Once users scanned the QR code, we successfully converted them into players: 78% of users who scanned ended up playing Trivia on their phone, with a peak of nearly 90%. This unique user journey proved successful. The key decision that enabled this was pushing back against unnecessary sign-up fields.

During design, I considered different initial button states. One was a 'teaching' interface with always-available buttons providing additional info on press. Instead, I chose a 'focus' interface, with buttons disabled until a valid phone number is entered. This worked well since the structure of phone numbers is highly familiar - on something like password selection, a 'teaching' interface would probably be better suited.

Successful game mechanics employ novel visuals alongside cycles of build-up, pay-off and release. We used prototypes to get a gut-feeling on the efficacy of each mechanic. Fast iterations helped us progress quickly towards a stable core of the game.

Once through download and sign-up, the game had a simple loop.

The true product isn't screenshots or interactions - it's the player experience while out and about. Here's a peek into how we saw that experience right before launch

The visual style initially progressed slowly but gained momentum once I secured design resources from the visual communication design team at Atmosphere. This team, primarily focused on the content side of the business, operated separately from the product team. After discussing with the VP of Visual Design, I was able to allocate one of his highly talented team members, Chase, to the project. Together, Chase and I expanded on the early work I had done on the game play and UX. Our open collaboration proved to be a recipe for success in enhancing the game's visuals.

Playtesting proved critical for smoothing the rough edges of the initial game, ultimately having a huge impact on the time element of the game and time between games.

Photos from initial playtesting in Atmosphere's atrium. The team put this event together as a first real-world test, and to gather initial feedback about gameplay and timing.

Playtesting lasted about 6 weeks - in that time we had groups of employees play the game, and we gave a survey after each round. We performed experiments, mostly on the time between questions and how long the countdown timer ran. We found excellent results with faster countdown speeds and longer spaces between games.

In a six-month timeframe, the team brought Interactive Trivia to life across Android mobile, AndroidTV, iOS and AppleTV - four platforms.

Here's where we stood on user engagement: On average, each player participated in 1.4 trivia games during a single session, tackling approximately 17 questions. Most users dedicated a solid 10 minutes to the experience, truly immersing themselves in the fun. Even more impressive, 30% of users kept coming back for more even after five weeks had passed.

This was a sprawling project and I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish. Particularly from an engineering standpoint, the lift of building on four platforms was a huge effort. My leadership made a difference at the beginning of the project, persuading the team to think through key risks - and my contribution as a designer made a huge impact in the sign-up flow. I was able to get buy-in from the creative team to co-design the visual style of the game, a huge win for the launch and overall branding.