Jewels with Buddies - First Time User Experience Analysis

Jewels with Buddies
First Time User Experience Analysis

Who is AC+A?
›  Socialand mobile game design consultancy
›  Founded by Adrian Crook, 17 year industry vet
›  Associates specialize in:
›  AEM-focused design – systems to narrative
›  Product Management (metrics, best practices)
›  Product Marketing Management (paid acq)
›  Tactical programming (client implementations)

›  More info: www.adriancrook.com

Adrian Crook & Associates 2

Intro: Jewels with Buddies
•  Genre: Match-3

•  Released: July 10, 2012

•  Avg Rating: 5 stars

•  Developer: Stofle Designs
•  Publisher: Scopely Inc.

•  Multiplayer via Facebook &
Username (no Game Center)

•  Other notable titles:
•  Dice with Buddies
•  Checkers with Buddies

Adrian Crook & Associates

Login
•  Facebook login is most prominent
as this is what the developer
would most prefer people use

•  That said, the option to sign up
without using a Facebook
account is key – frequently 40%
of a game’s DAUs come from
non-FB users

•  Finally, the note about not posting
to your wall without a user’s
permission addresses a key
phobia among FB game players,
re-assuring them they can use
this method to play, without risk


Account Creation
•  Very simply sign-up procedure,
only getting the bare minimum
info required, deferring further
user data until post-signup

•  “WithBuddies™” account is cross-
SKU and can be used in Dice
with Buddies and Checkers with
Buddies. The user is not scared
off as they would be if they were
asked to join a separate online
service altogether because
“WithBuddies” appears to be just
for this app, unless the user reads
more closely.

•  Zynga does the same using their
Adrian Crook & Associates “With Friends” network.

Facebook Auth
•  Jewels with Buddies asks for
about as many permissions as an
app can before diving into
extended permissions (and the
required secondary dialog that
hurts the funnel).

•  “Post on my behalf” is used for
Open Graph.


Tutorial


Automatic Pairing, Part 1
•  Immediately upon completion of
the tutorial, the player has an
incoming game request from a
stranger.

•  The player flows right into this
game, as it is their turn, so they
are immediately in a game with
someone else and provided with
a reason to return.

•  Being invited to a game also
helps the player overcome any
fears of inviting others to play with
them in the future.


Automatic Pairing, Part 2
•  As soon as the player has
completed their first turn in their
first game, another random player
invites them to a game! This gets
the player in the habit of playing
multiple games at once while they
wait for their opponents.

•  It’s much better for the app to use
two random games as the initial
matches instead of games with
the player’s friends.

•  This is because the app can then
ensure the player gets matched
with an active opponent and not a
potentially lapsed friend.

User-Created Game Funnel
•  With the booster rockets of two
games now underway with
random opponents, the player is
now shown how to start a game
of their own choosing.

•  Note: Orange arrow is in-game
art, not my own indication.


•  Taking no chances, the app walks
the player right through the
suggested new game creation
process.


•  The app suggests starting a
game with a random opponent by
default.

•  This is most likely to ensure the
new player is matched up with an
opponent who is not “stale”. I.e.
the app finds a player with a
recently opened random game
and/or a track record of recent
activity/fast turnaround on rounds.

•  The wording below this dialog
supports as much, as “start a
game with an online opponent”
implies that random opponents
are ready to play now.

New Game Creation Menu
•  Rematch is a great option here.
Frequently, good opponents
players find via random games
are hard to track down for future
games.

•  Providing an explicitly-named
“Rematch” menu to house prior
opponents (both friends and
random) makes a lot of sense.

•  Aside from that, we see the usual
options for game creation.

•  Username is vital to allow out of
network player discovery and for
those who don’t connect via FB.

Invite Friends To App
•  When a player selects a
Facebook friend to invite to the
app, a Wall-to-Wall method is
used (posting on the invitee’s
wall) to invite the player to play.

•  Unfortunately, this method of
initiating a game converts at a far
lower rate than do user-to-user
requests.

•  Ideally, a user-to-user invite
request should be sent here,
redirecting to a landing page with
App Store links to each SKU.


Turn Requests
•  Jewels with Buddies doesn’t
appear to utilize the Facebook
request channel (likely because it
would be annoying to receive
requests on FB desktop for a
mobile-only game).

•  Instead, the game using iOS
requests, which are good but are
often disabled by users (up to
70% of the time, by some
reports).

•  App should make use of email for
turn or game notifications (it
collects the permission) but
doesn’t appear to.

Rematch Menu Detail
•  Alphabetized, not chronological.
Might be worth having a
chronological option, sorting from
most recently played to least.

•  List includes opponents with
whom you’re currently playing.

•  Lists what other With Buddies
apps that opponent has installed,
although it does not allow players
to touch these icons to launch/
acquire the apps, which is a
missed opportunity.

•  Player is able to delete opponents
from this list, a nice option.

Store
•  Fun visualization of coins
available in store.

•  $49.99 and $99.99 coin bundles
occupy 50% of the screen real
estate!

•  Higher price points anchor
players psychologically, rendering
the $19.99 coin bundle (“Most
Popular”) a seemingly reasonable
choice.


Main Games List Menu
•  Suggested game to start always
present when online.

•  Facebook “Play With Friends”
button present, even if the player
is already signed in with FB.

•  Twitter button publishes an auto-
tweet that let’s friends know
you’re playing. Only non-editable
text in tweet is URL to app stores.

•  Oddly, tweet does not include
username, but includes game-
specific hashtag.


Settings Menu
•  Player picture is pre-populated
with player’s Facebook profile pic,
provided player is logged in.
Good UX touch, almost standard.
by now in mobile apps.

•  Players able to view and manage
their blocked opponents list from
Settings menu.


Help and Support
•  This is a web page, loaded when
player clicks “Help” from Main
menu.

•  This allows the developer to
update the help more often than
would be possible via app update
alone (which would require Apple
cert every time, obviously).

•  Wherever load time latency is not
an issue, loading content
dynamically may be preferable to
building into the app. Especially
usefully for promotional text, store
items & prices, etc.


Consumables
•  App utilizes consumables
purchased before each round.

•  It’s clear to the player that there
are more powerful power ups to
be had (this one is 8/10) and a
cap on the boost power per round
(8/18) that they might only exploit
by unlocking the other power up
slot.

•  If consumable is not used by the
player in the round, the item(s)
are used automatically near the
end of the round, clearing them
from player’s inventory. This is
preferable to just deleting the
Adrian Crook & Associates item.

Play More, Get More
•  By starting another game, the
player can unlock the second
boost slot.

•  Often extra consumable slots are
monetized, but in this case the
developer has chosen to trade
engagement for monetization.

•  The most obvious call to action
on this screen is the Start a New
Game button along the bottom.

•  To avoid pressing this, the user
must back out to the Main menu
using the top left button.
Undoubtedly, this results in lots of
Adrian Crook & Associates game starts.

Random Game Logic
•  This iOS-style dialog is not just
aesthetically out of place in a
game that otherwise has great
style…

•  It’s questionable why the app
couldn’t allow the player to initiate
the random game, playing their
own turn first.

•  Allowing the player to go first,
then pairing them up with a
random player at some point
during or after that process would
keep the player engaged in the
game rather than waiting for their
wish to play to be fulfilled.

Compulsion Loop Reinforcement
•  In case the player forgot, the app
reminds them why they’re here:
play lots, earn coins, by power
ups. Repeat.

•  This screen appears as soon as
the player crosses the 100 coin
plateau (presuming they are not
in the middle of gameplay).


Slot Machine (Currency Sink)
•  In the pre-round boost purchase
screen, player can also use a slot
machine multiple times to “win”
1-2 boosts for that round.

•  Purpose of the slot machine is as
a currency sink.

•  Ideally, the payout and price are
dynamically adjustable server
side in response to how much
trapped value there is the system.

•  Should the developer need to
burn off a certain amount of
currency to reign in inflation, they
can play with these variables.

Game Summary Screen
•  Primary options are Brag (FB
Wall Post) and Rematch (play
another game with same play)
are both larger and closest to a
user’s thumb position.

•  If a user wishes to do neither,
they have to reach their thumb
clear across their device
(assuming most are right-handed)
to press the tiny x on the top left
(non-standard!) corner of the
dialog box.

•  Little decisions like this add up
and lead to more positive actions
than opt-outs.

Invite Friends for Coins
•  The lower portion of these round
summary screens is always given
over to promotion messaging (i.e.
start another game, invite friends,
play a turn in another match, etc).

•  Merely inviting 10 friends nets the
player 100 coins, right away.
Their friends do not need to install
the app.

•  Often games only reward coins
upon invitee’s installation of app.


Invite Friends for Coins
•  Fantastically simple Invite Friends
screen with meter on top indicating
player’s progress toward the 100 coin
goal.

•  Invites being sent are EMAIL invites,
not Facebook invites. This may be for
two reasons:
•  Avoid popping a Facebook API
invite dialog that many players
will shy away from.
•  Accomplish the invite process
silently – no confirmation dialog,
just highlight player name and
touch send.
•  Provide a universal invite system
that FB users and email-only
users can both utilize.

Adrian Crook & Associates •  Meter moves up with each invite.

Blurred Game Loops
•  Player kept in the habit of closing
open gameplay loops.

•  Often player doesn’t make it back
to main menu for several games
due to presence of game
selection option at bottom of
round summary screen (good).

•  Keep the player as close to the
game loop as possible – kicking
them back to main menu gives
them a natural spot to exit the
app (bad).


Re-Engagement Tools
•  iOS push notifications

•  Open Graph
•  Custom actions such as
“beat”
•  Slightly janky custom
aggregation for “wins”

•  No email seen yet

•  No Facebook requests


Pros
›  Well polished FTUE with just the right level of
tutorial, both in its own mode and in game 1
›  Reliance on random (non-friend) matches to
ensure high initial engagement
›  Blurred game loops avoid player returning to
main menu unless absolutely necessary.
›  Willing to trade early currency acquisition and
consumable slots for engagement and virality.
›  Compelling gameplay, fun boosts, and well-
designed economical model


Cons
›  InvitingFacebook friends to app is done via
Wall Post, not the higher-converting Request
›  Turn notifications are done via iOS notifications
only, not FB requests or email
›  Could use Open Graph more robustly
›  No ability for players to install other
WithBuddies apps from within this app
›  App’s tweet function doesn’t embed player’s
username anywhere in tweet


Get in touch with us!
For more info on Adrian Crook & Associates:

Web: www.adriancrook.com
Email: adrian@adriancrook.com
Twitter: @adriancrook

We’re always accepting new social and mobile
app design and product management clients.


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