OGH), with 4.3M+ monthly active users, partnered with Google Play Games to transform game discovery, accessibility, and engagement on PC.
This initiative introduced:
✔ Seamless Android gaming integration via Google Play Games
✔ Enhanced Discover Page & My Games experience
✔ Monetization & third-party partnerships for better engagement
🔥Challenges & Key Problems
📌 1. Disorganized Game Discovery & Navigation
🚫 No clear sorting/filtering for cloud-based games (Google Play, GeForce Now, Xbox).
🚫 Confusing UI, making it hard to differentiate owned, free trials, and deals.
🗣 User Quote:
“Navigating My Games felt frustrating. No filters, no sorting—just chaos.” – PC Gamer, 28
📌 2. Monetization & Promotional Visibility
🚫 Poorly labeled promotions felt intrusive and reduced trust.
🚫 Promotions performed better when transparently labeled.
🗣 User Quote:
“I need to know what’s a partnership and what’s my actual library.” – Beta Tester, 32
📌 3. Performance & Usability Concerns
🚫 Performance slowdowns due to background processes.
🚫 Users wanted clear separation between installed games and promotions.
🗣 User Quote:
“The app lags, and I don’t know if it’s my PC or the game hub.” – Casual Gamer, 35
👥 Personas & User Journey
We identified two primary personas:
Persona 1: Casual Gamers (Core Audience – 35%)
✔ Priorities: Easy access, clear navigation, minimal system impact.
✔ Pain Points: Complex filtering, unclear UI.
✔ Design Fixes: Structured List View, clear promo labels, personalized recs.
Persona 2: Competitive Gamers (Core Audience – 45%)
User Journey Mapping
- Defined the user flow starting from the OGH Home page to the Discover landing page
🔍 Research & Insights
✅ Key User Preferences:
✔ 72% preferred a structured List View (Casual Gamers).
✔ 58% demanded faster filtering & transparent promo labels.
✔ Users valued clear labels for “Sponsored” vs. “Partnership” content.
📌 Industry Best Practices & Competitive Insights
🎮 Steam & Epic Games: Categorized navigation improved game discovery.
☁ GeForce Now: Customizable filters streamlined cloud-based content.
📺 Netflix: Hero banners & AI-driven recommendations boosted engagement.
🔹 How We Applied These Insights:
✔ Introduced categorized navigation in Discover Page.
✔ Implemented customizable filters & sorting options.
✔ Redesigned Hero Carousel for optimized promotional visibility.
📊 How We Applied These Insights
✔ Introduced a categorized navigation system in the Discover Page to enhance game visibility.
✔ Integrated customizable filters and sorting options for improved organization.
✔ Redesigned the Hero Carousel with clearer content placement and promotional labeling to increase engagement.
- 72% preferred structured list views for game organization.
- 58% demanded faster filtering and more transparent labeling of sponsored content.
- Transparency in partnerships (Google Play, GeForce Now) increased user trust significantly.
Practical UX insights included:
- Users valued clear labels (e.g., “Sponsored” vs. “Partnership”).
- Recommendations should reflect personal gaming habits.
- Users wanted the ability to customize and manage notifications or promotional content.
🗣️ User Quote:
““I like knowing exactly why a game is recommended. If OMEN can clearly say ‘because you played Cyberpunk,’ I’ll trust and use it more often.” — PC Gamer, 28
Final Adjustments After Testing:
✔ Simplified UI navigation for faster game discovery
✔ Improved contrast & labels for better clarity
✔ Adjusted promotional content based on user engagement metrics
🛠️ UX Design Process & Iterations
This project followed an agile, data-driven approach, ensuring a seamless user experience.
🔍 1. User Research & Competitive Analysis
🚫 Users struggled to find games quickly due to poor filtering & search.
🚫 Promotional content lacked transparency, reducing trust.
🚫 Game providers lacked visibility, limiting discoverability.
🔄 How We Solved These Issues
✔ Enhanced Filtering & Sorting: Multi-layer filtering for Owned, Installed, Favorites, Free-to-Play.
✔ Search & Sort Bar: Quick-access improvements.
✔ Optimized Hero Carousel & Labeling for trust & clarity
📊 Usability Testing
🎛 Control Bar Enhancements – Final Outcome Summary
Key UX Improvements:
✅ Simplified Navigation – Replaced multi-line chips with a cleaner carousel.
✅ Faster Game Access – Enhanced search, filtering & sorting.
✅ Clearer Content Separation – Improved UI contrast between owned & promotional games.
✅ Streamlined Icons & Layout – Better visual hierarchy for faster scanning.
✅ Control Bar & Filtering System
- Multi-line chips were overwhelming—users preferred a single-line carousel for clarity.
- Search & sorting needed improvements—users wanted faster filtering and more category tags.
Introduced toggles between Tile & List views based on user preference.
✅ Navigation & Game Sorting
- 72% of users found the List View more structured for game organization.
- Competitive Gamers preferred quick-access shortcuts, while Casual Gamers wanted better search & filtering.
- Users struggled to differentiate owned vs. promoted games—we added clearer visual cues & labels.
✔ Clearer Labeling for Transparency:
- Sponsored content is now distinctly labeled with “Sponsored” and “Partnership” tags.
- Users can toggle promotional visibility based on preferences.
Competitive Gamers engaged more with featured promotions, while Casual Gamers found them distracting.
✔ Improved Hero Carousel & Control Bar:
- Hero Carousel now prioritizes relevant content based on user activity.
- Control Bar refinements offer a seamless toggle between game categories.
✅ Hero Carousel & Promotional Content
- Design below was preferred for highlighting new releases without being intrusive.
- Clear ‘Sponsored’ and ‘Partnership’ labels increased trust by 30%.
The new Hero Carousel significantly improved game visibility and user interaction. Full business impact details are in our Impact Metrics section.
🗣️ Final User Quote:
“Now I instantly notice great deals and new games without having to search around. It genuinely enhances my experience with OMEN Gaming Hub.” – Casual Gamer, 30
Preferred Game Details Layout – Horizontal or Vertical
Participants were asked to compare two different layouts of the Game Details page—Horizontal and Vertical—and select their preferred design.
Now that you have interacted with both layouts, which option would you prefer to have in your OMEN Gaming Hubapplication?
📊 8 users preferred Vertical layout & 8 users preferred Horizontal layout.
User Preference Breakdown
🔶 Vertical Layout: 50%
🔷 Horizontal Layout: 50%
Key Takeaways & UX Considerations
1️⃣ Preference was evenly split (50-50), highlighting the need for a customizable experience.
2️⃣ Vertical users value information density, while horizontal users prioritize readability.
3️⃣ Future iterations should explore a toggle option, allowing users to select their preferred layout.
Final Thoughts
The results indicate that both layouts offer unique advantages. To accommodate different user preferences, future designs could incorporate a customizable toggle feature, allowing users to seamlessly switch between Vertical and Horizontal layouts based on their personal preference.
🔹 Next Steps: Continue A/B testing with a larger user base to refine usability and determine an adaptive design solution.
📊 Usability Testing & Findings
🔎 Key UX Testing Insights:
✔ Multi-line chips overwhelmed users → Carousel improved clarity.
✔ Promotional labels were unclear → Added “Sponsored” & “Partnership” tags.
✔ A/B Test: Hero Carousel vs. No Carousel
Results: Hero Carousel boosted promo engagement by 30%.
📌 Final Design Adjustments:
✔ Improved contrast & labels for clarity.
✔ Adjusted promotional placement based on engagement heatmaps.
✔ Optimized layout for better content discoverability.
🖥️Wireframing & Prototyping
- Developed interactive Figma prototypes to test key interactions.
- Incorporated micro-interactions like hover states, subtle animation for loading states, and responsive interactions when toggling views.
2. Wireframing & Prototyping
✔ Created low-fidelity wireframes to test navigation structures.
✔ Developed high-fidelity UI prototypes in Figma for usability testing.
✔ Designed interactive mockups to validate layout and interaction models.
Key Iterations:
- Refined List View & Tile View toggling options for clarity.
- Optimized Hero Carousel design based on engagement metrics.
Enhanced Control Bar usability to prioritize frequently used actions.
📐 Design System & UI Integration
- Leveraged OMEN’s existing design system for consistency.
- Incorporated adaptive tile designs to ensure a visually cohesive and brand-aligned experience.
- Ensured scalability and responsiveness for multiple screen sizes and resolutions.
Visual Design
- Maintained design consistency with OGH’s design system
- Explored visual concepts for a modern and appealing interface
- Created UI assets for the Chips filtering system, Control Bar, and My Games pages
Visual exploration included mood boards, style tiles, and design concepts—the chosen direction aimed at a modern and visually appealing interface.
The redesigned UI introduces a more intuitive experience, with opportunities for future customization and integrations.
📊 Impact Metrics & Business Results
✔ +30% increase in Discover Page & Hero Carousel engagement.
✔ +40% boost in promotional interactions.
✔ +15% increase in game purchases & subscriptions.
✔ +50% faster game access through optimized filtering & UI tweaks.
✔ 30% increase in user trust due to clear promo labeling.
💡 Key Learnings
- Transparency about sponsored content significantly improves user trust.
- Simpler navigation reduces cognitive load and improves satisfaction.
- User feedback integration creates a product users genuinely love.
Future Opportunities
- More customization for filtering categories.
- Further integrations with platforms like Xbox Game Pass & Epic Games.
- Enhanced micro-interactions & animations to improve user delight.
🚀 Future Roadmap: Next Steps & Opportunities
🌍 1. Expanded Third-Party Integrations
✅ Xbox Game Pass & Epic Games → Increases content diversity & engagement.
✅ Google Play Games Expansion → Captures Android-PC hybrid gamers.
🧠 2. AI-Powered Recommendations
🚀 Smart suggestions based on user play history → Increases game retention.
🔍 Personalized recommendations for cloud & local games.
📌 3. Enhanced Customization & UI Personalization
✔ User-defined UI settings → Toggle between List vs. Tile View.
✔ Custom promo filters for personalized ad experiences.
🎯 Conclusion
This redesign significantly improved game discoverability, user engagement, and trust in OMEN Gaming Hub. It transformed OMEN into more than just a launcher—it’s now a comprehensive, personalized, and trusted gaming ecosystem.
🗣️ User Quote:
“Now, OMEN Gaming Hub truly feels like it was built for gamers by gamers. It’s become my favorite place to organize, discover, and enjoy my games.” – Longtime OMEN User, 34
